DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 20, 1870,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit." 1 Corinthians 6:17.
THE connection of our text is very terrible. When we are reading the
sixteenth verse one seems to remember Sodom, its infamy, and the fire
and brimstone that came down from Heaven upon it. But here in our text
we enter into Jerusalem, the holy city, whose streets are of purity so
rich and rare as to be comparable to gold clear as transparent glass.
And there we seem to behold the Great White Throne of the thrice Holy,
surrounded by the white robed bands of the immaculate. In looking at
the text I call to mind John Bunyan's description of the way through
the Valley of the Shadow of Death. It was an "exceedingly narrow" path,
not readily kept. On the right hand the dreadful gulf, and on the left
the fearful quagmire.
See in my text a road fit for angels, and for the angels' Master, and
yet on either hand, in the sixteenth and eighteenth verses behold the
fiends and devils howling for their prey! Happy is he who finds that
path which the eagle's eye has not seen, that center of the King's
highway of which it is written, "No lion shall be there, neither shall
any ravenous beast go up thereon." How glorious is that "way of
holiness"! Gaze on it–it is clear as the sapphire, bright as the
brilliant crystal. Deep down in its depths your eyes may look, and in
it there is nothing to obscure, it is as the holiness of God Himself, a
purity so wonderful that conscious of our shortcomings we cry, "It is
high, I cannot attain unto it."
The exceeding elevation of the Believer in being joined unto the Lord
appears all the more marvelous when it is set, as in the text, in
contrast with the dreadful impurity into which we might have fallen,
and against which we are still solemnly warned, as if to remind us that
our indwelling corruption would drag us down if Divine Grace did not
prevent it. Brethren, sin is never seen to be so truly horrible as when
we behold it in the light of Christian privilege. It is a terrible
thing for a creature to rebel against its Creator, but for the adopted
son of God to be disobedient to his ever loving Father, this is worse
by far.
Sin is black if we see it in the dim twilight of spiritual conviction
when our conscience is half awakened, but it grows blacker than Hell's
murkiest midnight when we set it in contrast with the amazing
brightness of the Divine favor which has shone upon us, His
elect–redeemed, justified, and adopted people. That yonder professor
should be so careless and so inconsistent is sad, but when I remind him
that he is one of the redeemed I trust he will feel his lukewarmness to
be monstrous. When man is chosen of God and washed in the Savior's
blood, must it not seem to angels a prodigy of human depravity, a
marvel of human corruption, that such a one should for a moment forget
the way of holiness and desire the paths of iniquity?
In ourselves how heinous is all transgression, seeing we have been the
objects of such ceaseless, boundless, loving kindness! For us to follow
afar off, to backslide, to grow indifferent is indescribable baseness,
a violation of the sacred demands of gratitude. If the more frequent
sins of Christians appear thus heinous in contrast with their great
privileges, much more loathsome must be vices of the fouler kind, such
as Paul here speaks of–sins not to be named among us, or even thought
of without horror. God forbid that any of us who claim to be of the
body of Christ should degrade ourselves by filthy lusts of the flesh.
Casting a veil over the matter forbidden, not that we may forget it
altogether, but may turn our eyes away from beholding vanity, we shall
now endeavor to conduct you to the elevated platform of the text
itself. I see in it, first, a mysterious deep which I cannot fathom.
And, therefore, in the second place, we will sail across it while we
speak of a manifest Grace which glistens on its surface.
I. First, then, there is in the text A MYSTERIOUS DEEP. "He that is
joined unto the Lord is one spirit." What does that joining to the Lord
mean which is mentioned here? There is a joining to the Lord in
election. We were chosen in
Christ Jesus from before the foundation of the world, and by Sovereign
Love we were predestinated to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ.
There was a further joining to the Lord in Covenant, when Jesus became
of old the Head of His Church. As Adam was the head of all that came of
his loins, so is Christ the Head of a spiritual seed to whom the
promise belongs by the Everlasting Covenant signed, sealed, and ordered
in all things and sure.
Further, Christ was joined to us when He took upon Himself our Nature.
When He came into this world and was made a Man, then He was truly
joined to us. He left His Father, and was joined unto His bride, and
they two became one flesh. "For both He that sanctifies and they who
are sanctified are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to
call them Brethren." He was one with us in Nature, one in our
sufferings, one in our life and death, one, too, in bearing our curse,
taking upon Himself our sin. All this makes up a glorious joining unto
the Lord–but it is not the doctrine taught here–for all that are
joined to Christ in the Divine purpose are not yet made of one spirit
with Him, for many of them are still living in their natural ignorance,
little aware of the Grace ordained of old for them.
They are yet to be brought out from the house of bondage. Their
election is to be followed by their calling. The Lord Jesus who is
God's Covenant is yet to be revealed to the eye of their faith, and a
living union to Christ is yet to be created. This last work of Grace is
not yet worked in the uncalled, and they are not in that sense joined
to the Lord. A vital and spiritual union is meant in the text, a union
which is matter of living experience, and is worked in us when we are
born again, when we pass from darkness into Christ's marvelous
Light–when we rise from the death of sin to find the Lord Jesus to be
our life.
From that moment we are "dead, and our life is hid with Christ in God."
From the moment of our regeneration, we who were once the branches of
the wild olive are grafted into the good olive. We who were cast out
like withered branches to be burned, are grafted into the ever-living
Vine, and become one with Jesus Christ our Lord. This is the union here
spoken of, and he that is joined unto the Lord in that way by a work of
the Holy Spirit radically and thoroughly changing him, and renewing
him, and bringing him into oneness with Christ, is said to be the "one
spirit."
But what does that word, "one spirit" mean? Well, we must get at it by
degrees. You may guess at its meaning from the fact that in other parts
of Scripture the union between Christ and His people is described by
that of a marriage union, and then it is said, "these two shall be one
flesh." But to take off the carnal edge of the metaphor, lest we fall
into any grossness of thought, we are told that we in union with our
Lord are one spirit. The union is a spiritual one. It is a great
mystery, says the Apostle, when he speaks concerning Christ and His
Church.
You get a glimmer, then, of what he means. There is a spiritual union,
as real as when two are made one flesh. But it is not to be misread,
and corruptly thought of as a carnal, material matter. It is a deep
Truth of God belonging to the world of spirit. Try to get at it again.
Remember that Christ and His people have one Spirit. The Holy Spirit
who quickens us anointed Him. The Holy Spirit who illuminated us gave
to Jesus Christ the unction with which He came to preach the
reconciling Word to man. "The Spirit of the Lord," says He, "is upon
Me, for He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted."
The Holy Spirit on Christ is the same Holy Spirit as upon us. The oil
which ran down Aaron's beard, and descended to the skirts of his
garments, was the same holy anointing which was poured upon his
reverend head. Yes, and glory be to God for the Truth–we have the same
Spirit with the Lord Jesus Himself. The Apostle says, "There are
diversities of operations, but it is the same God which works all in
all." And again, "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body,
whether we are Jews or Gentiles, whether we are bond or free. And have
been all made to drink into one Spirit." But we need not stay there,
for we may add–we all have the same Holy Spirit as Jesus had. The foot
is baptized into the same Spirit as the head. The ear not only has the
same Spirit as the hand, but has the same Spirit as the glorious
crowned and adored Head of the Church.
That is not all the meaning of the text, though it helps us to come
near it. We have a greater mystery here. Some have read it, "we are of
one spirit with Him," that is to say, we come to think and feel as
Jesus does, have common motives, aims, emotions, and desires. This is
most true, and is the practical meaning of the text, but a more
spiritual sense is under it. Let us, however, turn this over a moment.
We who are joined unto the Lord are of one spirit with Him–the one
Holy Spirit has worked us unto the same thing.
As Jesus is actuated by an intense desire for the glory of God, the
Holy Spirit has worked us unto the same fervent longing. His meat and
drink is also ours. Into His labors and His joys we enter. This meaning
is high–O for Grace to
reach it in our own characters! Yet the text says not that we are of
one spirit, but we are one spirit. We not only have one spirit, and are
of one spirit, but we are one spirit. Now, what shall I say of this? I
shall say nothing but that this is a matter to be understood only by
the spiritual mind, and not to be readily, if at all, expounded in
human words. It is not a Truth for which we have adequate
expressions–letters, syllables, words fail us.
This much we can say though more is left unsaid–there is a union
between Christ and His people most deep, most mysterious, most
essential. If you would know it, ponder this sentence of our Lord's
prayer, "I in them and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in
one." Christ and His saints actually are one spirit. Ah, the depth!
Your contemplation, if aided by the heavenly Interpreter, may assist
you. As for me, I should but darken counsel by words without knowledge
if I tried to open up what these words rather conceal than reveal.
Yet an illustration or two. We have known on earth friends who have
become one spirit–intimacy and mutual admiration have ripened
friendship into unity till the one seemed to be the complement of the
other–and the mention of one suggested the other. They pursued one
object with equal footsteps. They never differed, but appeared to have
one soul in two bodies. The death of one almost necessarily involved
the death of the other–the two were inseparable companions. Damon and
Pythias lived over again in them. Jonathan and David seemed risen from
the dead. Feebly, and but feebly, this reflects the image of our text.
So have we seen one spirit in another relationship, which is often used
as the token of the union between Christ and His people, between the
husband and the wife, of which we shall speak more particularly later,
where there has been one love, one aim, one object. Like two stars, the
wedded pair have shone with such blended rays as to have seemed more
one than two. One name, one heart, one house, one interest, one
love–they have also had one spirit. More fully, still, our text is
illustrated by the branch and the stem. The branch in the vine is
nothing if separated from the stem. Its sap is the very same sap that
is in the stem–one life is in the stem and the branch–and they are
both struggling for the same object, both seeking to produce and ripen
the fruit.
They have no different aim, or even existence. The stem does not hoard
for itself, nor the branch blossom for itself. The branch and stem are
one vine. They are nothing separated from each other, their life one
and their design one. See here again, as in a glass darkly, an amazing
spiritual Truth. Yet more fully is this gracious union between us and
our Lord brought out in the metaphor of the union of the member with
the body. In that case there is, indeed, one spirit, not only in a
vital but in an intellectual sense. If there is life in this finger, it
is identically the same life that is in the head. But one spirit
quickens all the parts of the body, whether comely or uncomely, whether
base or honorable.
And so in the whole Church of God the life of Christ is the life of His
people. The spirit of Christ is the spirit of His people. They are not
two but one. The mystical union is so complete that even the marriage
bond, of which we spoke just now, cannot fully come up to it–it is but
an earthly symbol of a yet truer heavenly reality. We who are joined
unto the Lord are one spirit. I say no more. What I have said may
rather conduct you to the door than open it. But there is One whose
work it is to be the Revealer of secrets, ask Him and He shall reveal
even this unto you.
II. May the Holy Spirit help us while considering the second head. On
the very surface of the text, there is A MANIFEST GRACE. Our one spirit
with Christ reveals itself practically in a manifest sympathy of spirit
between us and our Lord, so that we, being one spirit, are seen to be
actuated and impelled by the same influences. We are of one spirit with
Jesus. That meaning I shall try and bring out. Union with Christ in
these days, when religion wears her holiday garments, is a word with a
pleasant sound, and because of its honorable esteem men would gladly
possess it.
But alas, they know not what it is! They hang a cross at their necks,
or embroider it on their garments, or stamp it on their books–and
fancy that this gives them some degree of unity to the Crucified. But,
Brothers and Sisters, this matter lies quite out of their reach. To be
one spirit with Christ, much more is needed than to bear the Christian
name. You may call yourself a Christian, or a Brother, or a Sister, or
one of the Society of Jesus, and in so doing you may have selected what
you think to be the most orthodox of terms by which to designate
yourself and the congregation to which you belong–but union to the
Lord stands not in name only.
There were those of old who called themselves Jews and were not–their
taking the name did not give them the nature of Israelites. They that
are joined unto the Lord may not always be known by the same name. They
may be called Christians at Antioch and Jews at Philippi (Acts 16:20),
but a right or a wrong name will not change the real character. Call a
poppy a rose and you will not, thereby, give it perfume. Perhaps none
in all the world are less joined to the Lord
than some who adore the very name of Christian, and make an idol of the
outward sign of the Cross. Neither is true union to Christ to be gained
by mere outward profession. You may be baptized in water, but unless
you are baptized into the Holy Spirit, you know not what union with
Christ is. If in Baptism we are buried with Him, then it is well,
indeed, but the sign in itself is nothing, for Simon Magus, though
baptized, had no part nor lot in the matter.
We may sit at the Lord's Table with His people, yes, in the company of
Apostles, and yet be sons of perdition! He may eat and drink in our
streets, and yet may never know us. To eat the visible bread is not to
be one with His mystical body. Union with Christ lies deeper than name,
lies deeper than outward signs and seals of Church fellowship–and it
even lies deeper than the performance of some apparently good actions
and the use of religious words in conversation. We may do many things
in His name, yes, and great things, too, for in His name many cast out
devils and did many wonderful works and so were partakers of the powers
of the world to come. And yet they were rejected by Him at the last as
unknown of Him.
When judgment begins at the House of God small store will be set by
mere visible union, for the branches in Christ after this fashion, not
bearing fruit, will be cast forth, and withered, and burned in the
fire. We must be rooted and built up in Him. He must be formed in us or
it will little avail us to have been numbered with His disciples. The
superficial, the nominal, and the outward will not suffice. He that is
joined unto the Lord must be one spirit–deep down in the very vitals
of our being must this union with Jesus Christ most eminently reside,
and in our hearts and minds must His Truth be found.
This is solemn teaching, and it ought, like the candle of the Lord, to
search the secret parts of our nature. The carnal mind loves that which
is outward, for it can readily comply with it, and that without Divine
assistance. But the unregen-erate heart kicks against that which is
purely spiritual, for it cannot understand it, and here it is compelled
to feel its own powerlessness, except to counterfeit with base
imitations. My Brethren, this is a discerning Word, dividing between
the joints and marrow, and discovering the thoughts and intents of the
heart. You who are quickened with the incorruptible Seed, and discern
spiritual things, come to the search, and see well to it that you are
joined unto the Lord. Not in the form of godliness only, but in the
power of it, also.
Let us give you, for your assistance, an illustration of what unity of
spirit is as we see it among men, for here we may dimly see it as
between the Lord and our souls. We will take a copy from that rare
conjugal union which exists among those who realize the highest ideal
of the married life. Sometimes we have seen a model marriage, founded
in pure love and cemented in mutual esteem. There the husband acts as a
tender head, and the wife, as a true spouse, realizes the model
marriage relation, and sets forth what our oneness with the Lord ought
to be. She delights in her husband, in his person, his character, his
affection.
To her he is not only the chief and foremost of mankind, but in her
eyes he is all in all, her heart's love belongs to him and to him only.
She finds sweetest content and solace in his company, his fellowship,
his fondness. He is her little world, her Paradise, her choice
treasure. To please him she would gladly lay aside her own pleasure to
find it doubled in gratifying him. She is glad to sink her
individuality in his. She seeks no name for herself. His honor is
reflected upon her, and she rejoices in it. She would defend his name
with her dying breath–safe enough is he where she can speak for him.
The domestic circle is her kingdom, and that she may there create
happiness and comfort is her lifework, and his smiling gratitude is all
the reward she seeks.
Even in her dress she thinks of him. Without constraint she consults
his taste and thinks nothing beautiful which is obnoxious to his eye. A
tear from his eye, because of any unkindness on her part, would
grievously torment her. She asks not how her behavior may please a
stranger, or how another's judgment may be satisfied with her behavior.
Let her Beloved be content and she is glad. He has many objects in
life, some of which she does not quite understand, but she believes in
them all, and anything that she can do to promote them she delights to
perform.
He lavishes love on her and she on him. Their object in life is common.
There are points where their affections so intimately unite that none
could tell which is first and which is second. To see their children
growing up in health and strength, to see them holding posts of
usefulness and honor is their mutual concern. In this and other matters
they are fully one. Their wishes blend, their hearts are indivisible.
By degrees they come very much to think the same thoughts. Intimate
association creates conformity.
We have known this to become so complete that at the same moment the
same utterance has leaped to both their lips. Happy woman and happy
man! If Heaven is found on earth they have it! At last the two are so
welded, so engrafted on one stem, that their old age presents a lovely
attachment, a common sympathy by which its infirmities are greatly
alleviated, and its burdens are transformed into fresh bonds of love.
So happy a union of will, sentiment, thought, and heart exists between
them that the two streams of their life have washed away the dividing
bank and run on as one broad current of united existence till their
common joy falls into the main ocean of felicity.
Such a sight, it may be, is not commonly seen, but it is inexpressibly
beautiful, and is a fair type of what the Christian ought to be in his
oneness with his Lord. For the Believer there should be no attractive
beauty but in Christ, nothing that can charm him, stir the deeps of his
soul, or move his nobler passions, but the glorious person of Emmanuel,
the chief among ten thousand. He loved us and gave Himself for us–we
also must love Him and give Him our whole selves. For us the one object
of life is to please our Lord. We should not dare to sin, not because
we are slavishly afraid of punishment, but because we would not grieve
the Bridegroom of our souls. We must labor for His cause, not because
of legal demands, but because we know no higher happiness under Heaven
than to make Him honored and to let Him see in us, and through us, of
the travail of His soul.
Our Lord has great ends and objects. We cannot understand them all, but
to our utmost we desire to promote them by suffering or by service. Our
prayer is, "Lord, show me what You would have me to do." We would be
tenderly sensitive to His desire, not surrendered to it only, but
delighting in whatever He wills. We reckon it our honor to be permitted
to help Him, however humbly, to work out any of His designs. As to the
children of His Grace, both His and ours, regenerated by His Spirit and
converted by our ministries, they are doubly dear to us, and their
perfection we seek with Him. Our constant enquiry is, can we do
anything for them? Can we call home the backsliding? Can we comfort the
desolate? Can we help the poor and needy? Can we be of any service to
the lambs of His flock?–
"There's not a Iamb in all His flock We would disdain to feed."
We would do anything by which we might show our love to Him, for our
union of heart, and our union of purpose, our union of thought with
Him, are all deep and true. Such a Christian grows to think as Christ
thinks till the teachings of Jesus are plain to him. He never tries to
tone down the Gospel as certain philosophic minds are ever doing,
because they are not in union with the great Teacher's heart. But he
comes to see things from the Lord's point of view, and knows his
Master's meaning as by a sacred instinct. Blessed consummation when our
hearts at last are all wrapped up in Jesus, even as the bush at Horeb
was all on fire with God.
Just as Jesus has set all His love on them, so they come to set all
their love on Him, and they can say with the Apostle, "For me to live
is Christ," while the gain which they anticipate in death is the gain
of being nearer to their Beloved, and forever beholding the glory of
His face. I have given you an illustration, and have worked it out but
poorly, but even had I worked it out to perfection, it must necessarily
fall short of the incomparable "one spirit" which dwells in our
glorious Head and all His members. Go on till you sing with quaint old
Francis Quarles–
"Even like two little bank-dividing brooks,
That wash the pebbles with their wanton streams,
And having ranged and searched a thousand nooks,
Meet both at length in silver-breasted Thames,
Where in a greater current they conjoin.
So I my best Beloved's am; so He is mine.
Even so we met. And after long pursuit,
Even so we joined, we both became entire.
No need for either to renew a suit,
For I was flax, and He was flames of fire.
Our firm united souls did more than twine,
So I my best Beloved's am; so He is mine." Where such union as that
exists, what does it produce? Its fruits are precious. They who are
thus one spirit with Christ live for the same end. He lived for God's
glory. "Know you not," said He in His youth, "that I must be about My
Father's business?" In His riper years He said, "It is My meat and my
drink to do the will of Him that sent Me." He that
is joined to the Lord is one spirit in that respect. For him the great,
one, only thing is to glorify God. In such a case the soul sees
everything in this one light, and asks concerning all, how will it
affect the kingdom of God? Even in reading the newspaper one says,
"Great events are transpiring in politics, how will these work for the
glory of God?" The engineer considers the effect the war may have on
the world, the politician thinks of the balance of power, the reformer
meditates on its results as to human progress, but the man who is
joined unto the Lord prays only, "Father, glorify Your name."
To him the profit of his business is only profit so far is it will
enable him to help the Master's cause, and his honor is no honor unless
he can raise out of it some matter for Jehovah's praise. The glory of
God, the glory of God, the glory of God–this was the one target
towards which our Lord went onward in His life. Like a shot that
crashes through everything until it reaches its mark, so must our
spirits find no target but the glory of God! And if we are one spirit
with Christ, it will be so. God's glory, God's glory will be first,
last, midst, everywhere, everything. All for God, and God in all, will
be our motto, as "hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come," is our
daily prayer.
Further, if we are joined to Christ, so as to be one spirit, we shall
seek the same end for the same reason. He desired the glory of God not
for His own glory, but because He loved God. He was one with the
Father. He loved the Father, therefore would He see the Father
glorified. Brethren, it is easy to seek the glory of God with a view to
your own glory. Did you ever find yourself doing so, desiring that the
children in your class should be converted, that in the school it might
be said what a successful teacher is so-and-so? Oh, how have I sought
to wring that black drop out of my spirit, when the desire to bring
souls to Christ has been backed with the desire that I might have a
good standing as a successful minister!
Into Christ's thoughts so base an element never entered–He sank
Himself in God. He knew His Father would give Him the reward, and for
the joy that was set before Him He endured the Cross, despising the
shame–but Self-seeking never threw its alloy into the pure gold of His
devotion to the Father. If we are one spirit with Christ, self will be
swallowed up in God. Lord, do what You will with me, so long as You are
glorified! If I can glorify You best in silence, then let me never
speak again.
If it is most for Your glory that I should die, though my life appears
to be useful to Your Church, yet let me end my days. If it will glorify
You that I should be unsuccessful, that I should be in the world's
judgment a disappointed man, perhaps a fool without brain enough to
succeed, Lord, let me be a fool, or an idiot for You! Only glorify
Yourself in me, and that is enough. This is true oneness of spirit with
Jesus. Self is nothing. God is to be All in All. Comfort, esteem, joy,
and even life will be as the small dust of the balance to a man filled
with Christ's spirit.
Then we shall come, if we are one spirit with Christ, to aim at the
glory of God by the same means. How did He aim at it? By the conversion
of souls–not by being made a king, not by being called rabbi. He
sought for the souls of little children, of peasant women, and of
outcasts. If my mind is as Christ's mind, I shall seek God's glory by
following after the waifs and strays of society–by bringing in
backsliders, by seeking the lost sheep of the house of Israel–laboring
by any means to save some.
How, my Brethren, are you bending your souls towards the conversion of
sinners? It is a great mark of oneness of spirit with Christ when we
have a great tenderness towards lost souls. Do you ever think of lost
souls? Do you ever bring yourselves to the painful consideration of
this huge city, so much larger than Jerusalem in our Savior's day, and,
I was about to say, equally wicked? Do you never pour out floods of
tears for it because it knows not its day, and is neglectful of the
invitations of Grace? If you are one spirit with Christ you will weep
with Him. You will burn with an ardent passion to gather this city's
children beneath the wings of mercy.
You will pray for them, sigh for them, live for them, and persevere in
labor for them. Your thought about a person will not merely be what
trade you can do with him, or how much you may trust him in business,
but, "How much good can I do him, and can I find an opportunity in any
way of bringing him as a jewel to adorn my Savior's crown?" If our
spirits were one with Christ's we should each one be missionaries of
the Cross, bearing witness to His saving power.
Beloved, with such a spirit we should be content to use the same modes
as our Lord. Christ's modes of winning souls were very simple, and He
always adhered to them–teaching, preaching, living, suffering, and
dying were His whole art. Some nowadays seem tired of Christ's plans,
and hunt up more rapid methods. I do not believe that Jesus ever
strained after effect by animal excitement. He did not strive and cry,
and become fanatical, and try to excite poor ignorant people,
who know not what they do, to say what they do not understand. He went
to work by instructing the ignorant, enlightening their consciences and
understandings, and gradually leading them to Himself.
When His spirit is ours we shall be better satisfied with that
old-fashioned way of Gospel preaching which the critics nowadays are so
fond of sneering at. We shall feel this is the best way–this hard,
plodding way that does not usually produce a great mass of converts all
at once–this is best, for Jesus thought so. We shall pine for large
harvests, but go on sowing the same Seed, and preaching His Gospel and
no new one of our own. What was wisdom to Him will be wisdom to us.
Then shall we, if we are of one spirit with Jesus, go to work as He
did, with the same emotions. If we had but six men thoroughly of one
spirit with Jesus, London would soon be shaken from end to end. But
where are they? God make all His servants such, and we shall hear a new
sort of preaching to what is current at this hour. For when Jesus
preached, it was tremendous preaching! True, it was pleasing,
attractive, interesting, but was far more–it was full of deep
heart-power, such as made men see His solemn earnestness–and such as
overcame men's souls.
His soul, as it were, leaped upon them in all the majesty of love's
Omnipotence. O that we felt as He did the weight of souls, the guilt of
sin, the terror of the wrath to come, and the tenderness of Divine
mercy! If these great principles actuated and moved our spirit as they
moved His, we should rise to a higher standard, and our age would know
it.
Let me add that if we are fully joined to our Lord, and of one spirit
with Him, we shall have the same tastes as Jesus. What He loves will
charm us, what He hates we shall loathe. We shall then come to have the
same will with Him. As one said, "If God wills not as I will, yet at
any rate we will be agreed, for I will will as He wills if He will but
graciously enable me." If I cannot have things as I would like, I will
like to have them as Jesus pleases. Oh, to have the two wills, the
human and Divine perfectly coinciding–this is perfection! Brethren, if
this unity between our spirit and Christ's spirit goes on we shall
abide in Him, and He will abide in us.
Oh, to be our Beloved's and to know that He is ours! I cannot resist
quoting another two verses from old Quarles, they so depict my ideal–
"Nor time, nor place, nor chance, nor death can bow My least desires
unto the least remove; He's firmly mine by oath. I His by vow; He is
mine by faith. And Iam His bylove; He's mine by water. Iam His by wine;
Thus I my best Beloved's am; thus He is mine. He is my altar. I His
holy place; Iam His guest. And He my living food; I'm His by penitence.
He mine by Grace; I'm His by purchase. He is mine by blood He's my
supporting wall. And I His vine– Thus I my best Beloved's am; thus He
is mine." I have many things to say, but time fails me, and therefore
let me just pour out a few thoughts. There would be produced in you and
in me, if we were joined unto the Lord, great oneness of aim in our
service of God. We have a dozen aims now, but if we were of one spirit
with Jesus we should have but one object in life. A man dies, and they
say, "Ah, he died a martyr to his science." Another dies, and they say,
"He killed himself with attention to his business." When will men be
thus said to die for Christ?
Men commonly say of their fellows, "He is a man of one idea, he lives
for it. Wherever he is he must always ride his hobby." How I wish they
would say the same of Christians! Wherever our Lord was, not
imprudently, but with true wisdom, He was sure to pursue His life work.
Where Jesus was there would the Gospel be heard or seen before long. If
He sat to eat bread at a Pharisee's house nobody could suspect Him of
being a Pharisee, or need to ask who He was. His speech before long
betrayed Him, for the one object of His soul was uppermost. May it ever
be so with us! May we be of one idea and that one idea to glorify God
through the salvation of sinners by Jesus Christ!
This would give us, beside unity of purpose, great force, great fervor.
We should feel this in private. Our prayers, if we had the spirit of
Christ would be very different from what they are. This would be
visible in public, also. Our public service of God would never be so
sluggish and sleepy as it now is. With what ardor did the Savior burn!
Would God that
same fire dropped into my soul, and utterly consumed me as a living
sacrifice. This would produce in each of us an abiding pertinacity.
Defeated in one place we should try in another. It would be with us a
determination never to be overcome in doing good. Like Jesus who sought
the souls of men, not in a languid search, but over hill and dale till
He went down into death's cold shade and traversed the sepulcher that
He might deliver them, so we also in honor and dishonor, in evil report
and good report, in poverty and wealth, in life and death, should still
be seeking the glory of God and the salvation of the sons of men.
This same spirit would work in us a wonderful serenity of spirit. If
our spirit were like Christ's spirit–altogether set on God's glory–we
should not be disturbed and vexed so soon as we are with little, petty
remarks of men, nor should we even be moved by great calamities. If any
disaster happened to us we should only say, "How can I use this for
God's glory?" If prosperity smiled on us, we should ask, "How can I
make this glorify my Lord?" We should not be cast down by the one nor
lifted up by the other. If men sneered at us we should say, "It is well
that they think little of me, for now if God will bless my efforts they
will think the more of God and know that the work was not done by my
power."
If, on the other hand, we find men thinking highly of us, we should
say, "How can I use the influence I thus obtain to advance the great
cause of my Lord and Master?" When self is dead our sorrows are sweet.
When self-seeking is gone, then serene is the calm lake of the soul,
unruffled by the storms of ambition which continually toss with
blustering breath the minds which seek themselves. I am persuaded,
Brethren, your highest state, your happiest condition–will be when you
are so joined with the Lord as to be one spirit.
Lastly, what does all this teach us by way of practical lesson? These
three things–First, see here a rebuke for us. We have been joined to
Christ, but have we been manifestly one spirit with Him? Angry–was
that Christ's spirit? Worldly–was that Christ's spirit? Frivolous,
verging upon impropriety–was that Christ's spirit? Proud, dictatorial,
slothful, repining, or unbelieving–was that Christ's spirit? O
Brothers and Sisters, if you can read that verse without a tear you are
either better or worse men than I! You are worse perhaps, for you do
not feel the penitence you should. Or you are better, and you have no
need to confess the same faults which unhappily rise before my memory.
The spirit of Jesus, we have a measure of it I trust, but does not our
own spirit adulterate it dreadfully!
The next practical word is one of hope. We want to have the same spirit
as Christ. Well, Brethren, our hope is that we shall have it, for we
are joined to the Lord, and he that is joined to the Lord is one
spirit. Are you not joined to Jesus, my Brother, my Sister? I know what
you say, "I sometimes fear I am not." Well, but what do you add to
that? You add, "But I desire to be, and I do today renew my union with
Him by another act of faith and confidence in Him. Dear Lord and
Savior, You are my only Hope. I at this hour embrace Your Cross once
more. I know You save sinners, I know that they who believe in You are
saved, and therefore I am saved. Now, being persuaded of this, I love
You. O that I could kiss Your feet where the nail prints are, and that
my whole life could be a washing of those feet with my tears!"
Since, then, you are joined to Christ, you are one spirit, and though
it is not yet fully seen, it will be before long. There are better
times coming, there are deeper degrees of Grace for you yet, only
persevere.
The last word will help you to persevere. Don't you see, my Brethren,
the way to get more of the spirit of Christ? It is indicated in the
text, it is by thinking more of your union with Him. To be nearer the
Lord is the way to be more like He is. Do not let doubts and fears
endanger your fellowship with Him. You may think, "I fear I have no
right to say I am one with Christ." But that suspicion will not
sanctify you. It will not help you to be holier to doubt your union to
your Lord.
Men never grow in Grace by departing from the Savior by unbelief. The
more you need Christ the closer cling to Him. The less you are like He
is the tighter hold Him. Your hope lies there. "If my spirit is not yet
subdued to Your spirit, my Savior, yet I cannot let You go, for that
were to drive the physician away because I am still sick. That were to
renounce my friend because I have great need of him. No, but closer to
You will I cling by Your Holy Spirit from this day forth, that being
joined to You, I may be of one spirit."
I feel I have feebly addressed you, but at the same time I know
precious Truth has been set forth. May the Holy Spirit open it up to
your hearts, and bless it to your souls, and He shall be magnified. But
if you have no part nor lot in this matter, may that dreadful fact lead
you at this hour to seek the Savior.
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A Personal Application