Things Present
A sermon
(No. 870)
Delivered on Sunday Morning, MAY 9, 1869, by
C.H.SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"Things present, all are yours."- 1 Corinthians 3:22.
SOME of the Corinthians had attached themselves to one great religious
teacher and others to another. There was a disposition among them to
set up rival leaders of opposing parties–a band would follow Paul,
another company admired Apollos–and a third extolled Peter. The
Apostle, in order to take the minds of Believers off estimating any one
of their blessings at too high a rate, leads them to contemplate the
exceeding length and breadth of the treasures which God had given to
them. Why should they glory in man when all things were theirs? It is
the part of a poor man to set a great value upon the one thing in which
he delights.
As in the parable of Nathan, the poor man had but one ewe lamb. This
lay in his bosom, and was fed from his own table. He who was possessor
of 10,000 sheep in the valley of Jezreel thought but little of any one
lamb. Even so, if Believers were poor and God had given them but one
mercy and that one mercy were either Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, it
were but according to nature that they should exalt the gift and prize
it at the highest conceivable rate. But when the bounteous Lord has
given to His people all ministries and countless spiritual blessings,
it becomes unseemly in those who are so rich, to glory in any one part
of their portion.
Even as it has been said–
"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing,
Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring," so the sense of possession
exercised upon a little will contract and hamper the soul, but a sense
of great, yes, infinite possession, will enlarge and ennoble us. If our
mind, enlarged and stimulated by faith, can stretch its arms like seas
and grasp the whole shore of the present and of the future–and seize
upon all things as given us by the bounty of Heaven– we shall be cured
of the tendency to exaggerate the value of our merely temporal mercies.
And all shall so be delivered from covetousness.
How shall they thirst who swim in the cool clear stream? How shall they
hunger who sit down at banquets where the provision is beyond all
measure? Happy are they who are too rich to care for gold, too happy to
hunt after joy, too exalted to be proud, too high to be lifted up!
Among the matters which Paul catalogs as belonging to Believers, he
enters this item, which contains a mass of mercy, "things present."
This is a huge nugget of virgin gold and one which the mind is ever
ready to appreciate. We reckon present things at the highest rate–as
the old proverb has it–"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."
Things present–though in very truth they may be far inferior to things
to come, or even in certain respects less precious than the things of
the past–yet usually exercise the greatest influence over us from
their nearness. It is so even as the moon, though far less than the
sun, has the greater power over the earth because she is so much nearer
to it. A present mercy rates higher in the market than a great blessing
which was received years ago and now only lives in our memory. A crust
for present hunger is better than the festival of last year, and a
small inconvenience, if pressing upon us at this present moment, will
distress us far more than the great trial which is threatened, or the
still greater affliction which has passed over us.
A slight shower of rain today will more inconvenience you than the
heavy snowstorm which overtook you on the Alps seven years ago. The
little present, to our apprehension, eclipses the great past or the
greater future. Since, then, from the constitution of our nature, we
are so out of all proportion affected by present things, it is well for
us to look at them until we can see them in the bright light which this
text casts upon them. Then we shall be all the happier and, being
the happier, all the stronger for good. Present things, then, Believer,
be they bright or dark, present things–through the Covenant of
Grace–are yours today!
I. Subdividing this great and comprehensive term, we shall first
observe that in the ease of the true Christian, HIS TEMPORAL
POSSESSIONS are his own. You will say that this is a most trite remark.
So be it. Yet, as a brown husk may hide a golden seed, so may there be
important truths within a plain sentence. The ungodly man for awhile
engrosses the good things of this life, but they are sent to him
oftentimes in anger. They bring a curse with them and are taken away
again in wrath. They are not his in the same cheering sense in which
they belong to the children of God.
As for you, O true Believer, whatever of earthly good the Lord has
apportioned you is in a peculiar sense and in a most blessed manner,
your own. I grant you that all our worldly goods belong to God and that
we are but stewards of whatever He bestows upon us. Yet, for all that,
the good things of this life are ours by a deed of gift far more valid
than the title-deeds of noble families or the charters of kings! God
gives us all things richly to enjoy, and rights established upon Divine
gift are beyond dispute.
When the Lord makes our lines to fall in pleasant places, we are not to
receive the gifts of Providence with fear and trembling, as if they
were not lawful to be held by Christians. Nor are we to look at them
with shy suspicion, as if they could not be consecrated to noblest
ends. The temporal gifts of Heaven are ours, as the text declares, and
we are bound to regard them as love gifts of our Covenant God. It is a
great comfort when a man knows in his conscience, "What I have, be it
little or much, is mine, at least in this sense, that I have honestly
come by it." The Christian owns no stolen property or unrighteous gain.
A thief may secure his goodly Babylonian garment and his wedge of gold,
but when he has gotten it, though no other man claims it, yet it is not
his–he must bury it in the earth, it is a stolen thing–a thing
accursed and bringing evil with it. How can men live in peace with
fraudulent property about them? David, when he gets the water from the
well at Bethlehem, acts towards it as every honest spirit would act
towards gold and silver accumulated in unjustifiable speculations, or
coined out of the savings of the defrauded poor, or gathered by
adulteration and trickery–David would not drink the water, but poured
it out! And some men's riches might well be poured out even into Hell
itself, where devils might rue the draught if they dared to drink
there.
Ill-gotten substance will rot the belly which is filled with it.
Dishonest persons may be purse-proud and live in great style, but none
of their riches are, in truth, their own. Like the jackdaw in the
fable, they wear borrowed plumes. Though no man may get back his own
from the man of fraud and no court of law may make him disgorge, yet
his gettings are not his, or only his so as to sting him in the end as
does a viper. But what you have, Believer, is your own! In the getting
of it you remembered your Master's word and abstained from
covetousness. You strained not after it with an unhallowed greed and
now, when it comes to you, though it is not your god and you do not
value it in comparison with spiritual blessings, yet it comes with this
satisfaction–that you have not gathered it with unrighteous hands.
The Believer's possessions are his own because acknowledged to the
great Giver with becoming gratitude. Gratitude is, as it were, the quit
rent to the great superior Owner and until we discharge the claim, our
goods are not lawfully ours in the court of Heaven. Some lands are held
upon the tenure of a peppercorn–so are our daily mercies. At each meal
there should be this payment of the peppercorn in the giving of thanks,
which is peculiarly a Christian custom to be carefully observed. On our
anniversary occasions–our birthdays and times of memorial–there
should be special seasons for blessing the name of the Lord, and,
indeed, whenever any great blessing is brought home (and what if I say
any blessing, for, to such as we are, all blessings are great?), there
should be the payment of hearty gratitude, for then only, the mercy
becomes legitimately ours!
Wealth is not truly ours till we thank the Lord for it. We have not
paid the royal dues upon it–it is contraband and we are illegally
using it. Beloved, as you have not failed to give unto the Lord your
loving thanks, your mercies are now yours to enjoy as in His sight. I
hope, too, that the most of my Brethren can feel that their temporal
possessions are theirs because they have conscientiously consecrated
the due portion which belongs to God. From the loaf there should be cut
the crust for the hungry. From the purse there should come the help for
the Lord's work. The tithing of the substance is the true title to the
substance. It is not altogether yours till you have proved your
gratitude by your proportionate gift to the cause of the Master.
Cheerfully may we look upon the heap which remains when of the gold and
the silver a portion has been given to God to conserve the rest from
the rust and the canker. You may eat of your harvest with gladness when
the Lord's sheaf has been waved and your increase shall be sweet when
the first fruits have been laid on the altar. All things are yours in a
special manner when dedicated in tithe and sanctified by gratitude. Our
mercies are our own, too, because we seek to be graciously guided in
the use of them. We dare not spend them on our lusts–they are not ours
for such a purpose. They are not bestowed upon us so absolutely that we
may set them up and cry, "These are your gods, O Israel." They are ours
within the lines of Law and Gospel–ours within bounds of sobriety and
holiness–ours not as gods, but as gourds. Ours not as masters, but as
mercies.
We eat and drink feeling that God, even our own God, has blessed our
basket and our store. And therefore whether we eat or drink, or
whatever we do, we do all to His Glory! We put on our raiment with joy
because the Lord thus clothes us. That which we possess the Lord has
cleansed and therefore we count it no longer common or unclean. The
benediction of Heaven sweetens the lawful use of earthly goods. The
nether springs are the more delightful because drops from the upper
springs fall into them. To see God's hand in every temporal mercy is to
enjoy life! But, alas, some men will not so see the hand of God, but
only see the bare mercy and fall in love with the creature to the
neglect of the Creator. Their worldly goods are perverted into
stumbling-stones and are no longer as they should be, a ladder to lift
us nearer to God.
Beloved in Christ Jesus, whatever God has given you in this life, upon
the conditions which I have already mentioned, are yours, ceded to you
by Divine love! Need I say it is not required of you to play the
ascetic? John came neither eating nor drinking–you are not John's
disciple! The Son of Man, who is your Master, came both eating and
drinking. There is no piety whatever in your accounting the gifts of
Providence as necessarily temptations. You can make them so, but that
is your folly and no fault of theirs. If God has blessed you with
wealth or competence, use your substance with joy for His Glory and the
good of your fellow men and see upon all that you have the smile of
Heaven! Sit not down sullenly to hoard up your gold as though it were a
thing of darkness to be concealed, but arise and use the gifts of God
in the light and in gladness!
Vain are those who sneer at Nature and the lavish bounty thereof. To me
the sunshine is Jehovah's smile and the grass which grows beneath my
feet is beaming with 10,000 flowers, all speaking out my Father's
thoughts of kindness towards me. "The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof." This planet is no Pandemonium or Topher! It is no
sin to gaze with delight upon verdant valleys and majestic mountains!
It is no crime to enjoy the beauties of Nature, but a sign of idiocy to
be unaffected thereby! Fair scenes, sweet sounds, balmy odors and fresh
gales–your Father sends them to you–take them and be thankful!
If there are any men in this world to whom Nature belongs, these men
are the children of the living God! I count it squeamish, sickly
sentimentalism and not manly piety, which leads certain excellent men
to depreciate their Maker's works and speak of river and forest and
lake and ocean as if evil spirits haunted every scene and the whole
earth were a temple of Satan! My Brothers and Sisters, it is true that
the creation has been made subject to vanity, but not willingly! And
that unwillingness of God causes a sunlight upon Nature which Mercy
would have her children perceive and rejoice in–
"The earth with its store Of wonders untold, almighty! Your power has
founded of old; Has stablish'd it fast By a changeless decree, And
round it has cast, Like a mantle, the sea. Your bountiful care What
tongue can recite? It breathes in the air, It shines in the light, It
streams from the hills, It descends to the plain,
And sweetly distils In the dew and the rain. O measureless might!
Ineffable love! While angels delight To hymn You above The humbler
Creation, Though feeble there lays, With true adoration Shall lisp to
Your praise."
There is no sin in trees and winds, brooks and lakes and oceans! And in
towering mountains, virgin snows and silent glaciers there are no
promptings to evil. The sin is in ourselves and if we will but be
right-hearted and ask God to enable us to behold His works with clear
and anointed eyes, we may see God Himself mirrored in Creation. At all
events, all these present things are ours, neither shall any man rob me
of my right to rejoice in the works of God's hands. Let us note well
before we leave this point, that any of God's saints who are in straits
and have but little of this world's goods–and these are generally the
majority of the Church and the holiest and the best–may yet remember
that all things are theirs, so that up to the measure of their
necessities God will be quite sure to afford them sustenance.
The Lord is your Shepherd and you shall not want. You may be pinched,
but you shall not perish. Your strength shall be equal to your day.
Your bread shall be given you, your water shall be sure. And, Brother
or Sister, remember that a man's life is not to be judged of by what he
has or has not, but by the contentment of his heart–for there lies all
true treasure. Are you content, and can you cast your cares upon God?
Then you are richer than a thousand anxious misers and wealthier, far,
than 10,000 who eat the bread of carefulness. Are you satisfied to
sing–
"Father, I wait Your daily will.
You shall divide my portion still–
Give me on earth what seems You best,
Till death and Heaven reveal the rest"? Then you are truly rich! Envy
makes men poor–this it is that strips the purple from the prince and
dashes the goblet with gall.
Strange is it and yet most true, that covetousness which seems to be
the common sin of professors nowadays, is never attributed in God's
Word to any one child of God. They had many faults, but never
covetousness! No heir of Heaven was charged with that in the Word of
God–that is the vice of Judas, the Son of Perdition and not of Peter,
or David, or Lot, or Samson! This evil touches not the saints. Into the
deep ditch of greed the saints shall not fall. My poor, but believing
Brother, you will thank God that you have but little, believing that it
is all that would be good for you. You do ask the Lord to give you, day
by day, your daily bread and you have it in answer to prayer and in
proof of Divine faithfulness.
Your heavenly Friend may suffer you to be brought very low, but He will
not utterly leave you, nor suffer your soul to famish. I pray God the
Holy Spirit to enable my dear Brothers and Sisters in their poverty to
believe that their need is overruled for their true riches. Whereas an
abundance of possessions may bring a blessing, the lack of that
abundance is far more constantly a source of good. Our present
circumstances, whether prosperous or painful, are Covenant blessings
from the God of Grace–
"If peace and plenty crown my days,
They help me, Lord, to speak Your praise.
If bread of sorrows is my food,
Those sorrows work my real good." II. In the long list of things
present we must include TEMPORAL TRIALS. Tribulations are treasures,
and if we were wise, we should reckon our afflictions among our rarest
jewels. The caverns of sorrow are mines of diamonds. Our earthly
possessions may be silver, but temporal trials are, to the saints,
invariably gold. We may grow in Divine Grace through what we enjoy, but
we probably make the greatest progress through what we suffer. Soft
gales may be pleasant for Heaven-bound vessels, but rough winds are
better. The calm is our way, but God has His way in the whirlwind and
He rides on the wings of the wind.
Saints gain more by their losses than by their profits. Health comes
out of their sicknesses and wealth flows out of their poverties. Heir
of Heaven, your present trials are yours in the sense of medicine. You
need that your soul, like your body, should be dealt with by the
beloved Physician. A thousand diseases have sown their seeds within
you–one evil will often bring on another and the cure of one too
frequently engenders another. You need, therefore, oftentimes to gather
the produce of the garden of herbs which is included in your
inheritance–a garden which God will be sure to keep well stocked with
wormwood and bitters.
From these bitter herbs a potion shall be brewed, as precious as it is
pungent, as curative as it is distasteful. Would you root up that herb
garden? Would you lay those healing beds all to waste? Ah, then, when
next a disease attacks you, how could you expect help? I know the good
Physician can heal without the lancet if He wills and restore us
without the balm, but for all that, He does not choose to do so, but
will use the means of affliction–for by these things men live and in
all these is the life of their spirit. Be thankful, therefore, for your
trials and count them among your treasures.
Our present afflictions also strengthen us greatly. No man becomes a
veteran except by practice in arms. We shall not man our fleet with
able-bodied seamen at home, on the boisterous deep and in the
thundering battle, if we search among mere landsmen and gentlemen whose
boldest voyage was on the glassy Thames! Experience works patience and
patience brings with it a train of virtues–and all these make the man
a man, and cause him to be mighty among his peers! Be grateful, then,
for that without which probably you would be always children–apart
from which you must remain always untried and consequently unskillful.
Be grateful for your present trials and count them the choicest of your
goods.
Brothers and Sisters, our trials ought to be greatly valued by us as
windows of agates and gates of carbuncle through which we get the
clearest views of our Lord Jesus Christ. Trial is the telescope through
which we gaze upon the blessed Star of Bethlehem more clearly. Christ
says to us, "Come, My Beloved, let us go forth into the field; there
will I give you My loves." When there fails a blight on creature
comforts and the withering blast goes out against terrestrial joys, oh,
then how bright is the Rose of Sharon and how fair the Lily of the
Valley in the esteem of His people! "Come up with Me to My Cross," says
Christ–and the mystic invitation, though it involves so deep an
anguish, is not to be rejected!
Do you understand what it is to come up to Christ's Cross and to be
conformed unto His death? It is only as you do this that you will have
fellowship with Jesus and understand what His love is towards you. The
sufferings of Christ are not learned by the hearing of the ear–though
we set them forth constantly to you, yet you will not really comprehend
them–it is in the drinking of His cup and being baptized with His
baptism, that by sympathy you will comprehend what your Lord really
endured for you. Thus will you be more effectually planted with Him in
the likeness of His death, that you may be planted in the likeness of
His Resurrection.
Brothers and Sisters, you who are cross-bearers this morning! I would
remind you for your comfort that you have to bear the cross, but not
the curse. Your Lord endured both Cross and curse, but to you there is
not so much as a drop of Divine anger in all that you are suffering!
There may be much vinegar, but no venom! There may be anguish, but
there is no anger! Christ has exhausted the penal result of sin–He
endured it all and now the cross that comes to you is garlanded with
love. All over it is inscribed with lines of affection. I know that
this is hard to be believed, especially while you are carrying a green
cross, new to your shoulder, for this always frets the soul. It is when
you become accustomed to sorrow by having borne the yoke in your youth
that you fret not and mourn not, as though some strange thing had
happened to you.
I cannot speak so favorably of some men's crosses as I can of the
crosses of Believers who patiently wait upon their God, for some make
their own crosses in wantonness of discontent. There are crosses made
of crab tree, put together by our own wicked temper! And these we ought
to burn at once. I can promise you no cures for crosses which you make
for yourself. If you plait your own crown of thorns and find your own
nails, your own vinegar and sponge, it is your own crucifixion and you
may find your own comfort. But when it is Christ's Cross, a cross that
Christ sends, a cross that Providence ordains–remember it is a thing
of mercy to be rejoiced in as a blessing of Heaven!
So too, Believer, remember that your Lord sends you a cross but not a
crush. It is meant to bear you down, but not to break you and grind you
in the dust. Your cross is proportioned to your strength. In all the
potion there is not one chance atom–the medicine has been compounded
by no ordinary skill! Infinite Wisdom, which balanced the clouds and
fixed the cornerstone of the world, has been employed to compound the
ingredients of your present trial. Your affliction
shall not be too much for you–it shall be just such a trial as you
require. There shall be no more and no less of weight in it.
It may help to comfort you if you remember that your cross is not a
loss. It may look like a loss, but it shall only be a putting out to
interest that which is taken from you that it may be returned soon with
usury. Weep not because the vessel of your present comfort has gone out
to sea and you have lost sight of the white sails. It shall come back
again to you laden with nobler treasure. Weep not because the sun has
gone done, for it descends that the dews may be brought forth and the
earth may be watered and the flowers may drip with perfume. Wait awhile
and the sun shall come back to you again and the morn shall be the
brighter because of the gloom of the night.
sorrow not, Heir of Heaven, because the skies are clouded–the clouds
are big with mercy and each cloud is the mother of 10,000 blossoms and
harvests He concealed in yonder darkness! O be confident that among all
your jewels, all your precious ornaments and tokens of love that God
has given you, you have nothing brighter than the jet jewels of
affliction! No diamonds of a finer water than those of trouble! May we
understand by faith, then, the great Truth of God that our present
trials are our treasures, to be looked upon with thankfulness.
III. In the third place, all our CIRCUMSTANTIAL SURROUNDINGS ought to
be regarded by us as ours. I have already touched upon a branch of this
subject, namely, that all our outward circumstances are meant to be
conducive to our perfection. I have already said that our trials and
troubles are, by God's Grace and the gift of the Holy Spirit, really
made to promote our growth. So ought all, whether of brightness or
darkness in our present lot, to be helpful in preparing us for the
better land and the mansions of Glory.
1 shall also insist upon another point–all our circumstances are ours
as subservient to our usefulness. Has this ever struck you? You wish to
win souls? Before you enter upon the actual service, you say to
yourself, "I wish I were a minister," but very probably you have not
the gift of utterance. You have a family round about you and you are
evidently tied to something far other than a pulpit. You have to keep
to that farm, to manage the shop. Now the temptation with you will be
to say, "These plows and harrows, these bullocks and horses–I do not
see how I am to serve God with all these! These scales and yard
measures, these groceries and draperies–I cannot see how these can be
instruments with which I may serve God."
Now, my dear Friend, begin by correcting that mistake! All these things
are yours and you are, therefore, to look upon them as being not
detriments, but assistants to the discharge of your peculiar life-work.
You are to consider that the position which you occupy is, all things
considered, the most advantageous that you could possibly have occupied
for doing the utmost that you are capable of doing for the Glory of
God! Suppose the mole should cry, "How I could have honored the great
Creator if I could have been allowed to fly"? It would have been very
foolish, for a mole flying would be a very ridiculous object–while a
mole fashioning its tunnels and casting up its castles is viewed with
admiring wonder by the naturalist who perceives its remarkable
suitability to its sphere.
The fish of the sea might say, "How could I display the wisdom of God
if I could sing, or mount a tree, like a bird!" But you know fish in a
tree would be a very grotesque affair and there would be no wisdom of
God to admire in fishes climbing trees! But when the fish cuts the wave
with agile fin, all who have observed it say how wonderfully it is
adapted to its habitat–how exactly its every bone is fitted for its
mode of life! Brother, it is just so with you. If you begin to say, "I
cannot glorify God where I am, and as I am," I answer, neither could
you anywhere if not where you are! Providence, which arranged your
surroundings, appointed them so that, all things being considered, you
are in the position in which you can best display the wisdom and the
Grace of God.
Now, if you can once accept this as being a fact, it will make a man of
you. My Christian Brother, or my dear Sister, it will enable you to
serve God with a force which you have not yet obtained, for then,
instead of panting for spheres to which you will never reach, you will
enquire for immediate duty, asking, "What does my hand find to do?" You
need not use your feet to traverse half a nation to find work–it lies
close at hand. Your calling is near at home–your vocation lies at the
door, and within it. What your hands find to do, do at once and with
all your might and you will find such earnest service the best method
in which you can glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.
"A large family," says one, "what can I do?" Train them in the fear of
God–these children are yours to serve the Lord with! What nobler
service can a mother render to the republic upon earth and to the
kingdom in Heaven, than to educate her children for Christ? "Working in
a large factory with ungodly men, what can I do?" Needless enquiry!
What
cannot the salt do when it is cast among the meat? You, as a piece of
salt, are just where you should be! Confine Christians in monasteries
and nunneries–why it is like putting salt into a strong iron box and
burying it in the ground! No, but the salt of the earth must be cast
all over that which is to be conserved by it and each of us must be put
in a position where our influence as a Christian will be felt.
"I am sick," says another, "I am chained to the bed of languishing."
But, my Friend, your patience will magnify the power of Divine Grace
and your words of experience will enrich those who listen to you! Your
experience will yield a richer wine than ever could have come from you
had you not been cast into the winepress and trod by the foot of
affliction. I tell you, Brothers and Sisters, I cannot go into
instances and details, but it is a most certain fact that all about
you, though it is a blind eye, a disabled arm, a stammering tongue, a
flagging memory, poverty in the house, or sickness in the
chamber–though it is derision and scorn and contempt–everything about
you is yours! And if you know how to use it rightly, you will turn
these disadvantages into advantages and prosper by them.
Look at the seaman when he finds himself out at sea! Does he sit down
and fret because the wind will not blow from the quarter that he would
most prefer? No, but he tacks about and catches every cupful of wind
that can be of use to him and so reaches the haven at last. You are not
to expect that God would ordain everything just as you would like to
have it–spoon feed you with pabulum like babes upon the lap! But He
will train and try you and you must make use of all that He sends for
the promotion of His Glory. Look at a good commander, he not only
selects a good position for his troops, but if he occupies a bad
position, he turns that to account and often makes the worse become the
better!
To use a very homely illustration, look at yon miller on the village
hill. How does he grind his grist? Does he bargain that he will only
grind in the west wind, because that is so full of health? No, but the
east wind, which searches joints and marrow, makes the millstones
revolve and the north and the south are all yoked to service. Even so
with Believers–all your ups and your downs, your successes and your
defeats are all yours that you may turn them to the Glory of God!
Standing here now, and taking a somewhat broader range than our own
individualities, let me remind you, Brethren, that on the great and
broad scale of Providence all things belong to the Church of God.
There are great changes in politics just now–there will be greater
changes still. Fancy not that anything is stable that is of merely
human appointing. Imagine not that any form of government can eternally
survive the waves of change which break at its base. The ensign of this
age is, "Overturn, overturn, overturn, till he shall come whose right
it is, and he shall have the kingdom." But there shall be no crumbling
columns. There shall be no bowing wall or tottering fence but what
shall minister to the solidity of the Church of God! All changes,
however radical! All catastrophes, however horrible, shall all happen
to the advantage of the cause of Christ!
All things are yours. Earthquakes of popular opinions may make
dynasties shake and reel and at last be prone in ruin. Opinions,
institutions and customs, which we would gladly conserve at the peril
of our lives may be rolled up and cast aside like worn out vestures!
Heaven and earth may shake and stars may fall like fig leaves from the
tree, but everything must subserve the progress of the conquering
kingdom of Christ! His Glory shall fill the earth! All flesh shall see
it together! From land and sea there must yet go up the universal
hallelujah unto the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the Wonderful,
the Counselor, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. All things
then, O Church of God, are yours!
IV. I have somewhat outstripped my time and therefore I must only give
a hint or two on the last point. SPIRITUAL PRIVILEGES, which are many
of them present things, belong to Believers. Now what are they? The
favor of God is not for Heaven only–it is ours today. Adoption into
His family is not for eternity only–it is for this present time. We
are today heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ Jesus! Today to be
instructed, to be fed, to be clothed, to be housed, to have the
Father's kiss and live in the Father's heart! All things are ours! God
Himself is ours, our eternal inheritance! Lift up your eyes, O heir of
Grace and see what a treasure is opened up to you!
Again, Christ is present and He is ours. There is today a "fountain
filled with blood," which puts away all sin. It is ours! There is a
Mercy Seat where all prayer is prevalent–it is open today. It is
ours–come to it boldly. There is an Intercessor who takes our prayers
and offers them. He is ours, and all His mighty pleas and Divine
authority, which makes Him so successful an Advocate, are all at our
service today! Not were ours yesterday, nor shall be ours in some
happier hour, but they are ours now!
Are any of you depressed, do you feel yourselves great sinners? Then
the fountain is yours as sinners, the Intercessor is yours while you
are yet guilty, for it is written, "If any man sins, we have an
advocate with the Father." O lay hold
upon these present things and rejoice! The Holy Spirit, too, is a
present blessing to you! The Comforter comes to you as a present
blessing from Christ and He brings you present enlightenment, present
guidance, present strength, present consolation! All these are
yours–all beams of the seven-branched golden candlestick and all the
oil that is treasured up for the lamps. The light and the Source of the
light are alike yours and yours, now.
And if, Beloved, there is any promise today written in the Word of
God–if there is any blessing today guaranteed to the elect family. If
there is any mindfulness of Providence, or any abundance of Divine
Grace–all these are yours, and yours, now. Come, then! Why do you
pine, you Saints? Why do you mourn and lie upon your dunghills till the
dogs of Hell lick your sores? Come, wrap yourselves in your scarlet and
fine linen, you Heirs of Heaven! Live according to your portion! Fare
according to the banquet! All things are yours! Let those harps be
taken from the willows and let that sackcloth and ashes be laid aside.
Put on the beautiful apparel of gratitude and sing the song of
thankfulness unto the Shepherd who has promised that you shall not
want, and whose all-sufficiency will fill your heart, till like a cup
it runs over!
May God bless these words and especially bless them to the unconverted,
that while they look over the hedge, as it were, and see the fruit that
grows from God's people, they may wish that they had right to enter. If
any of you do so wish, let me remind you that there is a door to enter
by and that door is Christ! Whoever trusts in Him shall have every
mercy of the Covenant to be his present and eternal portion. May you be
led so to trust in Jesus and unto God shall be the Glory, world without
end. Amen.
PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Psalm 23 and John 14.