Rubbish

DELIVERED BY

C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"There is much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall"
Nehemiah 4:10.

REMEMBER that Jerusalem had been totally destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar
and what is meant by the destruction by the Babylonians may be inferred
from the vast heaps of the dust of powdered bricks and charred wood
which have been discovered upon the sites of cities which were utterly
razed to the ground by the fierce soldiers of that terrible king. The
ruins are frequently so complete that even tradition has forgotten the
name of the mound or heap which is the sole memorial to mark the
sepulcher of a queenly city. The Babylonians made sure work when they
did it, their plowers made deep furrows and their destroyers cried one,
to another, "Overturn, overturn, overturn, till not a stone shall abide
in its place."

They reaped a nation with their swords as corn is cut down by the
sickle and they beat their cities till the ruins were small as the dust
of the summer threshing floor. Do you wonder that on the site of
Jerusalem there remained much rubbish? Many modern destroyers have done
their desolating work most wonderfully and I may venture to quote what
I have seen of their doings as an example of the much rubbish with
which the foundations of a ruined city are sure to be covered. I have
stood upon the Palatine Mount in Rome, where formerly the pale of the
Caesars raised themselves in more than imperial grandeur. But what an
Alp of fragments! What a mountain of broken walls and columns, and
stones peering upward like the natural rock of mother earth!

Houses, convents, palaces have been built upon the mass and for many
seasons trees have bloomed and fruited, and gardens have brought forth
their harvests above the spot where once the imperial tyrant was known
to awe the nations with a nod. To restore the palaces of the Palatine,
the first labor would be the unearthing of the foundations–and this
would probably be as huge an undertaking as the rebuilding of the
palaces, themselves. A mountain must be carried away before a stone can
be laid. If you were able to visit the Forum at Rome, you would see, if
you were there today, numbers of laborers with horses and carts
continually at work taking away hundreds of thousands of tons of
rubbish which have covered up all that still remains of the ancient
center and heart of Rome.

Jerusalem, I do not doubt, was one vast heap made up of the debris of
its houses, of the tower and armory of David, of the palace of the
king, and of the Temple itself. And though now, at the period we are
about to speak of, the temple had been rebuilt and modern houses
covered the site of the older Jerusalem, yet, when they came to the
wall of the city, with the view of thoroughly restoring it, they found
it a complete ruin–and such a ruin that the mass which covered it up
was difficult to dig through. They could not build the wall because
there was so much rubbish.

Now, this, it seems to me, is intended, or at least may justifiably be
used, for a type of the work which God's people have to carry on in the
name of Jesus and in the power of His Holy Spirit, in the world. We
have to build the walls of the Church for God, but we cannot build it
for there is so much rubbish in our way. This is true, first, of the
building of the Church, which is the Jerusalem of God. And this is
equally true of the temple of God, which is to be built in each one of
our hearts. Full often we feel discouraged. Though we hear the voice
that says, "But you, Beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy
faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God,"
still we are apt to feel that we cannot build this wall because there
is so much rubbish.

I. I shall speak first, then, of the great work comprised in THE
BUILDING UP OF THE CHURCH. Now, this enterprise is the work of God. He
alone can build the Church. "When the Lord shall build up Zion, He
shall appear in His Glory." And we may build as we may, but "except the
Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it." Still, our
full and firm conviction that it is God's working does not at all
interfere with the grand Truth of God that He employs agents for the
building up of His Church in the world! That, in fact, He has
commissioned us, His chosen servants, and sent us into the world, each
one according to our ability and opportunity, to labor for Him.

We work because God works by us. We are hindered, however, in this
service by the fact that there is much rubbish in the way. It was
always so. When Paul began to build for God, and the Apostles went
forth as wise master builders, there lay before them, in towering
heaps, the old Jewish rubbish–hard to remove, heavy to bear away–and
in quantity equal to a huge hill. The foundation was there. Thank God
we have not to lay that! That is laid in Christ Jesus, and firmly laid,
and "other foundation can no man lay." But the Jews, with their
traditions, had overlaid the foundations– they had added to the Word
of God. They had put glosses upon it. They had taken away its real
meaning and put to it a meaning of their own.

They had invented innumerable rites and ceremonies–and dark and
mysterious traditions of the fathers, so that though a man should seek
to find out the Truth of God–he could not by reason of the abundance
of the confused material and traditional superstition with which they
had covered it up. The Apostles had to begin their Gospel labor among
their fellow countrymen in the midst of this much rubbish. No sooner
did they begin to remove the worthless deposits than the lovers of
tradition assailed them, raised a great dust, and became their violent
persecutors. They followed them from city to city, scandalizing them
and committing all manner of violence against them. You cannot remove
ruins without awakening the owls and bats.

The most rotten rubbish upon earth is sure to find some defender. By
this rubbish many have gained their wealth and they are full of wrath
if any threaten to disturb it. The Apostles soon found that they had
fallen upon troublous times, yet by God's help, they cleared away that
rubbish and were enabled to build their wall till the New Jerusalem
became famous in the earth. They encountered, in the wider world of the
Roman empire, the rubbish of old paganism and oh, what rubbish that
was! He who is acquainted with the classic writers knows how polluted
were the people of their times. Their satirists ascribe vices to them
mirthfully which even with tears we would not dare to mention! The
superstitions of the age were groveling to a hideous degree–their very
gods were monsters of crime–and their sacred rites orgies of lust and
drunkenness.

The priests had successfully endeavored to make vice into a religion
and under the pretence of mysterious worship had devised means for
pandering to the most base passions of the most corrupt human nature.
It is no small mass of rubbish which the student of today sifts over as
he researches the Greek and Roman mythology. Men could not discover
God, for many gods and many lords stood in the way. Neither could they
believe in the simplicity of Jesus Christ because their foolish heart
was darkened. "God made man upright, but he has found out many
inventions." And all these inventions helped to turn him from his
uprightness and to pervert his judgment. Yet those who went before us
labored on amidst that foul and noisome rubbish–and were so successful
in their earnest excavations–that at this day no one thinks of
worshipping Jupiter, or Saturn, or Venus, or Mercury!

These demon-deities have gone to the limbo from where they came. They
have been smitten–smitten by the Gos-pel–and they have withered like
grass so that no man bows himself before them anymore. The God of Truth
has come– and these bats and owls of the night have thrown themselves
into obscurity and oblivion! This rubbish was cleared away and the
foundations were built upon by earnest men that went before us, though
they had to lay each stone in martyr blood and cement it with agonies
and tears.

Moreover, remember that in those early days the Church, in her
building, had to encounter mountains of "much rubbish" of the various
philosophies of mankind. There was a kind of "feeling after God" in the
heathen mind, but this feeling after God was misdirected and proudly
self-confident–and therefore it missed its way–and in the process of
thought the more spiritual-minded among men (if I may venture to call
men spiritual at all who were not renewed by Divine Grace) invented
theories and superstitions which they thought to be exceedingly wise,
but which, in fact, were folly, itself, dressed out in the robes of
vainglory!

These philosophies had a great following and exercised so powerful an
influence that they were felt even in the Church itself. In the
writings of the Apostles Paul and John you continually meet with
allusions to the great Gnostic philosophy which perverted so many
Christians. Ever since that day human wisdom has been a greater curse
to the Church than anything else! The ignorance of Christians has never
been so evil a thing, bad as it is, as the vain knowledge, the false
wisdom with which men have been puffed up in their fleshly minds. It is
an ill day when men know too much to know Christ! It is a great
misfortune when men are too manly to be converted and to become as
little children, and sit at the

feet of the great Teacher! Yet there are many professors of religion
who talk as if this was their condition and as if they were proud of
it.

Even at this present time the outside philosophies of unchristian men
infect the Church, spoil her, injure her, dilute the wine of the
kingdom, overturn the children's milk and, to a great extent, poison
the Bread of Life. Sad that it should be so, but the rubbish of
philosophy has always been in the way of the building up of the wall of
the Church of God. The story of the Apostolic age may serve as a great
comfort to us in these evil times. As they were hindered, so are we,
but as they persevered and overcame even so will we, by our great
Master's aid. After that lot of rubbish had been cleared away, the task
was only begun, for soon after Apostolic times and the first zeal of
Christians had gone, there came the old Roman rubbish, which in the end
proved a worse hindrance than all which had preceded it.

This Popish rubbish was found in layers–first one doctrinal error and
then another and then another, and then another, and then another–till
at this time the errors of the Church of Rome are as countless as the
stars, as black as midnight and as foul as Hell! Her abominations reek
in the nostrils of all good men. Her idolatries are the scorn of reason
and the abhorrence of faith! The iniquities of her practice and the
enormities of her doctrine almost surpass belief! Popery is as much the
masterpiece of Satan as the Gospel is the masterpiece of God! There can
scarcely be imagined anything of devilish craftiness or Satanic
wickedness which could be compared with her–she is unparalleled as the
queen of iniquity. Behold upon her forehead the name, MYSTERY, BABYLON
THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

The Church of Rome and her teachings are a vast mountain of rubbish
covering the Truth of God! For weary years good men could not get at
the Foundation because of this very much rubbish. Here and there a
Wycliffe spied out the precious Cornerstone and leaped for joy because
he could get his foot upon it, and say, "Jesus Christ Himself, elect
and precious, is the Stone on which I build my hope." Here and there a
John Huss, or a Jerome of Prague, or a Savonarola in the thick
midnight, yet, nevertheless, found the Foundation and wept their very
hearts out because of the much rubbish which threatened to bury even
them while they were seeking Him!

A master excavator was Martin Luther–how grandly he laid bare the
glorious foundation of Justification by faith alone! An equally grand
worker at this great enterprise was Master John Calvin who laid open
long stretches of the ancient foundations of the Covenant of Grace.
Well was he supported by his brother of Zurich, Zwingle, and John Knox
in Scotland, and others in this land. They cleared away, for a while,
some of the rubbish. But there was such a mass of it that they had to
throw it up in heaps on either side–and it is beginning to come
crumbling down again onto the foundation and to cover it up once more.

A perfect reformation they could not work, and the remnant of the
rubbish is now our plague and hindrance. Everywhere the much rubbish is
being diligently cast upon the pile by the emissaries of the Evil One,
and we can scarcely get to the foundations to build again the gold and
silver and precious stones which God commits to us with which to build
up His own house. Alas, there is very, very much rubbish! I saw in Rome
that the waggoner which took away the earth from the Forum were marked,
"Regia Scava." They belonged to the royal excavations and I long to see
royal excavators, employed by the King of Kings, get to work to
excavate, again, the foundations of the wall of Jerusalem and cart away
some of the tremendous heaps of rubbish that still lie upon the walls.
God grant we may see good and great work done in this direction before
long.

But, beloved Friends, if this rabbinical, pagan, philosophical and
Romish rubbish were all gone, still the work would scarcely have begun,
for there is yet very much rubbish of other kinds lying hereabout.
There is so much rubbish arising from the world, the flesh and the
devil, that we are not able to build the wall. Look at human sin. How
that impedes us! Oh, if there were no false systems of religion. If
priest and scribe were silent. If false prophets and Antichrist were
both out of the way, yet the sins of men are a vast and hideous mass of
rotten rubbish–and our labors of love are hindered by them. How hard
it is to get at human ears–for the world has the first word–and often
the last word, with the most of men. Eargate is choked with rubbish!

How harder, still, it is to get at human hearts–for there Satan reigns
as in his own palace–and takes care to erect huge barricades and
earthworks of the rubbish of carnal lust and pride and unbelief! Men
are wrapped up in indifference to eternal things, like mummies in their
bands and gums. They give all their energy to the answering of the
question, "What shall we eat and what shall we drink, and with what
shall we be clothed?" Immortal as they are, they live only for

mortality! Though their grandest destiny lies in eternity, yet all
their efforts are bounded by the narrow space of time. Charm, O you
charmer, ever so wisely, but this adder has no ear for you! This
people, bent on its lusts, will still follow its own devices.

Though Christ beckons with His pierced hand, yet they turn their back
on Him–and even He from Calvary cries–

"Is it nothing to you, all you that pass by, Is it nothing to you that
Jesus should die?" He is despised and rejected of men! They see no form
nor comeliness in Him whose countenance contains within itself all
celestial beauty. They cannot be got at by love or law, by tears or
terrors, by prayers or preaching! They are absorbed in earthly things.
We cannot build the wall for their much rubbish. They are wedded to
their sins. They cling to their idols. They will not even think about
their soul, or their God, or their Savior. They choose their own
delusions and reject their own mercies. It seems as if everything in
the world helped them to be this way–for the business of life, the
care and the ease, the quiet and the noise, the tumult and the turmoil,
alike, ensnare them–all these things are transformed by their
alienated hearts into a mass of rubbish!

With one man it is the pursuit, the arduous pursuit of learning. With
another an intense greed for gold. With a third, ambition. With a
fourth the lust of pleasure. But in each man the heap of rubbish
prevents our getting at the heart. We cannot build the wall. Who among
us has not often gone back to his God and said, "Who has believed our
report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" And this age of
competition seems to make things worse than ever. Some are so poor that
they tell us they cannot listen, for they have to work and toil like
slaves for their bread merely to keep body and soul together. And as
for those who are rich–O God, help the rich! Still it is true and
perhaps more true now, than ever, that, "it is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the
kingdom of God." The cares of this world and the deceitfulness of
riches are a mass of rubbish so that we cannot build the wall.

Oh, how sad is the retrospect of the pastor as he remembers the many in
whom he could never reach the conscience because of the intervening
rubbish! And how mournful is the prospect that lies before him! Our
only consolation is that if we cannot build, there is One who can–and
if the rubbish is so much that the strength of the bearers of burdens
is decaying, yet there is a Strength which is not decayed! There is an
arm which is not weary and can perform all that is needed! I am afraid,
dear Brothers and Sisters, that in the work of building up the Church
the rubbish does not lie all with the sinners, but there is much of it
also with the saints. There is very much rubbish among professors, so
that we cannot build the wall.

I would be very patient with all men for I need much patience toward
myself, but there are far too many, dear Brethren in Christ, who seem
to me to spend all their time in diligently doing nothing. I have heard
of a man who had, by dint of great patience and much skill, after many
days of work, very splendidly carved the image of Caesar on a cherry
stone. What a splendid result to have achieved! The exploit was duly
reported and chronicled. But what of it? Truly, I have read books which
seemed to me to be elaborately learned about nothing of any practical
value and to amount to about as much as a carving on a cherry stone,
and no more. What good was to come of it? I am sure I could not tell!

Brothers come out, every now and then, in the religious world, with
some new fad and fancy of theirs–some grand discovery that they have
made, some wonderful point of doctrine, some marvelous, soul-stirring
discovery, as it seems to be to them–and they expect all the world to
stand still. They expect all the Churches to be broken up, and I don't
know what, until they have exhibited this precious thing–which, when
you have carefully looked at it, turns out to be very much like the
mouse which was the famous product of the labor of the mountain! It
comes to nothing more. There is very much rubbish about, Brothers and
Sisters!

And, therefore, for the present distress, if every minister were to
keep to preaching Christ and Him Crucified, and nothing else, I think
he would do well. And if every Christian man were to just keep to the
plain Truths of Scripture and have them worked into his soul by the
Holy Spirit–and then speak them out with power and fire for
soul-winning, and care for nothing else, he would do well. But there is
very much rubbish. A whole evening will be spent by Brethren in
discussing a question about as valuable as the famous inquiry of the
schoolmen–as to how many angels would be able to stand on the point of
a single needle! After discussing it with some little temper, perhaps,
and having prayed over it a good deal, too–though I wonder how they
dared do so–the whole of it ends in a bag of wind or a bottle of smoke
and nothing else.

Had that same time been spent in the visitation of the sick and
reclaiming the Arabs of our streets, the lifting up of the ruffianism
and the blackguardism of London into something like decency, morality
and Christianity, it might have been much better. But there is very
much rubbish and I am very much afraid we, all of us, contribute to
that rubbish heap a little. We have all some favorite notion, some
conceit, some invention of our own, some addition to the Word, some
subtraction from it, some impossible theory, some dogma or doctrine of
our own inventing than of Bible teaching, and so there is very much
rubbish so that we cannot build the wall. Does not one feel inclined,
full often, to say, "Oh, how I wish I could get at it–really get at
it–get to doing something for God, and Christ, and the souls of men"?
Just let the dust cart come and clear the way. These very excellent
works upon futurity and profound books upon nothing–yet, let them go,
beautifully written as they are–and let us plunge into the middle of
affairs and say, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ."

Now, two or three things about this matter by way of comfort. And the
first comfort to us is, well, well, the Foundation is laid! The
Foundation is laid–and in addition to the Foundation there are goodly
rows of precious stones built up. The Lord has not yet laid all the 12
jeweled courses, but the instructed eye may see some of the lower bands
of precious stones. Looking back in history I can see a foundation of
martyrs built upon Christ, who with the Apostles and confessors make up
the lower foundations of jasper and sapphire and chalcedony. I can
already see the glitter of those rows of gems upon the wall. Read in
the book of Revelation and see how they are described. For the last
1800 years, stone upon stone, without sound of hammer, they have been
built and the walls are still rising!

Glory be to God, the Gospel is a success! Notwithstanding the sneer of
Sanballat and the cruel speech of Tobiah, the Ammonite, the wall is
being built and the Divine eye is upon it! It is God's great piece of
architecture and He regards it with delight. Concerning it, it may be
said, "I the Lord do keep it. I will keep it every moment, lest any
hurt it. I will keep it night and day." There is, for this building,
the Divine decree, "Thus says the Lord, Behold the man whose name is
THE BRANCH, He shall build the temple of the Lord, even He shall build
the temple of the Lord, and He shall bear the glory." That decree is
Omnipotent! It is being fulfilled and shall be fulfilled unto the end!

I see at this moment the master Mason upon the wall and I read
concerning Him, "He shall not fail or be discouraged," and I read yet
again of Him, "The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand." I
see with Him, moreover, a band of men whose hearts the Lord has
touched, and these labor day and night, and cease not–neither will
they cease till the walls of Jerusalem are finished. He is the great
master Builder, and we, each one of us, bearing both sword and trowel,
as we are taught by Him, must be wise builders under His direction. The
work is going on, for it is in hands that never weary and it is
directed by a mind that never faints!

By firm decrees, also, is it banded and built and cemented, so that it
cannot fail, or so much as a stone be cast down. And we have this to
encourage us–that God has never yet left a work unfinished! He began
the creation. 'Tis true it was not so difficult a task as this building
up of His Church, for in the creation, though there was nothing, there
was nothing in the way–and He spoke and all things came into
existence. Here in the building of the Church there are two works–
destruction and creation–the removal of the old and the erection of
the new. But, nevertheless, He who said, "Behold, I make all things
new," is quite equal to the task to which He has set Himself. And as He
did not leave the world half finished, did not make it a garden without
a man to live in it–no, did not leave the man unfinished, but made the
woman to be his helpmeet–so He will not leave the work of salvation to
which He has once put His hand, unfinished, but course upon course
shall the jewels be laid.

Emerald shall follow chalcedony. The sardius shall be piled upon the
sardonyx. The beryl upon the chrysolyte and the chrysoprasus upon the
topaz, till, at length, in the appointed age, the last garnishing of
jacinth and amethyst shall crown the wall! And then they shall bring
forth the top stone with shouts of, "Grace, Grace unto it." He did not
pause when He made the world because He needed fresh strength. He did
not wait and say that the undertaking was too much. But its story ran
on gloriously through all those wonderful six evenings and mornings
until the seventh day came and the Lord rested from all His work. The
six days are passing over us, now, with their evening gloom and morning
brightness! The Lord is making the new world and He is building up His
Church, slowly, as we think–but surely and in fit time and due order.

Wait in patience and possess your souls, for there shall yet come that
Millennial Sabbath in which, again, the sons of God shall shout for joy
and the angels shall sing because the Word of God is accomplished and
His work is done! Have

courage, my Brothers and Sisters! Bear your burden in removing the
rubbish! Use your sword and your trowel, for the work is the Lord's and
it shall be accomplished! If it were ours, woe were the day in which it
was laid upon such feeble shoulders! But since it is His we need not
indulge a solitary trembling thought, but arise and be of good cheer!

II. Now I change the subject to OURSELVES, awhile, and may God grant we
may speak to profit for a few minutes upon that branch of our topic.
There is a building going on in us. It is the Spirit's work to edify
us. That is to say, to build us up in Divine Grace, and that building
up is carried on by the Grace of love. "Knowledge puffs up, but love
builds up." We are, each one of us, called to be builders–builders in
God's strength, as I have said before–and let that not be forgotten.

But, Beloved, I am afraid most of us have to say, "There is much
rubbish, so that we are not able to build the wall." Do you not often
feel that you cannot be built up in heavenly Graces because of the
rubbish of your own corrupt nature? Oh, What a fall the Fall was! What
a total ruin did it make of our moral nature! Brothers and Sisters, do
you not dis-cover–I do, almost every day–some fresh heap of rubbish
which you hardly knew was there? Points in which we thought ourselves
strong turn out to be our weaknesses! There was an infirmity from which
we half indulged the thought that we were clear and therefore we were
rather severe upon others for having such an infirmity and sin. But at
last it broke out in ourselves! It always had been in us, but it had
not had the occasion and opportunity. At length the provocation came
and the hidden evil was revealed.

Ah, Brethren, much more of such rubbish remains in us! Oh, the rubbish
of pride, of unbelief, of evil lusting, of anger, of despondency, of
self-exaltation! Brothers and Sisters, it is not worth while to stir
it, it is such a foul heap! I have no desire to turn a cinder sifter to
it, for there is never a jewel in it that will pay for the sifting! But
there it is and the building of Divine Grace does not advance as we
would wish because of the corruption which still abides in us,
notwithstanding all that some may say.

Then there is oftentimes in Christian people the old rubbish of legal
thought, of legal actions, and legal fear. In our old estate we were
going to be saved by our own merits. That was our notion. Since our
conversion, we doctrinally abhor the idea of any thought of human
merit, but experimentally we indulge in it. The legal spirit will come
in–like an ill weed it springs up spontaneously in the garden from
which Grace uprooted it. Though we are not children of the bondwoman,
but of the free, yet the flesh often tries to put the old yoke of
bondage upon us, so that if Paul were here he would say to us, "Having
begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh?"

Ishmael tries to domineer over Isaac, Though driven out of the house,
he shows his tyrant face at the window. We get the bond slave's dread,
yes, and sometimes entertain the bond slave's hope and think that we
are to work for wages instead of understanding that the gift of God is
Eternal Life, while the only wages we could earn would be the wages of
sin, which is death. Oh, the old legal tendency! How deep-seated! How
prone to revive! It will scarcely be conceived that sinners should, at
the same time, be self-righteous and guilty–but yet it is so, that,
abounding as we do in the tendency to sin–we equally abound in the
tendency to fancy that in us, that is, in our flesh, there dwells some
good thing. Therefore arises another heap of rubbish!

And then old habits–what rubbish they are! You who have been, before
your conversion, guilty of gross sin, do you not often find the
remembrance of those old times coming over you like a hideous dream? I
know some, who, when a hymn is given out, cannot help remembering an
old song which they used to sing, which is suggested to them by,
perhaps, the holiest word in the Psalm. Yes, and a text of Scripture
has sometimes conjured up before their memory a sin which they wished
with all their hearts had never occurred, and which they would give
their eyes to forget! Yes, the old habits win struggle for mastery and
if we do not fall into them, as I pray God we never may, yet will they
vex and trouble us! And here, also, the much rubbish prevents the
building up of the wall of the Divine life.

So is it with worldly associations. Do you not find that even the
common associations of business into which you are obliged to enter do
very much heap rubbish upon the wall of your spirit? You have to meet
with ungodly men. You cannot commend their tongues–you may rebuke
their language when it becomes profane, but there is very much of talk
which is not profane and which we could not very well rebuke–but
which, nevertheless, is not sweet with godliness, or savory with Grace,
and it damages us. We wish, sometimes, that we were altogether away
from worldly men. We cry, "Woe is me that I dwell in Hesech, and
tabernacle in the tents of Hedar!" And so, again, as the result of our
being in the world, there is very much rubbish.

And I will tell you another kind of rubbish that I think some Brothers
and Sisters have quite enough of, if not too much. That is the idea
that they have come to be somebody, after all. Many acquire that notion
if they are getting on in the world. If God prospers them, they say,
"Ah, now I really am a great one and worthy of much honor. I am not now
like my poorer Brethren." It is sad to see what fine airs certain
prosperous professors give themselves. They forget the rock from which
they were hewn. They lift up their horn on high, as if they were more
than mortal! That is rubbish, indeed.

And there are some others who have had choice seasons of fellowship
with Christ and they have been, for a while, free from temptation.
There has been some great breaking up of the great deep of corruption
within them and, therefore, they say, "Ah, now I am getting on! I
think, somehow, I am getting up to the higher life. I should not wonder
that I should be perfect one of these days." Rubbish, Brothers and
Sisters! It is all rubbish! Every bit of it–it is not worthy harboring
for an instant! It may be very glittering rubbish–it looks amazingly
like gold–but, "all is not gold that glitters." Any notion of our own
attainments which could lead us, for a moment, to speak of what we are
with any degree of complacency is only rubbish! For my own part, I
desire constantly to stand at the foot of the Cross, with no other
testimony concerning myself than this–

"I the chief of sinners am, But Jesus died for me."

Personal holiness is to be sought for with all our hearts, and it can
only be obtained by faith in Jesus Christ–by simple faith in Him.

He gives us power to overcome sin through His precious blood, but,
depend upon it, the moment we conclude that we have overcome and can
say what Paul could not say–that he had attained and was already
perfect–we are in an evil case! Our pride has overpowered our judgment
and we are fools! If anyone here is in a condition in which he is able
to open his mouth wide in his own praise, I would advise him to fetch a
big dust cart, or rather all the dust carts in the parish and take that
boasting, every shovel full of it, away! It is of no use to him and it
will very soon make such dust as to fly in the eyes and ears of his
Christian Brothers and Sisters. We cannot build the wall while there is
so much of this proud rubbish!

"In me, that is in my flesh, there dwells no good thing." Low down at
the foot of the Cross, in the dust, is still our place–for we are, in
ourselves, less than nothing–emptiness, vanity, death! That is our
place. Christ is made of God unto you, "wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification and redemption." In Him is all your glorying–and in
Him, alone– for if not so, the rubbish will cover up the foundation.
Now, I will suppose that some of you are mourning tonight– some of
God's people–because of all this rubbish. I want to say this to you.
First, dear Brothers and Sisters, thank God that you have the
Foundation surely laid. Are you sure of that? I pray you rest not till
you are certain of it–

"I know that safe with Him remains,

Protected by His power,

What I've committed to His hands

Till the decisive hour."

"I know whom I have believed." None but Jesus, none but Jesus! There
rests our souls' only hope–upon His precious blood and
righteousness–every other hope we heartily abhor. Well, the Foundation
is laid. Blessed be God for that! When a man is brought to rest alone
in Jesus, then there is laid for him in Zion a sure foundation stone,
and to that he is cemented by Sovereign Grace.

Now, let us thank God, again, that the building up of His temple in us
is His own work. He began it. He dug out and made clear to us our own
emptiness. He cast out our self-righteousness and He laid Christ where
our self had once been. The Lord did that and He has done everything
else which has been done in us that has been worth the doing. I cannot,
I am sure no Brother or Sister here can, look upon any step he has ever
taken as a real advance in Divine life which was taken in any strength
but in the strength of God. Whatever we have done of ourselves had been
much better undone, for all that Nature spins will have to be unraveled
sooner or later. "Salvation is of the Lord." Jonah learned that in the
whale's belly. It was worthwhile getting into the whale's belly to
learn. We need to know it through and through. Salvation is of the
Lord, alone, and unto Him must be all the praise.

And there is our comfort! It is His work to save us–we are not our own
saviors–Christ is the Savior. It is the Spirit's work to make us meet
to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. It is the
Bridegroom, not the bride,

that is to make the bride fit for her Husband. So says the Scripture.
"Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it, that He might
sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that He
might present it to Himself, a glorious Church, not having spot, or
wrinkle, or any such thing." It is He that presents the bride to
Himself and He that makes her fit to be presented. Blessed be God, the
work is in sure and competent hands!

And therefore, finally, let us, by Divine Grace, work on in faith, with
diligence. In faith, I say, believing our work of faith and labor of
love are not in vain in the Lord–believing that prayer is not a vain
exercise, that drawing near to God in communion is not a vain thing,
that trusting in the Lord is no idle dream–but that surely He will
complete what He has begun. But let us add to faith the most earnest
endeavors–let us diligently strive to throw away this rubbish!
Whatever bad habit obstructs our edification, God help us to conquer
it! Whatever sin there is about us, may the blood of Jesus enable us to
subdue it!

Let us press forward, dear Brothers and Sisters, never content, never
satisfied till we wake up in His likeness! And, as we have not all His
likeness–not satisfied with ourselves, let us press forward, looking
to that which is before us–and forgetting that which is behind. Faith
and diligence, by God's good Grace, shall allow us to be built up on
our most holy faith–not with wood and hay and stubble–but with gold
and silver and precious stones which will abide the fire! Make sure you
are built on the Foundation! That is the last and yet the first
question–Are you on the Foundation? Some build very rapidly, but they
are not on the Foundation. Yes, you have a fine character and you make
a noble profession, but is the palatial structure based on the Rock, or
on the sand?

Our little children at the seaside will build very fine castles with
their wooden spades. But the next tide sweeps all away because it is
sand built on sand. I am afraid the religion of multitudes is just like
that–sand built on sand. Is that your religion, dear Hearer? Does it
consist of Church attendance, or going to Chapel and Prayer Meetings,
and receiving sacraments, and all that? Well, then, it is sand built on
sand! But if you are a poor and needy sinner and you have rested your
soul on Jesus, and then, renewed in heart by His Spirit, have been
zealous for good works–then is it no longer sand built on sand–but
the work of the Spirit of God upon the one Foundation which God laid
from all eternity, in the Person and the work of His only-begotten Son!

The Lord bless you, every one of you, for Jesus' sake. Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Nehemiah 4. HYMNS FROM "OUR
OWN HYMN BOOK"–623, 641, 665.

MESSAGE:

This sermon I have revised at Mentone after an attack of severe pain
from which I am recovering, by God's good hand. I beg, in my great
feebleness, to ask the prayers of my friends that I may return to my
beloved sphere of labor free from the disease which is my constant
cross, and that every personal trial may work in me for the good of
others by rendering my ministry more deeply experimental. From this
delicious retreat I desire Christian love to all the people of God, of
whom I am both the servant and friend."

C. H. SPURGEON.
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