In Him: Like Him A Sermon

In Him: Like Him

A Sermon

(No. 1732)

Delivered on Thursday Evening, May 17th, 1883, by

C. H. SPURGEON,

At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

"He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as
he walked."–1 John 2:6.

He that saith he abideth in him: "–that is exactly what every
Christian does say. He cannot be a Christian unless this be true of
him, and be cannot fully enjoy his religion unless he assuredly knows
that he is in Christ, and can boldly say as much. We must be in Christ,
and abidingly in Christ, or else We are not saved in the Lord. It is
our union with the Christ that makes us Christians: by union with him
as our life we truly live,–live in the favour of God.–We are in
Christ, dear brethren, as the manslayer was in the city of refuge: I
hope that we can say we abide in him as our sanctuary and shelter. We
have fled for refuge to him who is the hope set before us in the
gospel; even as David and his men sheltered themselves in the eaves of
En-gedi, so we hide ourselves in Christ. We each one sing, and our
heart goes with the words–

"Rock of ages, cleft for me,

Let me hide myself in thee."

We have entered into Christ as into the shadow of a great rock in a
weary land, as guest; into a banquet-hall, as returning travellers into
their home. And now we abide–in Christ in this sense, that we are
joined to him : as the stone is, in the wall, as the wave is in the
sea, as the branch is in the vine, so are we in Christ. As the branch
receives all its sap from the stem, so all the sap of spiritual life
flows from Christ into us. If we were separated from him, we should be
as branches cut off from the vine, only fit to be gathered up for the
fire, and to be burned. So that we abide in Christ as our shelter, our
home, and our life. Today we remain in Christ, and hope for ever to
remain in him, as our Head. Ours is no transient union; while he lives
as our Head we shall remain his members. We are nothing apart from him.
As a finger is nothing without the head, as the whole body is nothing
without the head, so should we be nothing without our Lord Jesus
Christ. But we are in him vitally, and therefore we dare ask the
question, "Who shall separate us from the love of God which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord?"

Beloved, since we, then, are the people who say that we abide in him,
it is upon us that the obligation of the text falls: we ought ourselves
also so to walk even as he walked. A Bible ought has great weight with
a conscientious man. Ought it to be so? Then it shall be so, God
helping me. If we say we must do. If we talk, we must walk, or it will,
be mere talk. If we make the profession of abiding in Christ, we must
prove it by our practice of walking with Christ. If we say that we are
in Christ and abide in him, we must take care that our life and
character are conformed to Christ, or else we shall be making an empty
boast. This is true of every man who says he is in Christ, for the text
is put in the most general and absolute manner: be the man old or
young, rich or poor, learned or simple, pastor or hearer, it is
incumbent upon him to live like Christ if he professes to live in
Christ.

The first thing about a Christian is initiation, initiation into
Christ: the next thing is imitation, the imitation of Christ. We cannot
be Christians unless we are in Christ; and we are not truly in Christ
unless in him we live and move and have our being, and the life of
Christ is lived over again by us according to our measure. "Be ye
imitators of God, as dear children." It is the nature of children to
imitate their parents. Be ye imitators; of Christ as good soldiers, who
cannot have a better model for their soldierly life than their Captain
and Lord. Ought we not to be very grateful to Christ that he deigns to
be our example? If he were not perfectly able to meet all our other
wants, if he were an expiation and nothing else, we should glory in him
as our atoning sacrifice, for we always put that to the front, and
magnify the virtue of his precious blood beyond everything: but at the
same time we need an example, and it is delightful to find it where we
find our pardon and justification. They that are saved from the death
of sin need to be guided in the life of holiness, and it is infinitely
condescending on the part of Christ that he becomes an example to such
poor creatures as we are. It is said to have been the distinguishing
mark of Caesar as a soldier that he never said to his followers "Go!"
but he always said "Come!" Of Alexander, also, it was noted that in
weary marches he was sure to be on foot with his warriors, and in
fierce attack's he always was in the van. The most persuasive sermon is
the example which leads the way. This certainly is one trait in the
Good Shepherd's character, "when he putteth forth his own sheep he
goeth before them." If Jesus bids us do anything, he first does it
himself. He would have us wash one another's feet; and this is the
argument–"Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say well; for so I am. If
I, then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to
wash one another's feet." Shall we not do as he does whom we profess to
follow? He has left his footprints that we may set our feet in
them.Will we not joyfully fix our feet upon this royal road?

That is our theme at this time. We do many of us say that we are in
Christ: let us hear how obliged we are by this to walk even as he
walked. Oh, Holy Spirit, let us feel the weight of the sacred
obligation!

But I stop a minute. I know that there are some here who cannot say
that they are in Christ. Then, if you are not in Christ, you are out of
Christ; and out of Christ your position is dangerous, terrible,
ruinous. If we saw a man hanging over a deep pit, if we saw a man
exposed to a sea of fire, and likely to perish in it, all our tenderest
emotions would begin to flow, and we should pray in an agony of spirit,
"Oh, God, save this man from danger!" My brethren, there are some among
us tonight who are in the utmost danger; in a most emphatic sense they
are lost already, for they are without God, and without Christ,
strangers to the commonwealth of Israel. Oh, my hearers, how shall I
speak of you without tears? Poor souls, abiding under the wrath of God!
Poor souls! The mercy is that you are not past hope. There is an arm
that can reach you: there is a voice that calls you–calls you even
now; hear it: "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the
earth; for I am God, and besides me there is none else." Can you not
even now give one look to him who died for you? Will you not turn the
eye of faith that way, and trust him who was nailed to the tree on your
behalf? God grant that you may, and then I may include you also in the
blessed instruction of the text. "He that saith he abideth in him,
ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked."

I. I shall first of all ask you to CONSIDER HOW THIS OBLIGATION IS
PROVED. Let us spend a few minutes over the question, Why ought we to
walk as Jesus did?

When we read the word "ought," if we are honest men, we begin to look
about us and to make enquiries as to the reason and the measure of this
obligation. An "ought" is a compulsion to a true heart. There is a
"needs be" to every godly man that he should do what he ought.

What, then, is the ground upon which this "ought" is fixed?

First, it is the design of God that those who are in Christ should walk
as Christ walked. It is a part of the original covenant purpose; for
"whom he did foreknow be also did predestinate to be conformed to the
image of his Son." That is the drift of the plan of grace, the aim of
the covenant. Grace looks towards holiness, that there should be a
people called forth to whom Christ should be the elder brother, the
firstborn among many brethren. You certainly have not had the purpose
of God fulfilled in you, dear friend, unless you have been conformed to
the image of his dear Son. "He hath chosen us in Christ Jesus before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame
before him in love." This is the aim of election; this is the object of
redemption; this is the fruit of calling; this is the concomitant of
justification; this is the evidence of adoption; this is the earnest of
glory; that we should be holy, even as Christ is holy, and in this
respect should wear the lineaments of the Son of God. He hath given his
own Son to die for us, that we may die to sin; he has given him to live
that we may live like him. In every one of us the Father desires to see
Christ, that so Christ may be glorified in every one of us. Do you not
feel this to be an imperative necessity to be laid upon you? Would you
have the Lord miss his purpose? You are chosen of God to this end, that
you should be "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a peculiar people, zealous of good works," and what is this but that
you should walk even as he walked? Observe,

again, another point of this necessity: it is necessary to the mystical
Christ that we should walk as he walked, for we are joined unto the
Lord Jesus in one body. Now, Christ cannot be made a monster that would
be a blasphemous notion. And yet if any man had eyes, ears, hands, or
other members that were not conformable to the head, he would be a
strange being. The mouth of a lion, the eye of an ox, the feathers of a
bird–these things would have no consistency with the head of a man. We
read of the image in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, that it had a head of fine
gold, but legs of iron, and feet part of iron and part of clay. Surely,
Christ's spiritual body is not compounded of such discordant elements.
No, no. He must be all of a piece. The mystical body must be the most
beautiful and precious production of God; for the church is Christ's
body, "the fulness of him that filleth all in all." And shall that
mysterious fulness be something defiled, deformed, full of sin, subject
to Satan? God forbid! "As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye
holy," and as your HEAD is holy, so be ye, as members of his body, holy
too. Ought it not to be so? Does anybody raise a question? Does not
every member of Christ, by the very fact that he is joined to him by
living union, feel at once that he must walk even as Christ walked?

And this, beloved, again, must all be the fruit of the one Spirit that
is in Christ and in us. The Father anointed Christ of old with the same
anointing, which rests on us in our measure. The Holy Spirit descended
upon him, and rested upon him, and we have an unction from the same
Holy One. The Spirit of God has anointed all the chosen of God who are
regenerated, and he dwelleth with them and in them. Now, the Spirit of
God in every case works to the same result. It cannot be supposed that
the Spirit of God in any case produces unholiness: the thought were
blasphemy. The fruit of the Spirit is everything that is delightful,
right, and good towards God, and generous towards man. The Spirit of
God, wherever He works, works according to the mind of God; and God is
hymned as "Holy, holy, holy," by those pure spirits who know him best.
He is altogether without spot or trace of sin, and so shall we be when
the Spirit's work is done. If, then, the Spirit of God dwell in you
(and if it do not, you are not in Christ), it must work in you
conformity to Christ that you should walk even as he walked.

Perhaps further argument is not needed; but I would have true
Christians remember that this is one article of the agreement which we
make with Christ when we become his disciples. It is taken for granted
that when we enter the service of Jesus we by that act and deed
undertake by his help to follow his example. "Whosoever doth not bear
his cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple." "Take my yoke upon
you, and learn of me, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." You
know, if any man love Christ, he must follow him:–"If ye love me, keep
my commandments." When we took Christ's cross to be our salvation we
took it also to be our heavenly burden. When we yielded ourselves up to
Christ to be saved by him, we in spirit renounced every sin. We felt
that we had come out from under the yoke of Satan, and that we made no
reserve for the lusts of the flesh that we might obey them, but bowed
our necks to the yoke of the Lord Jesus. We put ourselves into Christ's
hands unreservedly, and we said, "Lord, sanctify me, and then use me.
Take my body and all its members; take my mind and all its faculties;
take my spirit and all the new powers which thou hast bestowed upon me
with it; and let all these be thine. Reign in me; rule me absolutely,
sovereignly, always and alone. I do not ask to be my own, for I am not
my own, I am bought with a price." After we have learned the grand
truth that, "if one died for all, then all died," we infer that "Christ
died for all, that we that live might not henceforth live unto
ourselves, but unto him that died for us, and rose again." Are we not,
then, to be true to this blessed compact? "I do remember my faults this
day," says one. Ay, but remember also the vows that still engage you.
Do not desire to escape from the sacred bond. This day remember the
Lord to whom you dedicated yourself in the days of your youth, perhaps
long, years ago, and again entreat him to take full possession of the
purchased possession, and hold it against all comers, for ever. So it
ought to be. He that says, "I am in him" ought also so to walk even as
he walked. Obey the sacrifice of Jesus, yield yourselves as living
sacrifices; by your hope of being saved by him put your whole being
into his hands to love and serve him all your days.

For, once more, inasmuch as we are in Christ, we are now bound to live
to Christ's glory, and this is a great means of glorifying Christ. What
can we do to glorify Christ if we do not walk even as he walked? If I
came and preached to you, and if I had the tongues of men and of
angels, yet if I did not seek to do as my Master did, what avails all
that I can say? It is but "sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal." You
know what men say to unholy preachers: they bid them be silent or be
consistent. Unholy ministers are a derision, and a scoff, and a
by-word. And so it is with unholy Christians, too. You may teach your
children at home, or teach them in the Sunday-school class; but if they
see your lives to be Christless, prayerless, godless, they will not
learn any good from you. They will rather learn from what you do amiss,
than from what you say that is right. Do you blame them that it is so?
Are not actions far more forcible than words? Suppose you
church-members are unjust in your trade; suppose that in your common
conversation you are loose; suppose that in your acts you are
licentious or untrue; what does the world say of your Christianity?
Why, it becomes to them a thing of contempt. They sniff at it. It is so
much dung and sweepings of the street to them, and so it ought to be.
In the early ages some of the worst opponents of Christianity used to
wing their shafts with the inconsistencies of Christian professors, and
they were wise in their generation. One of them said, "Where is that
catholic holiness of which we have often heard so much?" and another
said, "We heard of these people that they love their Christ, and love
other men so that they would even die for love of their brethren; but
many of them do not love as well as the heathen whom they despise." I
dare say there was a good deal of slander and scandal in what they
said; but I am also afraid that, if it were said today, there would be
a vast deal of sorrowful truth in it. Christian love is by no means so
plentiful as it might be, nor holy living, either. Is not this the
thing that weakens the preaching, of the gospel–the want of living the
gospel? If all the professed Christians who live in London really
walked as Christ walked, would not the salt have more effect upon the
corrupt mass than the stuff which is now called salt seems to have? We
preach here in the pulpit; but what can we do, unless you preach yonder
at home? It is you preaching in your shops, in your kitchens, in your
nurseries, in your parlours, in the streets, which will tell on the
masses. This is the preaching–the best preaching in the world, for it
is seen as well as heard. I heard one say he liked to see men preach
with their feet; and this is it, " they ought also so to walk even as
Christ walked." No testimony excels that which is borne in ordinary
life. Christ ought to be glorified by us, and therefore we ought to be
like him, for if we are not, we cannot glorify him, but must dishonor
him.

Now, that is my first point. Consider how this obligation is proved,
and when you have weighed the argument pray the Holy Ghost to make you
yield to its gentle pressure.

II. Now, secondly, CONSIDER WHEREIN THIS WALKING WITH CHRIST AS HE
WALKED CONSISTS. Here is a wide subject. I have a sea before me with as
much sailing, room as Noah in the ark. I can only just point out the
direction in which you should sail if you would make a prosperous
voyage.

First, brothers to put it all together in one word, the first thing
that every Christian has to see to is holiness. I will not try at any
great length to explain what that word means, but it always sounds to
me as if it explained itself. You know what wholeness is–a thing,
without a crack, or flaw, or break; complete, entire, uninjured, whole.
Well, that is the main meaning of holy. The character of God is
perfectly holy; in it nothing is lacking; nothing is redundant. When a
thing, is complete it is whole, and this applied to moral and spiritual
things gives you the inner meaning of "holy." When a man is healthy,
perfectly healthy, in spirit, soul, and body, then he is perfectly
holy; for sin is a moral disorder, and righteousness is the right state
of every faculty. The man whose spiritual health is altogether right is
right towards God, right towards himself, right towards men, right
towards time, right towards eternity. He is right towards the first
table of the law, and right towards the second table. He is an
all-round man; he is a whole man, a holy man. Truth is within him;
truth is spoken by him; truth is acted by him. Righteousness is in him;
he thinks the right thing, and chooses that which is according to the
law of uprightness. There is justice in him; he abhors that which is
evil. There is goodness in him; he follows after that which will
benefit his fellow-men. I cannot spare time to tell you all that the
word "holy" means; but if you wish to see holiness, look at Christ. In
him you see a perfect character, an all-round character. He is the
perfect one; be ye like him in all holiness.

We must go a little into detail; so I say, next, one main point in
which we ought to walk according to the walk of our great Exemplar is
obedience. Our Lord Jesus Christ took upon himself the form of a
servant; and what service it was that he rendered! "He was a son; yet
learned he obedience by the things that he suffered." And what
obedience that dear Son of God rendered to the Father! He did not come
to do his own will, but the will of him that sent him. He yielded
himself up to come under law to God, and to do the Fathers will. Now in
this respect we ought also to walk even as he walked. We have not come
into the world to do what we like, to possess what we choose, or to
say, "That is my notion, and therefore so shall it be." Sin promised
freedom, and brought us bondage; grace now binds us, and ensures us
liberty. Obedience is the law of every spiritual nature. It is the
Lord's will that in his house his word should be the supreme law, for
so only can our fallen natures be restored to their original glory. Set
the wandering stars in their spheres, and rule them by the majestic
sway of the sun, and then they will keep their happy estate, but not
else. Understanding, heart, life, lip, everything, is now to enter into
the service of God, even the Father, and it is to be ours to say,
"Lord, show me what thou wouldest have me to do." Surely, beyond any
other quality, we see in the career of the Son of God the perfection of
self-abnegation. No man was ever so truly free as Jesus, and yet no man
was so fully subservient to the heavenly will. Never saw these seas a
pilot so able to steer according to his own judgment, and never one so
carefully to follow the channel as marked down in the chart. His was
the unique originality of absolute obedience. Dear friends, you see how
it ought to be with you also. It is ours to walk in cheerful
subservience to the mind of the Father, even as Jesus did. Does this
strike you as an easy thing? It is child's work, certainly; but
assuredly it is not child's play.

Such a life would necessarily be one of great activity, for the life of
Jesus was intensely energetic. The life of Christ was as fall as it
could hold. After he had been developed and disciplined by thirty years
of seclusion, he showed himself among men as one moved to vehemence
with love: "he was clad with zeal as with a cloak." From the day of his
baptism till his death he went about doing good. It is wonderful what
was packed into about three years: each action had a world of meaning
within its own self, and there were thousands of such acts; each sermon
was a complete revelation, and every day heard him pour forth such
sermons. His biography is made up of the essence of life. Some one
remarks that it is wonderful that he did not begin his active life when
he was younger. We reply, that it is beautiful that he did not, because
he was not called to it, and he was best obeying the Father by living
in obscurity. Those thirty years at Nazareth were thirty wonderful
years of obedience–obedience; tested by obscurity, patience,
restraint, and perhaps dulness. Who among us would find such obedience
easy? Would we not far rather rush into notice and make to ourselves a
name? Some of us, perhaps, never learned the obedience of being
quiet–but it is a wonderful one. Oh, for more of it! Do we know the
obedience of being hidden when our light seems needed?–the obedience
of going into the desert for forty years, like Moses, with nothing, to
do but wait upon God till God shall put us in commission? There is a
wonderful service in waiting till the order comes for us actively to be
at it. Samuel said, "To obey is better than sacrifice;" it is in fact
better than anything which we can possibly present to God. But when our
Lord was at length loosed from his obscurity, with what force he sped
along his life-way. How he spent himself! It was a candle burning not
only at both ends, but altogether. He not only had zeal burning at his
heart, but, like a sheet of flame, it covered him from head to foot
There is never an idle hour in the life of Christ. It is wonderful how
he sustained the toil. Perhaps he measured out his zeal and his open
industry by the fact that he was only to be for a short time here
below. It might not be possible to others that they should do as much
as he did in so short a space, because they are intended to live longer
here, and must not destroy future usefulness by present indiscretion:
but still, activity was the rule of our Master's existence. At it,
always at it, altogether at it, spending and being spent for his
Father; such was his mode of walking, among, men. Oh, friends, if we,
indeed, are in him, we ought also so to walk even. as he walked! Wake
up, you lazy ones!

Next, we ought to walk as Christ did in the matter of self-denial. Of
course, in this work of self-denial we are not called to imitate Christ
in offering up ourselves as a propitiatory sacrifice. That would be a
vain intrusion into things which are his peculiar domain. The
self-denials which we practise should be such as he prescribes us.
There is a will-worship which is practised in the Church of Rome of
self-denials which are absurd, and must, I think, be hateful in the
sight of God rather than pleasing to him. Saint Bernard was a man whom
I admire to the last degree, and I count him to be one of the Lord's
choice ones; yet in the early part of his life there is no doubt that
he lessened his powers of usefulness to a large extent by the
emaciation which he endured, and the way in which he brought himself to
death's door. At times he was incapable of activity by reason of the
weakness which he had incurred through fasting, and colds and exposure,
There is no need to inflict useless torture upon the body. When did the
Saviour thus behave himself? Point me to a single mortification of a
needless kind. Enough self-denials come naturally in every Christian
man's way to make him try whether he can deny himself in very deed for
the Lord's sake. You are thus tested when you are put in positions
where you might get gain by an unrighteous act, or win fame by
withholding a truth, or earn love and honour by pandering to the
passions of those about you. May you have grace enough to say, "No; it
cannot be. I love not myself, but my Lord. I seek not myself, but
Christ. I desire to propagate nothing but his truth, and not my own
ideas": then will you have exhibited the self-denial of Jesus. These
self-denials will sometimes be hard to flesh and blood. And then in the
Church of God to be able to give all your substance, to devote all your
time, to lay out all your ability–this is to walk as Jesus walked.
When weary and worn, still to be busy; to deny, yourself things which
may be allowable, but which if allowable to you would be dangerous to
others–this also is like the Lord. Such self-denial as may be helpful
to the weak you ought to practise. Think what Christ would do in such a
case, and do it; and, whenever you can glorify him by denying yourself,
do it. So walk as he did who made himself of no reputation, but took
upon himself the form of a servant. and who, though he was rich,
brought himself down to poverty for our sakes, that we might be rich
unto God. Think of that.

Another point in which we ought to imitate Christ most certainly is
that of lowliness. I wish that all Christians did this. When I see some
Christian women dressed out–well, like women of the world, though not
with half a worldling's taste, and when I see men so big that they
cannot speak to poor people, as if they were made of something better
than ordinary flesh and blood; when I notice a haughty, high, hectoring
disposition anywhere, it grates upon my feelings, and makes me wonder
whether these blunderers hope to go to the heaven of the lowly. The
Lord Jesus would never have been half as big as some of his followers
are. What great folk some of his disciples are, as compared with him!
He was lowly, meek, gentle, a man who so loved the souls of others that
he forgot himself. You never detect in the Lord Jesus Christ any
tendency towards pride or self-exaltation. Quite the reverse: he is
ever compassionate and condescending to men of low estate.

And then note again another point, and that is his great tenderness,
and gentleness, and readiness to forgive. His dying words ought to ring
in the ear of all who find it hard to pass by affronts, "Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do." Did he not set us an
example of bearing and forbearing? "Who, when he was reviled, reviled
not again." For every curse he gave a blessing,,. You cannot be
Christians if this spirit of love is foreign to you. "Oh," say you, "we
endorse the confession." I do not care. You must love your enemies, or
you will die with the Creed in your throats. "Oh," say you, "we are
regular in our pews, hearing the gospel." I do not care; you must
forgive them that trespass against you, or you will go from your pews
to perdition "Oh, but we have been baptized, and we come to the
communion." I do not care even about that; for unless you are made meek
and lowly in heart you will not find rest unto your souls. Pride goeth
not before salvation, but before destruction; and a haughty spirit is
no prophecy of elevation, but the herald of a fall. Take care, take
care, you that say that you are in Christ; you ought also to walk in
all the lowliness and in all the tenderness of Christ, or else at the
end you will be discovered to be none of his. Hard, cruel, unrelenting,
iron-hearted professors will no more go to heaven than the hogs they
fatten.

There is one little big word which tells us more than all this about
how Christ walked, and that is the word "love." Jesus was incarnate
love. "God is love," but God is a spirit, therefore if you wish to see
love embodied, look at Christ. He loves the little children, and
suffers them to come to him. He loves the widow, and he is tender to
her, and raises her dead son. He loves the sinners, and they draw near
to him. He loves all sinful and tempted and tried ones, and therefore
he comes to seek and to save. He loves the Father first, and then for
the Father's sake he loves the myriads of men. Do you love nobody? Do
you live within yourself? Are you immured within your own ribs? Is self
all your world? Then you will go to hell. There is no help for it; for
the place of unloving spirits is the bottomless pit. Only he that loves
can live in heaven, for heaven is love: and you cannot go to glory
unless you have learned to love, and to find it your very life to do
good to those about you.

Let me add to all this, that he who says that Christ is in him ought
also to live as Christ lived in secret. And how was this?

His life was spent in abounding devotion. Ah, me! I fear I shall
condemn some here when I remind them of the hymn we just now sang–

"Cold mountains and the midnight air

Witnessed the fervour of his prayer."

If the perfect Christ could not live without prayer, how can such poor
imperfect ones as we are live without it? He had no sin within him, and
yet he had need to pray. He was pure and holy, and yet he must needs
wait upon God all day long, and often speak with his Father; and then
when the night came, and others went to their beds, he withdrew himself
into the wilderness and prayed. If the Lord Jesus be in you, you must
walk as he walked in that matter.

And, then, think of his delight in God. How wonderful was Christ's
delight in his God! I can never think of his life as an unhappy one. He
was, it is true, "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief"; but
still there was a deep spring of wondrous happiness in the midst of his
heart, which made him always blessed; for he said to his Father, "I
delight to do thy will, my God! Yea, thy law is within heart." He
delighted in God. Many a sweet night he spent in those prayer-times of
his in fellowship with the Father. Why, it was that which prepared him
for the agony of his bloody sweat, and for the "Why hast thou forsaken
me?" Those love-visits, those near and dear communings which his holy
heart had with the Father were his secret meat and drink. And you and I
also must delight in God. This charming duty is far too much neglected.
Strange that this honey should so seldom be in men's mouths! Listen to
this text, "Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee
the desires of thine heart." Many a man says, "I should like to have
the desires of my heart" Brother, here is the royal road thereto, the
King's ascent to his treasury–"Delight thyself also in the Lord." But,
listen. it is very likely you would not obtain the desire that is now
in your heart if you did that; for he that delights himself in God
rises above the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and comes to
desire that which God desires, and therefore it is that he wins the
desire of his heart. But, oh, the pleasure, the joy, the bliss of
delighting in God! How many times have I sung to myself that last dear
stanza of the psalm, wherein the inspired poet sings–

"For yet I know I shall him praise,

Who graciously to me,

The health is of my countenance,

Yea, mine own God is he."

Oh, what a pleasure! "Mine own God is he." Rich men glory in wealth,
famous men in valour, great men in honour, and I in "mine own God."
There is nothing about God but what is delightful to a saint. The
infinite God is infinitely delightful to his people. Once get really to
know God and to be like him, and even his sternest attributes–his
power, his justice, his indignation against sin–will come to be
delightful to you. Those men who are cavilling at what God does,
questioning over what God has revealed, do not know him, for to know
him is to adore him. Oh, brethren, let us find our pleasure, our
treasure, our heaven, our all, in the Lord our God, even as our Lord
Jesus did. In this thing let us walk even as he walked.

I have not quite done. Dear friends, we ought to walk in holy
contentment. Jesus was perfectly content with his lot. When the foxes
had holes and the birds of the air had nests, and he had not where to
lay his head, yet he never murmured, but found rest in pursuing his
life-work. The cravings of covetousness and pinings of ambition never
touched our Lord. Friends, if you do, indeed, say that you abide in
him, I pray you be of the same contented spirit. "I have learned," said
the apostle, as if it were a thing which had to be taught, "in
whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content."

In a word, Christ lived above this world; let us walk as he walked.
Christ lived for God, and for God alone; let us live after his fashion.
And Christ persevered in such living; he never turned aside from it at
all; but as he lived so he died, still serving his God, obedient to his
Father's will, even unto death. May our lives be a mosaic of perfect
obedience, and our deaths the completion of the fair design. From our
Bethlehem to our Gethsemane may our walk run parallel with the pathway
of the Well-beloved! Oh, Holy Spirit, work us to this sacred pattern!

III. I close now by saying, in the last place, consider, dear friends,
WHAT IS NEEDFUL TO ALL THIS.

First, it is needful to have a nature like that of Christ. You cannot
give out sweet waters so long as the fountains are impure. "Ye must be
born again." There is no walking with Jesus in newness of life unless
we have a new heart and a right spirit. See to it, dear friends, that
your nature is renewed–that the Holy Ghost has wrought in you a
resurrection from among the dead; for, if not, your walk and
conversation will savour of death and corruption. A new creature is
essential to likeness to Christ: it is not possible that the carnal
mind should wear the image of Jesus.

That being done, the next thing that is necessary is a constant
anointing of the Holy Spirit. Can any Christian here do without the
Holy Spirit? Then I am afraid that he is no Christian. But, as for us,
we feel every day that we must cry for a fresh visitation of the
Spirit, a renewed sense of indwelling, a fresh anointing from the Holy
One of Israel, or else we cannot walk as Christ walked.

And then, again, there must be in us a strong resolve that we will walk
as Christ walked; for our Lord himself did not lead in that holy life
without stern resolution. He set his face like a flint that he would do
the right; and he did the right. Do not, I pray you, be led astray by
thoughtlessly following your fellow-men: it is a poor, sheepish
business, that running in crowds. Dare to be singular dare to stand
alone. Stand to it firmly that you will follow Christ. A Christian man
in a discussion attempted to defend the truth, but his opponent grew
angry, and cried out vehemently again and again, "Hear me! Hear me!" At
last the good man answered, "No, I shall not hear you, nor shall you
hear me; but let us both sit down and hear the word of the Lord." And
that is the thing to do, brethren, to be hearing Christ and following
him; not I to learn of you, nor you of me, but both of Christ: so shall
we end all controversy in a blessed agreement at his feet. God help us
to get there.

And so, once again, I add that if we want to walk as Christ walked, we
must have much communion with him. We cannot possibly get to be like
Christ except by being with him. I wish that we could rise to be so
much like the Saviour that we should resemble a certain ancient saint
who died a martyr's death, to whom the world said, "What are you?" He
said, "I am a Christian." They asked, , What trade do you follow?" And
he said, "I am a Christian." They inquired, "What language do you
speak?" And he said, "I am a Christian." "But what treasures have you?"
said they; and he replied, "I am a Christian." They asked him what
friends he had, and he said, "I am a Christian;" for all he was, and
all he had, and all he wished to be, and all he hoped to be, were all
wrapped up in Christ. If you live with Christ you will be absorbed by
him, and he will embrace the whole of your existence: and, in
consequence, your walk will be like his.

Take care that you do not in all things copy any but Christ; for if I
set my watch by the watch of one of my friends, and be sets his watch
by that of another friend, we may all be wrong together. If we shall,
each one, take his time from the sun, we shall all be right. There is
nothing like going to.the fountain-head. Take your lessons in holiness,
not from a poor erring disciple, but from the infallible Master. God
help you to do so.

A person has written to me this morning to say that he has painted my
portrait, but that he cannot finish it until he sees me. I should think
not. Certainly you cannot paint a portrait of Christ in your own life
unless you see him–see him clearly, see him continually. You may have
it general notion of what Christ is like, and you may put a good deal
of colour into your copy; but I am sure you will fail unless you see
the grand original. You must get to commune with Jesus. You know what
we did when we went to school. Our schoolmasters were not quite so wise
then as schoolmasters are now. They wrote at the top of the page a
certain line for us to follow, and a poor following it was. When I
wrote my first line I copied the writing-master's model, but when I
wrote the next line I copied my copy of the top line; so that when I
reached the bottom of the page I produced a copy of my copy of my copy
of my copy of the top line. Thus my handwriting fed upon itself, and
was nothing bettered but rather grew worse. So one man copies Christ,
perhaps; a friend who hears him preach copies him, and his wife at home
copies the hearer, and somebody copies her; and so it goes on all down
the line, till we all miss that glorious hand-writing which Jesus has
come to teach us. Keep your eye on Christ, dear brother. Never mind me:
never mind your friend: never mind the old doctor that you have been
hearing so long. Look to Jesus, and to him alone. We have had our sects
and our divisions all through that copying of the lines of the boys,
instead of looking to the top-line that the Master wrote. "He that
saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk even as he
walked" May the Spirit of God cause us to do it! Amen and Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–1 John 2.

HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK."–425, 262, 646.