The Servants and the Pounds
“A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kincrdom, and to return. And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come.” — Luke xix. 12, 13.
WE are told the reason for the Saviour’s delivering this parable at this particular time. He was going up to Jerusalem, and the ignorant and enthusiastic crowd hoped that he might now set up a temporal soverei. nty. “They thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear.” Their minds were crowded with mistakes, and the Saviour would set them right upon this matter. To banish from their minds the idea of a Jewish empire, in which every Hebrew would be a prince, our Lord told them this story: I use the word advisedly, for his parable was also a fact. He would show them that as yet they were not to he partakers in a kingdom, but were soon to be waiters for an absent Lord who had gone to receive a kingdom, and to return. In his absence his disciples were to be in the position of servants put in trust with property while their master was gone far away to receive a kingdom, and then to come again. He was now like a nobleman, who may be one among many citizens; but he was going away to a court where he would be invested with royal authority, and he would come back a king. They were to be put in trust with certain pounds till he should return.
I confess I never thoroughly saw the meaning of this parable till 1 was directed by an eminent expositor to a passage in Josphus, which, if it be not the key of it, is a wonderfully close example of a class of facts which, no doubt, often occurred in the Roman empire in our Saviour’s day. Herod, you know, was king over Judaea; but he was only a subordinate king under the Roman emperor. Caesar at Rome made and unmade kings at his pleasure. When Herod died he was followed by his son Archelatis, of whom we read in Matthew’s account of our Lord’s infancy that when Joseph heard that Archelaus was king in Judaea in the room of his father Herod he was afraid to go thither. This Archelaus had no right to the throne till he obtained the sanction of Caesar, and therefore he took ship with certain attendants, and went to Rome, which in those days was a far country, that he might receive No. 1,960 44 the kingdom, and return. While he was on the way his citizens, who hated hun, sent an ambassage after him, so has the Revised Version correctlv worded it; and this ambassage bore this message to Caesar: — “We will not that this man reijzn over us.” The messengers represented to Caesar that Archelaus was not fit to be king of the Jews. Certain of the pleadings are recorded in Josephus, and they show that barristers nineteen hundred years pleaded in much the same style as their brethren of to-day. The people were weary of the Herods, and preferred anything to their cruel rule. They even asked that Judaea might be come a Roman province, and be joined to Syria, rather than they should remain under the hated joke of the Idumean tyrants. It is evident that in the case of Archelans his citizens hated him, and said, “We will not have this man to reign over us.” It pleased Cassar to divide the kingdom ’ and to put Archelaus on the throne as ethnarch, or a ruler with less power than a king. When he returned he took fierce revenge upon those who had opposed him, and rewarded his faithful adherents most liberally. This story of what had been done thirty years before would, no doubt, rise up in the recollection of the people when Jesus spoke, for Archelaus ha-1 built a palace for himself very near to Jericho, and it may be that under the walls of that palace the Saviour used the event as the basis of his parable. Those who lived in our Lord’s day must have understood his allusions to current facts much better than we do who live nineteen centuries later. The providence of God provided that observant Jew, Josephus, to store up much valuable information for us. Read the passage in his history, and you will see that even the details tally with this parable. There is the story.
The Saviour, without excusing Archelaus or commending him in the least degree, simply makes his goin to Rome an illustration. Here is a noble personage who is to be a king; but to obtain the throne he must journey to the distant court of a superior power. While he is going, his citizens so hate him that they send an ambassage to oppose his claims; for they will not have him for their king. However, he receives the kingdom, and returns to rule it. When he does so, he rewards those who have been faithful to him, and he punishes with overwhelming destruction those who have tried to prevent his reigning. There is the story: let me further interpret it.
The Saviour likens himself to a nobleman. He was here on earth a man among men, and truly a nobleman in the midst of his fellow-citizens. It was his to become king, king of all the earth: indeed, ho •Js such by nature and by right, but he must first go, by death, resurrection, and ascension, away to the highest courts, and there from the great Lord of all he must receive for himself a kingdom. It is written, “Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance”; and therefore Jesus must plead his claims before the king, and win his suit. The day is coming when he will return, clothed with glory and honour, to. take unto himself his great power and reign; for he must reign till all enemies are put under his feet. When he comes his enemies will be destroyed, and his faithful servants will be abundantly rewarded.
Let us now draw near to this feast of divine teaching. May the Spirit of God help us to gather practical lessons from this paraMe!
I. First, I invite you to notice that THERE ARE HERE TWO SETS
OF PERSONS. We see the enemies who would not have this man to reign over them, and the servants who had to trade with his monej’. There are many divisions among men into nationalities, ranks, offices, and characters; but, after all, the deep divisions will always be two — the enemies and the servants of Christ Jesus. You that are not servants are enemies; you that are not enemies must take care that yon are servants. I find no class of persons mentioned in the parable but these two, and I feel certain that there are no others on the face of the earth. You are all either enemies or servants of Jesus.
Consider the enemies! The person hated was a nobleman. He was a man, but a noble man. What u man is the Lord Jesus! Forgetting his Godhead for the moment, regard him only as the man Christ Jesus; and what a man! I need not dwell upon the nobility of his birth, of the seed of David; but I would remind you of the nobility of his character, for that is where true nobility resides. In this respect where is there nobility to be compared to his? Brothers, it would be difficult to find a second to the man Christ within measurable distance of him: even those who copy him most nearly confess, regretfully, that in ID any things they fall short of his glory. There was nothing petty, mean, or selfish about Jesus of Nazarer,h. He was altogether the noble man.
He deigned, for gracious purposes, to become a citizen amongst others, for since we read of his being anointed above his fellows, it is implied that some were his fellows. He was a man among men. He was of the society of carpenters; he was also free of the company of itinerant preachers. He associated with men of the sea, with men that handled the net and the oar. He went in and out among the peasantry, and in his dress and style of living there was nothing to distinguish him from the rest of the citizens. Truly, he was separate from them by his holier character, but the separation was not caused by his unwillingness to come down to them, but by their inability to go up to him.
The citizens hated him; but they hated him without a cause. There is always some cause tor dislike in us, but there was none in him. In tone, or manner, or spirit, the best give some cause of offence; but in him there was nothing which could excuse their hate: it was a wanton rejection of the fittest to reign.
As he claimed to be the King of the Jews, they especially hated his royalty, saying, “We will not have this man to reign over us”; and again, “We have no king but Caesar.” “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” Yet, my brethren, merely regarding Jesus as a man, if we wanted a king, he ought to be elected by the universal suffrages of mankind, openly given by uplifted hands and joyful acclamations. la triumphal Mighty Conqueror, reign for ever! Prince of the kings of the earth, lover of the sons of men, who didst for our sake pour out thy precious blood, thou deservest to be king of all I The most kingly of men should be king of men. Yet they hated his royal claims, and this also without cause. Which of them had he oppressed? What revenue did he oxtort from the people? What law of his was hard or cruel? In what case did he ever judge unrighteously? Yet his citizens hat-d him. There is that same hate of Christ in the world to-day. Do any of you nate him? “No,” say you. Yet are not some of you who do not oppose him treating him with greater contempt than if you did oppose him? You pass him by altogether, he is not in all your thoughts; yon •%ct as if he were not worthy even to be opposed: you make nothing of iim. He is not among the objects for which you live. Sometimes you .nay speak with a partial admiration of his character; but earnest admiration leads to imitation. If Jesus be a Saviour, what worse can you do to him than to refuse to be saved by him? I charge you indifferent ones with being, in the core of your hearts, his worst enemies. Oh that you would repent of this, and turn unto him, for he is coming again; and when he conies he will say, “As for these mine enemies, slay them before mine eyes.” The expression is full of terror. To be slain before the eyes of injured love is doubly death. The Lord by his grace deliver us from so dread a doom!
The other set of persons were his servants: the original would justify the translation, his bond-servants. Those who were not his enemies were his faithful servants. I suppose that the nobleman had bought them with his money, or that they had been born in his house, or that they had willingly bound themselves by indentures to him. When I said tint these were only his slaves you inwardly said, “Then you that believe in Jesus are his bond-servants.” Spare us not even the harsher word “slaves.” We were never free till we came under bonds to Jesus, and we grow in free iorn as we yield to him. Paul said, “I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus,” as if the hot iron oT affliction had branded him with the name of Christ. Yes, we are the property of the Lord Jesus, and not our own. We cannot somehow find words which will in all its fulness express our belonging to Jesus; we wish to sink into Ohrist, and to become as nothing for his sake. Truly he hath called us friends, but we call ourselves his servants. We take a great delight in owning him as Master: like David, who said,” I am thy servant”; and then again, “I acn thy servant”; and then again, •’ and the son of thine handmaid.*’ He was born a servant, born of a mother who was also herself a servant. After all this he added, “thou hast loosed my bonds.” Servitude to Christ is perfect freedom, and in every respect we have found it so. We never expect to know perfect freedom until he has brought every thought, every conception, imagination, desire, into captivity to himself. We have beea bought with his money, and we cost him dear. We have also been born in his house by a second birth, and we are bound to him by indentures which we have gladly signed and sealed, and are ready to sign and seal again.
“High heaven, that heard the solemn vow,
That vow renew’d shall daily hear:
Till in life’s latest hour we bow,
And bless in death a bond so dear.”
We are truly thus on the opposite side to his enemies, for we are willingly his servants.
I have thus introduced to you the two classes. Before we go any further, may the Holy Spirit operate upon us, to make us discern to which of these two we belong! If we are enemies, may we become servants from this time forth!
II. We now a-lvance a step further, and notice THE ENGAGEMENTS OF THESE SERVANTS. Their lord was going away, and he left his ten servants in charge with a little capital, with which they were to trade for him till he returned. He did not tell them how long he would be awav, perhaps he did not know himself — I mean the king in the story: even our Master says, “Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven.” “I am going away,” he said, “you are my servants, and I leave you as my servants in the midst of my enemies. Be loyal to me; and, to prove your faithful ness, continue to trade in my name. I shall entrust to each of you a very small sum of money, but it will keep you occupied, and your trading on my account will be your daily protest that you are loyal to me, whatever others may be.”
Notice, firt, that this was honourable work. They were not entrusted with large funds, but the amount was enough to serve as a test. It put them upon their honour. If they were really attached to their master they would feel that he had placed a confidence in them which they must justify. Slaves are not always to be entrusted with money; in fact, the tendency of bondage has been always to take away from men the quality of trustworthiness: our bondage to Christ has the opposite effect, because it is no bondage at all. These servants of the master were treated in some respect as partners, they were to have fellowship with him in his property. They were his confidants and trustees. His eye was not watching them, for he had gone into a far country, and he trusted them to be a law unto themselves. They were not to render a daily account, but to be left alone until he returned. Now that is just how the Master has treated us: he has put us in trust with the gospel, and he relies upon our honour. He does not call us at once to an audit, for he is not here. I do not think that systems of church government which involve a measure of the spy system are at all after our Lord’s mind. If Christians are what they ought to be, they can be trusted: they are a law unto themselves. The Lord puts you not under certain rules and regulations so as to ordain that you shall give a tenth, though I wish you did give as much at least. He does not say, “You shall subscribe so much at such a time, and work in such a way.” No; you are not under law, but under grace. If you love your Master you will soon discover what to do for him, and you will do it with delight. The Lord does not lay down rigid rules, and order that at such an hour in the morning you must begin work, and that you must work on for so many hours. No, he says, “Take my pound, and trade therewith.” Our version, “Occupy till I come,” is a lumbering Latin way of saying, “Trade therewith till I come.” The Lord has put us on the footing of confidence, appealing to our honour and love. He will not come and look after us to-day or to-morrow, though he will ultimately have a strict reckoning with us. Meanwhile he has gone, but he has left us here in the midst of his enemies, to show his enemies that he has some friends, and that he must be a good Master, since even those who own themselves to be his vassals rejoice to spend their whole lives in his service. I say he gave them honourable work; and was it not so?
It was work for which he gave them capital. He gave to each of them a pound. “Not much,” you will say. No, he did not intend it to be much. They were not capable of managing very much. If he found them faithful in “a very little” he could then raise them to a higher responsibility. I do not read that any one of them complained of the smallness of his capital, or wished to have it doubled. Brothers, we need not ask for more talents, we have quite as many as we shall be able to answer for. Preachers need not seek for larger spheres: let them be faithful in those which they now occupy. A brother said to me, “I cannot do much with a hundred hearers,” and I replied, “You will find it hard work to give in a good account for even a hundred people.” I confess it very quietly, but I have often wished that I had a little congregation, that I might watch over every soul in it; but now I am doomed to an everlasting dissatisfaction with my work, for what am I among so many? I can only feel that I have not even begun to do the hundredth part of what needs to be done in such a church as this. Each one had a pound in his hand, and his lord only said, “Trade therewith.” He did not expect them to do a wholesale business on so small a stock, but they were to trade as the market would allow. He did not expect them to make more than the pound would fairly bring in; for, after all, he was not “an austere man.” “Take that pound,” he said, “and do your best. I know the times are bad, for you have to trade among enemies. You could not, perhaps, manage to put out twenty pounds under such circumstances, but you can turn over a pound, and use every shilling of it” Thus he gave them a sufficient capital for his purpose. My friend, have you that pound anywhere about you? “Alas!” says one, “I have no abilities at all.” How is that? Your Lord gave you a pound; what has become of it? You are one of his servants, and if you are doing nothing you are in an evil case, and ought to be ashamed. What have you done with that pound? Put your hand in your pocket again. It is not there. Is it in the napkin? — that napkin with which you ought to have wiped the sweat of labour irom your brow! Have you got that pound? You say, “It is not much.” The Master did not say it was much, on the contrary, he called it “very little “; but have you used that very little? This should go home to your consciences. You have been treared as confidential servants, and yet you are not true to your Lord. How is this?
What they had to do with the pound was prescribed in general terms. They were to trade with it, not to play with it. I dare say they were inclined to argue, “Our master’s cause is assailed, let us fight for him “; yet he did not say, “fight,” but trade. Peter drew his sword. Oh, yes, we are eager combatants, but slow merchants. Many manifest a defiant spirit, and are never more satisfied than when they are in noise and strife. The servants in this parable were not to fight, but to trade, which is a much more cool-blooded and ignoble thing in common esteem. We may leave our Lord’s enemies to himself; he will end their rebellions one of these days. We are to follow a much lowlier line of things.
No doubt certain of them might have thought that the pound would be useful to purchase them comforts, or even luxuries: one would buy a new coat, and another would bring home a piece of furniture for his house, and others would solemnly say, “We have our families to think of.” Yes, but their lord did not say so; the master said, “Trade therewith until I come.” They were neither to fight with it, nor hoard it, nor spend it, nor waste it, but to trade with it for him.
The pound was not put into their hands for display. They were not to glory over others who had not so much as a penny to bless themselves with; for though they were little capitalists, that capital was their lord’s. It is a pity when graces or talents are boasted of as if they were our own. A tradesman who is prospering seldom has mucL money to show; it is all wanted in his business. Sometimes he can scarcely put Ins hand upon a five-pound note, because his cash is all absorbed: his golden grain is all sown in the field of his trade. Speaking for myself, I cannot find any room for glorying in myself; for if I have either grace or strength, I certainly have none to spare. I have barely enough for the work in hand, and not enough for the service in prospect. Our pound is not lo be hung on our watch-chain, but to be traded with.
Trading represents a life which may be called common-place; but it is eminently practical: and it has an exceedingly practical effect upon the person engaged in it. This is owing in part to the fact that it is an occupation in which there is great scope for judgment. They were not tied down to a special kind of trade. The man who made his one pound into ten chose the best form of busine?s. He s<>ught not that which was most pleasant, but that which was most profitable. So you are left, dear friends, to choose your own line of service for your Mnster, only you must trade for him, and for him everything must be done well. At the present time no trading pays better than the mission to the Congo, or to the hill-tribes of India: large dividends come also from dealings with the poorest of the poor in the slums, and as much from widows and orphans who are in extreme destitution. When men have to lay down their lives for the Lord Jesus, after a life languished away with fever, the returns are amazing. Where the need is greatest our Lord receives most glory. It is left to you to judge what you can do, how you can do it, and where you will do it. Do that which will most surely win souls, and that which will best establish your Lord’s kingdom. Exercise your very best judgment, and get into thar, line of oly service in which you can bring in the largest revenue for ywur glorious Master.
The work which he prescribed was one thcit would briny them out. The man who never succeeds in trade, do you know him? I know him. He complains that he has a small head; and u-ually the complaint is founded on fact. He needs to follow a business in which the bread and butter will be brought to his door ready spread; and even then, unless it is cut up into dice pieces on his platf, he will get no breakfast. The man that is to succeed in trade in these times must have confidence, look alive, keep his eyes open, and be all there. Our times are hard, but not so hard as those described in the parable when the faithful servants were trading in the midst of traitors; they had need of sharp wits. Trade develops a man’s perseverance, patience, and courage: it tests honesty, truthfulness, and firmness. It is a singularly excellent discipline for character. When this nobleman gave his servant the pound, it was that he might see what stuff he was made of. Trade with small capital means personal work and drudgery, long hours and few holidays; plenty of disappointment and small gains. It means working with might and main, and doing the thing with all your heart and mind. In such a manner are we to serve Christ. The word “trade” has a world of meaning in it. I cannot bring it out this morning; but there is no need, for the most of you know more about trade than I do, and you can instruct yourselves. You are to trade for the
Lord Jesus Christ in a higher and yet more emphatic sense than that in which yon have traded for yourselves. With your physical strength, your mental faculties, your substance, your family, with everything — you are to bring glory to God, and honour to the name of Jesus. It is to be your life-business co work for Jesus, and with Jesus.
Trading, if ic be successfully carried on, is an engrossing concern, calling out the whole man. It is a continuous toil, a varied trial, a remarkable test, a valuable discipline, and this is why the nobleman put his bondsmen to it, that he might afterwards use them in still higher service. Brethren, learn what is meant by trading, and then carry on a spiritual trade with all your heart.
At the same time, let us notice that it was work suitable to their capacity. Small as the capital was, it was enough for them; for they were no more than bondsmen, not of a high grade of rank or education. Their master gave them only a pound, which did not mean more than £3 10s. of our money. One would not get a large shop, or even a decent stock, with that small amount. They could not complain that they were placed in a business which was too heavy for them to manage. They could any of them buy a few goods, and hawk them. The Lord Jesus Christ does not ask you to do more than you can do; he does not break you down with cares beyond your capacity. We .iave not yet reached the limit of our powers: we can yet do more. Jesus is no exacting master; it is only a false and lying servant who will call him “an austere man, reaping where he has not sowed.” Nothing of the kind. He has given us a light business: our work for him is suited to our limited powers, and he is ready, by his Holy Spirit, to assist us. Let us use well our single pound. Let it be our ambition to make ten of it at the very least; and may the Lord graciously prosper our endeavours, that we may have large interest to present to him when he shall come!
Did you enquire as to how these men were to be supported? Their master did not tell them to live out of his pound. No, they were his servants, and so they lived under his roof, and he provided for all their needs. He had gone on a journey, but his establishment was not given up: the table was still spread, and the children and the servants had bread enough and to spare. “Oh,” says one, “that alters the case.” Just so, but it does not make it different from yours; or, if it does, I am sorry for you. Are you your own provider? Do you cry, “What shall I eat? What shall I drink?” Do you not know that all these things do the nations of the earth seek after? Whereas Jesus says, “Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.” As I understand my life, I am to do my Lord’s work, and he is to provide for me. He may do this through my own industry, but still it is his work to do it, and not mine. If the providence of God is not sufficient to provide for us, then I am sure we cannot provide for ourselves; and if it be sufficient, we shall be wise to cast all our care on the Lord, and live undividedly for his praise. Remember that text, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” You, as a servant, are not to be entangled with carking cares about your own interests, but you are to give your whole thought and life to your Master’s service. He will take care of you now, and reward you when he shall come.
III. Thirdly, to understand this parable, we must remember THE
EXPECTANCY WHICH WAS ALWAYS TO INFLUENCE THEM. They Were
left as trusted servants till he should return, but that return was a main item in the matter.
They were to believe that he would return, and that he would return a king. The citizens did not believe it. They hoped that Caesar would refuse him the throne; but we are to be sure that our noble Master will receive the kingdom. This rebel world does not believe that Jesus ever will be king. The other day we read of the “Eclipse of Christianity.” Constantly we see his dominion assailed. They say that it is practically disproved by facts. Is it? Sirs, excuse me, I am desperately prejudiced, for I am his servant. I owe him my life, my all. I am persuaded that he is and must be King of kings. I know him so well that I am sure that he will prevail at the court to which he has gone. He is in very high favour there. The last time I saw the face of the great King I obtained that favour through the use of his name. I receive anything I ask for when I mention his name, and so I am sure that he is in wonderful high repute above. Why, his Father is the sovereign! I am sure he will not deny the kingdom to his only-begotten Son. Jesus will come in his kingdom; I am sure of it. Let us work in the full conviction that our absent Lord will soon be here again, with a glorious diadem upon hisbrow. When he went away he took with him the scars of one who died a felon’s death; and he will come again with them, but the nail-prints will be no memorials of his shame: they will be as jewels to hia hands.
His servants were to regard their absent master as already king, and they were so to trade among his enemies that they should never compromise their own loyalty. They were of the king’s party, and of no other. It is a very awkward position to be in, to trade among people that are enemies to your king: you need in such a case to be wise aa serpents, and harmless as doves. This is precisely our position. We have to bring glory to God out of men who hate him: we have to magnify our Lord among men who would, if they could, again crucify him. We have to go in and out among them in such a mann r that they can never say that we side with them in their rebellion, or wink at their disloyalty. We cannot be “Hail fellow: well met!” with those whoselife is a practical insult to the crown rights of King Jesus. We must above all things prove ourselves loyal to our absent Lord, lest he appoint us our portion among his enemies.
I find that the original would suggest to any one carefully reading ifc that they were to regard their master as already returning. This should be our view of our Lord’s Advent; he is even now on his way hither No sooner had he risen from the grave than, practically, our Lord wa? coming back. Strange paradox! but his ascension into heaven was, in i certain sense, part of his coming back to us; for the way for him, from the cross on earth to the crown of the whole eanh, was via the New Jerusalem. He is coming now as fast as wisdom judges it to be right. I am sure our Saviour will not delay a moment beyond what is absolutely needful, for he loves the church which is his bride, and as her Bridegroom he will not delay the long-expected hour of their meeting, never to part again. He is ready, it is the bride that needs to make herself ready. Jesus cbsires to come; his heart is responsive to our cry when we say, “Ccme quickly!” He will come sooner than we think. WQ are bound to feel that he is afc this moment on the road; and we are to live as if he might arrive at any moment.
We must trade on till our Lord has come. There must be no retiring from his business, even if we retire from our own; there must be no ceasing because we fancy we have done enough. Our rest will be when he comes, but till then we must trade on.
Let us labour as in his actual presence. How would you act with Jesus at your elbow? Act just so. He sees us as clearly as if his bodily presence were in our midst. Be aroused and inspired by the Redeemer’s eye. Thus will you live in this trial state after the best possible manner.
IV. Now comes the sweet part of the subject. Note well THE SECRET DESIGN OF THE LOUD. Did it ever strike you that this nobleman had a very kindly design towards his servants? Did this nobleman give these men one pound each with the sole design that they should make money for him? It would be absurd to think so. A few pounds would be no item to one who was made a king. No, no! It was as Mr. Bruce says, “he was not money-making, but character-making.” His design was not to gain by them, but to educate them.,
First, their being entrusted with a pound each was a tes& This nobleman said to himself, ‘* When I am a king I must have faithful servants in power around me. My going away gives me an opportunity of seeing what my servants are made of. I shall thus test their capacity and their industry, their honesty and their zeal. If they prove faithful over a few things they will be fit to be trusted with greater matters.” The test was only a pound; and they could not make much mischief out of that, but it would be quite sufficient to try their capacity and fidelity, for he that is faithful in that which is least will be faithful also in much. They did not all endure the test, but by its means he revealed their characters.
It was also a preparation of them for future service. He would lift them up from being servants to become rulers. They were, therefore, to be put in a place of measurable responsibility, and to be made men of thereby. They were to be rulers over a very little — say a pound, and that which came of it, and this would be an education for them. In the process of trading they would be in training to rule. The best way to learn to be a master is to be first a servant, and the reason why some masters are hard and tyrannical is because they do not know the heart of a servant by experience. They know nothing of service, and so they have not the wisdom, and the generosity, and the tenderness, which masters should show towards servants. So this nobleman was wise, he was at the same time testing and training his men.
Besides this, I think he was giving them a little anticipation of their future honours. He was about to make them rulers over cities, and so he first made them rulers over pounds. They had been servants, and taken orders from him every morning; but now they have no master to go to, and must use their own discretion. They were in effect, in a small sphere, made into little kings. In all that country the citizens had rebelled, but there was a litcle kingdom of the nobleman’s own servants, and these obeyed him, and did their beet to maintain his interest in their little way. They were already made free, placed in a mensure of authority, and made to know the sweets and the burdens of personal responsibility. Oh, you that work for God, when you are overseers of others for him, when you win souls for him, and when you conquer adversaries in his name you are already anticipating your eternal reward. We are fashioning our future position upon the anvil of our lives; for heaven, though it be a state and a place prepared for us by the Lord Jesus, lies also mainly in character. The man is more the source of joy than the streets of gold in which he will walk. If you hide your pound and neglect your Master’s service here you are making for yourselves a dim and hazy future in that grand millennial reign of his. You that addict yourselves to your holy trade, and consecrate yourselves entirely to your Lord, shall have large honours when he comes to reign among his ancients gloriously.
For see, when he came to the man who had earned ten pounds, he gave him ten cities. Think of that! There is no proportion between the poor service and the rich reward. A pound is rewarded with a city. The rewards of the millennium will evidently be all of grace, because they are so incomparably beyond anything which the servants’ earnings could have deserved. Their Lord was not bound to pay them anything: they were his b pnd-servants; but what he gave them was of his overflowing grace. I do not think that he who brought five pounds was in the least blamed. He may have been just as diligent as the other, but he had less capacity. But how he must have opened his eyes when his master gave him five cities. Perhaps he wondered more than the first. Fancy if any one of us had been put to trade with a pound upon commission, and had received five cities for reward. The money earned would not buy the smallest house, and yet it brings in to the worker five cities! What surprise filled the heart of the recipient of such bounty! It never entered into his heart to envy the brother who had ten cities, for the five were so vast a recompense. He must have been carried away with rapture with the prospect before him. Though there may be degrees of glory, the only difference will be in the capacity of the blessed to contain it. All the vessels will be full, but they will not be all equally large: the man of the ten pounds will simply be a larger vessel, full to the brim; and the man with the five will be less capacious, but quite as full, to his own glad amazement and joyful bewilderment. However, let us go in for winning the ten pounds if we can. For our Lord’s sake let us trade in spiritual things with all our hearts.
“But,” saith one, “where and what will these cities be?” It may be that all this will literally happen during the millennial period, but I do not know. When Christ shall come the dead in Christ will rise first; and we read that u the rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were finished.” There may be space during that era for all the special rewards of the gospel dispensation. It may also be, but I do not know, and so I cannot tell you, that we are in future dispensations to fill unto other worlds much the same office as angels fill to ours. Jesus hath made us kings and priests, and we are in training for our thrones. What if in this congregation I am learning to proclaim my Master’s glory to myriads of worlds 1 Possibly the preacher who is faithful here may yet be made to tell forth his Lord’s glory to constellations at a time. What il one might stand upon a central star and preach Christ to worlds on worlds instead of preaching him to these two galleries and to this area! Why not? At any rate, if I should ever gain a voice loud enough to be heard for millions of miles, I would speak none other than those glorioua truths which the Lord has revealed in Christ Jesos. If we are faithful here, we may expect our Master to entrust us with higher service here after; only let us see to it that we are able to endure the test, and that we profit by the training. As our account comes out in the very little, so will it be with us on the grand scale of eternity. This puts another face upon the work of this lower sphere. Rulers over ten cities! Rulers over five cities! Brothers, you are not fit for such dignities if you cannot serve your Lord well in this world with the little he has entrusted to you. If you live wholly to him here, you will be prepared for the glories unspeakable which await all consecrated souls. Let us go in for a devoted life at once! Time is so short, and the things we deal with are comparatively so small! We are soon coming out of the eggshell of time; and when we break loose into eternity, and see the vastness of the divine purposes, we shall be altogether amazed at the service bestowed, which will be the reward of service done. 0 Lord, make us faithful! Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON — Luke xix. 1 — 38.
HYMNS FUOM “OuR OWN HYMN BOOK” — 347, 356, 342.
etijaplitmt Sfabenmde f) u%it
OUR OWN DEAR SHEPHERD.
IlTTENDED FOR READING ON LORD’S-DAY, JANUARY 3RD, 1886
DELIVERED BY
AT TBE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTOH,
ON THURSDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 2GTH, 1885.
“I am the good Shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the eheep.’’ — John x. 14, 15.
As the passage stands in the Authorized Version, it reads like a number of short sentences with scarcely any apparent connection. Even in that form it is precious; for our Lord’s pearls are priceless even when they are not threaded together. But when I tell you that in the Greek the word “and” is several times repeated, and that the translators have had to leave out one of these “ands “to make sense of the passage on their line of translation, you will judge that they are none too accurate in this case. To use many “ands” is after the manner of John; but there is usually a true and natural connection between his sentences. The ‘* and “with him is usually a real golden link, and not a mere sound; we need a translation which makes it so. Observe also that in our Version the word “sheep” is put in italics, to show that it is not in the original. There is no need for this alteration it’ the passage is more closely rendered. Hear, then, the text in its natural form —
“/ am the good Shepherd; and I know mine own, and mine own know me, even as the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.”
This reading I have given you is that of the Revised Version. For that Revised Version I have but little care as a general rule, holding it to be by no means an improvement upon our Common Authorized Version. It is a useful thing to have it for private reference, but I trust it will never be regarded as the standard English translation of the New Testament. The Revised Version of the Old Testament U so excellent, that I am half afraid it may carry the Revised New Testament upon its shoulders into general use. I sincerely hope that this may not be the case, for the result would be a decided loss. However, that is not my point. Returning to our subject, I believe that, on this No. 1,877. 45
-occasi pn, the Revised Version is true to the original. We will therefore follow it in this instance, and we shall find that it makes most delightful and instructive sense. “I am the good Shepherd; and I know mine own, and mine own know me, even as the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.”
He who speaks to us in these words is the Lord Jesus Christ. To our mind every word of Holy Scripture is precious. When God speaks to us by priest or prophet, or in any way, we are glad to hear. Though when, in the Old Testament, we meet with a passage which begins with “Thus saith the Lord” we feel specially charmed to have the message directly from God’s own mouth, yet we make no distinction between this Scripture and that. We accept it all as inspired; and we are not given to dispute about different degrees and varying modes of inspiration, and all that. The matter is plain enough if learned unbelievers did not mystify it; “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Tim. iii. 16). Still, there is to our mind a peculiar sweetness about words which were actually spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ himself: these are as honey in the comb. You have before you, in this text, not that which comes to you by prophet, priest, or king, but that which is spoken to you by one who is Prophet, Priest, and King in one, even your Lord Jesus Christ. He opens his mouth, and speaks to you. You will open your ear, and listen to him, if you be indeed his own.
Observe here, also, that we have not only Christ for the speaker, but we have Christ for the subject. He speaks, and speaks about himself. It were not seemly for you, or for me, to extol ourselves; but there is nothing more comely in the world than for Christ to commend himself. He is other than we are, something infinitely above us, and is not under rules which apply to us fallible mortals. When he speaketh forth his own glory, we feel that his speech is not vain-glory; nay, rather, when he praises himself, we thank him for so doing, and admire the lowly condescension which permits him to desire and accept honour from such poor hearts as ours. It were pride for us to seek honour of men; it is humility in him to do so, seeing he is so great an One that the esteem of beings so inferior as we are cannot be desired by him for his own sake, but for ours. Of all our Lord’s words, those are the sweetest in which he speaks about himself. Even he cannot find another theme which can excel that of himself.
My brethren, who can speak of Jesus but himself? He masters all our eloquence. His perfection exceeds our understanding; the light of his excellence is too bright for us, it blinds our eyes. Our Beloved must be his own mirror. None but Jesus can reveal Jesus. Only he can see himself, and know himself, and understand himself; and therefore none but he can reveal himself. We are most glad that in his tenderness to us he sets himself forth by many choice metaphors, and instructive emblems, by which he would make us know some little of that love which passeth knowledge. With his own hand he fills a golden cup out of the river of his own infinity, and hands it to us that we may drink and be refreshed. Take, then, these words as being doubly refreshing, because they come directly from the Well-beioved’i month, and contain rich revelations of his own all-glorious self. I feel that I must read them again; — “I am the good Shepherd; and I know mine own, and mine own know me, even as the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.”
In this text there are three matters about which I shall speak. First, I see here complete character. “I am the good Shepherd.” He is not a half shepherd, but a shepherd in the fullest possible sense. Secondly, I see complete knowledge, “and I know mine own, and mine own know me, even as the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father.” Thirdly, here is complete sacrifice. How preciously that sentence winds up the whole, “and I lay down my life for the sheep”! He goes the full length to which sacrifice can go. He lays down his soul in the stead of his sheep; so the words might be not incorrectly translated. He goes the fall length of self-sacrifice for his own.
1. First, then, here is COMPLETE CHARACTER. Whenever the Saviour describes himself by any emblem, that emblem is exalted, and expanded; and yet it is not able to bear all his meaning. The Lord Jesus fills out every type, figure, and character; and when the vessel is filled there is an overflow. There is more in Jesus, the good Shepherd, than you can pack away in a shepherd. He is the good, the great, the chief Shepherd; but he is much more. Emblems to set him forth may be multiplied as the drops of the morning, but the whole multitude will fail to reflect all his brightness. Creation is too small a frame in which to hang his likeness. Human thought is too contracted, human speech too feeble, to set him forth to the full. When all the emblems in earth and heaven shall have described him to their utmost, there will remain a somewhat, not yet described. You may square the circle ere you can set forth Christ in the language of mortal men. He is inconceivably above our conceptions, unutterably above our utterances.
But notice that he here sets himself forth as a shepflerd. Dwell on this for a moment. A shepherd is hardly such a man as we employ in England to look after sheep for a few months, till they are large enough to be slaughtered; a shepherd after the Oriental sort, such as Abraham, Jacob, or David, is quite another person.
The Eastern shepherd is generally the owner of the flock, or at least the son of their owner, and so their proprietor in prospect. The sheep are his own. English shepherds seldom, or never, own the sheep: they are employed to take care of them, and they have no other interest in them. Our native shepherds are a very excellent set of men as a rule — those I have known have been admirable specimens of intelligent working-men — yet they are not at all like the Oriental shepherd, and cannot be; for he is usually the owner of the flock which he tends. He remembers how he came into possession of the flock, and when and where each of the present sheep was born, and where he has led them, and what trials he had in connection with them; and he remembers this with the emphasis that they are his own inheritance.
His wealth consists in them. He very seldom has much of a house, and he does not usually own much land. He takes his sheep over a good stretch of country, which is open common for all his tribe; but his possessions lie in his flocks. Ask him. “How much are you worth?”
He answers, “I own so many sheep.” In the Latin tongue the word for money is akin to the word “sheep,” because, to many of the first Romans, wool was their wealth, and their fortunes lay in their flocks. The Lord Jesus is our Shepherd: we are his wealth. If you ask what is his heritage, he tells you of “the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.” Ask him what are his jewels, and he replies, “They shall be mine in that day.” If you ask him where his treasures are, he will tell you, “The Lord’s portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.” The Lord Jesus Christ has nothing that he values as he does his own people. For their sakes he gave up all that he had, and died naked on the cross. Not only can he say, “I gave Ethiopia and Seba for thee,” but he “loved his church, and gave himself for it.” He regards his church as being his own body, “the fulness of him that filleth all in all.”
The shepherd, as he owns the flock, is also the caretaker. He takes care of them always. One of our brethren now present is a fireman; and, as he lives at the fire-station, he is always on duty. I asked him whether he was not off duty during certain hours of every day; but he said, “No; I am never off duty.” He is on duty when he goes to bed, he is on duty while he is eating his breakfast, he is on duty if he walks down the street. Any time the bell may ring the alarm, and he must be in his place, and hasten to the fire. Our Lord Jesus Christ is never off duty. He has constant care of his people day and night. He has declared it, — “For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest.” He can truly say what Jacob did. “In the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night.” He says of his flock what he says of his garden, “I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.” I cannot tell you all the care a shepherd has over his flock, because his anxieties are of such a various kind. Sheep have about as many complaints*as men. You do not know much about them, and I am not going to enter into details, for the all-sufficient reason that I do not know much about them myself; but the shepherd knows, and the shepherd will tell you that he leads an anxious life. He seldom has all the flock well at one time. Some one or other is sure to be ailing, and he spies it out, and has eye and hand and heart ready for its succour and relief. There are many varieties of complaints and needs, and all these are laid upon the shepherd’s heart. He is both possessor and care taker of the flock.
Then he has to be the provider too, for there is not a woolly head among them that knows anything about the finding and selecting of pasturage. The season may be very dry, and where there once was grass there may be nothing but a brown powder. It may be that herbage is only to be found by the side of the rippling brooks, here and there a bit; but the sheep do not know anything about that; the shepherd must know everything for them. The shepherd is the sheep’s providence. Both for time and for eternity, for body and for soul, our Lord Jesus supplies all our need out of his riches in glory. He is the great storehouse from which we derive everything. He has provided, ho does provide, and he will provide; and each one of us may therefore sing, “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.”
But, dear friends, we often dream that we are the shepherds, or that we, at any rate, have to find some of the pasture. I could not help saying just now to our friends at our little prayer-meeting, “There is a passage in the Psalms which makes the Lord do for us what one would have thought we could have done for ourselves — ‘He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.’” Surely, if a sheep can do nothing else it can lie down. Yet to lie down is the very hardest thing for God’s sheep to do. It is here that the full power of the rest-giving Christ has to come in to make our fretful, worrying, doubtful natures lie down and rest. Our Lord is able to give us perfect peace, and he will do so if we will simply trust to his abounding care. It is the shepherd’s business to be the provider; let us remember this, and be very happy.
Moreover, he has to be the leader. He leads the sheep wherever they have to go. I have often been astonished at the shepherds in the South of France, which is so much like Palestine, to see where they will take their sheep. Once every week I saw the shepherd come down to Mentone, and conduct all his flock to the sea-beach. I could see nothing for them but big stones. Folk say that perhaps this is what makes the mutton so hard; but I have no doubt the poor creatures get a little taste of salt, or something which does them good. At any rate, they follow the shepherd, and away he goes up the steep hillsides, taking long steps, till he reaches points where the grass is growing on the sides of the hills. He knows the way, and the sheep have nothing to do but to follow him wherever he goes. Theirs not to make the way; theirs not to choose the path; but theirs to keep close to his heel.
Do you not see our blessed Shepherd leading your own pilgrimage? Cannot you see him guiding your way? Do you not say, “Yes, he leadeth me, and it is my joy to follow”? Lead on, 0 blessed Lord; lead on, and we will follow the traces of thy feet!
The shepherd in the East has also to be the defender of the flock, for wolves yet prowl in those regions. All sorts of wild beasts attack the flock, and he must be to the front. Thus is it with our Shepherd. No wolf can attack us without finding our Lord in arms against him. No lion can roar upon the flock without arousing a greater than David. “He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.”
He is a shepherd, then, and he completely fills the character — much more completely than I ct,n show you just now.
Notice that the text puts an adjective upon the shepherd, decorating him with a chain of gold. The Lord Jesus Christ himself says, “I am the good Shepherd.” “The good Shepherd” — that is, he is not a thief that steals, and only deals with the sheep as he bears them from the fold to the slaughter. He is not a hireling: he does not do merely what he is paid to do, or commanded to do, but he does everything con amore, with a willing heart. He throws his soul into it. There is a goodness, a tenderness, a willingness, a powerfulness, a force, an energy in all that Jesus does that makes him to be the best possible Shepherd that can be. He is no hireling; neither is he an idler. Even shepherds that have had their own flocks have neglected them, as there are farmers who do not well cultivate their own farms; but it is never so with Christ. He is the good Shepherd: good up to the highest point of goodness, good in all that is tender, good in all that is kind, good in all the directions in which a shepherd can be needed; good at fight, and good at rule; good in watchful oversight, and good in prudent leadership; good every way most eminently.
And then notice he puts it, “I am the good Shepherd.” That is the point I want to bring out. Of other shepherds we can say, he is a shepherd; but this is the Shepherd. All others in the world are shadows of the true Shepherd; and Jesus is the substance of them all. That which we see in the world with these eyes is after all not the substance, but the type, the shadow. That which we do not see with our eyes, that which only our faith perceives, is after all the real thing. I have seen shepherds; but they were only pictures to me. The Shepherd, the real, the truest, the best, the most sure example of shepherdry is the Christ himself; and you and I are the sheep. Those sheep we see on yonder mountain-side are just types of ourselves: but we are the true sheep, and Jesus is the true Shepherd. If an angel were to fly over the earth to find out the real sheep, and the real Shepherd, he would say, “The sheep of God’s pasture are men; and Jehovah is their Shepherd. He is the true, the real Shepherd of the true and real sheep.” All the possibilities that lie in a shepherd are found in Christ. Every good thing that you can imagine to be, or that should be, in a shepherd, you find in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, I want you to notice that, according to the text, the Lord Jesus Christ greatly rejoices in this. He says, “I am the good Shepherd.” He does not confess that fact as if he were ashamed of it, but he repeats it in this chapter so many times that it almost reads like the refrain of a song. “I am the good Shepherd”: he evidently rejoices in it. He rolls it under his tongue as a sweet morsel. Evidently it is to his heart’s content. He does not say, “I am the Son of God, I am the Son of man, I am the Redeemer “; but this he does say, and he congratulates himself upon it: “I am the good Shepherd.”
This should encourage you and me to get a full hold of the word. If Jesus is so pleased to be my Shepherd, let me be equally pleased to be his sheep; and let me avail myself of all the privileges that are wrapped up in his being my Shepherd, and in my being his sheep. I see that it will not worry him for me to be his sheep. I see that my needs will cause him no perplexity. I see that he will not be going out of his way to attend to my weakness and trouble. He delights to dwell on the fact, ‘* I am the good Shepherd.” He invites me, as it were, to come and bring my wants and woes to him, and then look up to him, and be fed by him. Therefore I will do it.
Does it not make you feel truly happy to hear your own Lord say himself, and say it to you out of this precious Book, “I am the good Shepherd “? Do you not reply, “Indeed thou art a good Shepherd. Thou art a good Shepherd to me. My heart lays emphasis upon the word ‘good,’ and says of thee, ’ there is none good but One, but thou art that good One.’ Thou art the good Shepherd of the sheep”?
So much, then, concerning the complete character.
II. May the Holy Spirit bless the word still more, while I speak it my broken way upon the next point: THE COMPLETE KNOWLEDGE
The knowledge of Christ towards his sheep, and of the sheep towards him, is wonderfully complete. I must read the text again — “1 know mine own, and mine own know me, even as the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father.”
First, then, consider Christ’s knowledge of his own, and the comparison by which he sets it forth: “As the Father knows me.” I cannot conceive a stronger comparison. Dost thou know how much the Father knows the Son, who is his glory, his darling, his alter ego, his other self — yea, one God with him? Dost thou know how intimate the knowledge of the Father must be of his Son, who is his own wisdom, ay, who is his own self? The Father and the Son are one spirit. We cannot tell how intimate is that knowledge; and yet so intimately, so perfectly, does the great Shepherd know his sheep.
He knows their number. He will never lose one. He will count them all again in that day when the sheep shall pass a<>ain under the hand of him that telleth them, and then he will make full tale of them. “Of all that thou hast given me,” says he, “I have lost none.” He knows the number of those for whom he paid the ransom- price.
He knows their persons. He knows the age and character of every one of his own. He assures us that the very hairs of our head are all numbered. Christ has not an unknown sheep. It is not possible that he should have overlooked or forgotten one of them. He has such an intimate knowledge of all who are redeemed with his most precious blood that he never mistakes one of them for another, nor misjudges one of them. He knows their constitutions, — those that are weak and feeble, those that are nervous and frightened, those that are strong, those that have a tendency to presumption, those that are sleepy, those that are brave, those that are sick, sorry, worried, or wounded. He knows those that are hunted by the devil, those that are caught up between the jaws of the lion, and shaken till the very life is almost driven out of them. He knows their feelings, fears, and frights. He knows the secret ins and outs of every one of us better than any one of us knows himself.
He knows our trials, — the particular trial under which you are now bowed down, my sister; our difficulties, — that special difficulty which seems to block up your way, my brother, at this very time. All the ingredients of our life-cup are known to him. “I know mine own, as the Father knoweth me.” It is impossible to conceive a completer knowledge than that which the Father has of his only-begotten Son; and it is equally impossible to conceive a completer knowledge than that which Jesus Christ has of every one of his chosen.
He knows our sins. I often feel glad to think that he always did know our evil natures, and what would come of them. When he chose us, he knew what we were, and what we should be. He did not buy his sheep in the dark. He did not choose us without knowing all tli devious ways of our past and future lives.
u He saw us ruined in the fall,
Yet loved us notwithstanding all/*
Herein lieth the splendour of his grace. “Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate.” His election implies foreknowledge of all our ill manners. They say of human love that it is blind; but Christ’s love haa many eyes, and all its eyes are open, and yet he loves us still.
I need not enlarge upon this. It ought, however, to be very full of comfort to you that you are so known of your Lord, especially as h€ knows you not merely with the cold, clear knowledge of the intellect, but with the knowledge of love and of affection. He knows you in his heart. You are peculiarly dear to him. You are approved of him. You are accepted of him. He knows you by acquaintance with you; not by hearsay. He knows you by communion with you; he has been with you in sweet fellowship. He has read you as a man reads his book, and remembers what he reads. He knows you by sympathy with you: he is a man like yourself.
“He knows what sore temptations mean,
For he has felt the same.”
He knows your weaknesses. He knows the points wherein you suffer most, for
“In every pang that rends the heart
The Man of sorrows had a part.”
He gained this knowledge in the school of sympathetic suffering. “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.” “He was in all points made like unto his brethren;” and by being made like to us he has come to know us, and he does know us in a very practical and tender way. You have a watch, and it will not go, or it goes very irregularly, and you give it into the hands of one who knows nothing about watches; and he says, “I will clean it for you.” He will do it more harm than good. But here is the very person who made the watch. He says, “I put every wheel into its place; I made the whole of it, from beginning to end.” You think to yourself, “I feel the utmost confidence in trusting that man with my watch; he can surely put it right, for he made it.” It often cheers my heart to think that since the Lord made me he can put me right, and keep me so to the end. My Maker is my Redeemer. He that first made me has made me again, and will make me perfect, to his own praise and glory. That is the first part of this complete knowledge.
The second part of the subject is our knowledge of the Lord, and the fact by which it is illustrated. “And mine own know me, even as I know the Father.” I think I hear some of you say, “I do not see so much in that. I can see a great deal more in Christ’s knowing us.” Beloved, I see a great deal in our knowing Christ. That he should know me is great condescension, but it must be easy to him to know me. Being so divine, with such a piercing eye as his, it is amazingly condescending, as I say, but it is not difficult for him to know me. The marvel is that I should ever know him. That such a stupid, blind, deaf, dead soul as mine should ever know him, and should know him as he knows the Father, is ten thousand miracles in one. Oh, sirs, this is a wonder so great that I do not think you and I have come at it yet co the full, or else we should sit down in glad surprise, and say, — This proves him to be the good Shepherd indeed, not only that he knows his flock, but that he has taught them so well that they know him! With such a flock as Christ has, that he should be able to train his sheep so that they should be able to know him, and to know him as he knows the Father, is miraculous.
0 beloved, if this be true of us, that we know our Shepherd, we may clap our hands for very joy! And yet I think it is true even uow. At any rate, I know so much of my Lord that nothing gives me so much joy as to hear of him. Brethren, there is no boasting in this personal assertion of mine. It is only the bare truth. You can say the same; can you not? If anybody were to preach to you the finest sermon that was ever delivered, would it charm you if there was no Christ in it? No. But you will come and hear me talk about Jesus Christ in words as simple as ever I can find, and you cry one to another, “It was good to be there.”
“Thou dear Redeemer, dying Lamb,
We love to hear of thee:
No music’s like thy charming name,
Nor half so sweet can be.”
Now mark that this is the way in which Jesus knows the Father. Jesus delights in his Father, and you delight in Jesus. I know you do; and herein the comparison holds good.
Moreover, does not the dear name of Jesus stir your very soul? What is it that makes you feel as if you wish to hasten away, that you might be doing holy service for the Lord? What makes your very heart awake, and feel ready to leap out of your body? What but hearing of the glories of Jesus? Play on what string you please, and my ear is deaf to it; but when you once begin to tell of Calvary, and sing the song of free grace, ‘and dying love, oh, then my soul opens all her ears, and drinks in the music, and then her blood begins to stir, and she is ready to shout for joy! Do you not even now sing —
“Oh, for this love let rocks and hills
Their lasting silence break,
And all harmonious human tongues
The Saviour’s praises speak.
* Ye*, we will praise thee, dearest Lord,
Our souls are all on flame,
Hosanna round the spacious earth
To thine adored name?”
Yes, we know Jesus. We feel the power of our union with him. We know him, brethren, so that we are not to be deceived by false shepherds. There is a way nowadays of preaching Christ against Christ. It is a new device of the devil to set up Jesus against Jesus, his kingdom against his atonement, his precepts against his doctrines. The half Christ in his example is put up, to frighten souls away from the whole Christ, who saves the souls of men from guilt as well as from sin, from hell as well as from folly. But they cannot deceive us in that way. No, beloved we know our Shepherd from all others. We know him from a statue covered with his clothes. We know the living Christ, for we have come into living contact with him, and we cannot be deceived an) more than Jesus Christ himself can be deceived about the Father. “Mine own know me, even as I know the Father.” We know him by union with him, and by communion with him. “We have seen the Lord.” “Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Sou Jesus Christ.”
236 ttETROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT.
We know him by love: our soul cleaves to him, even as the heart of Christ cleaves to the Father. We know him by trusting him — “He is all my salvation, and all my desire.” I remember once feeling many questions as to whether I was a child of God or not. I went into a little chapel, and I heard a good man preach. He was a simple working-man. I heard him preach, and I made my handkerchief sodden with tny tears as I heard him talk about Christ, and the precious blood. When I was preaching the same things to others I was wondering whether this truth was mine, but while I was hearing for myself I knew it was mine, for my very soul lived upon it. I went to that good man, and thanked him for the sermon. He asked me who I was. When I told him, he turned all manner of colours. “Why,” he said, “Sir, that was your own sermon.” I said, “Yes, I knew it was, and it was good of the Lord to feed me with food that I had prepared for others.” I perceived that I had a true taste for what I myself knew to be the gospel of Jesus Christ. Oh, yes, we do love our good Shepherd! We cannot help it.
And we know him also by a deep sympathy with him; for what Christ desires to do, we also long to do. He loves to save souls, and so do we. Would we not save all the people in a whole street if we could? Ay, in a whole city, and in the whole world! Nothing makes us so glad as that Jesus Christ is a Saviour. “There is news in the paper,” says one. That news is often of small importance to our hearts. I happened to hear that a poor servant girl had heard me preach the truth, and found Christ; and I confess I felt more interest in that fact than in all the rise and fall of Whigs or Tories. What does it matter who is in Parliament, so long as souls are saved? That is the main thing. If the kingdom of Christ grows, all the other kingdoms are of small account. That is the one kingdom for which we live, and for which we would gladly die. As there is a boundless sympathy between the Father and the Son, so is there between Jesus and ourselves.
We know Christ as he knows the Father, because we are one with him. The union between Christ and his people is as real and as mysterious as the union between the Son and the Father.
We have a beautiful picture before us. Can you realize it for a minute? The Lord Jesus here among us — picture him! He is the Shepherd. Then, around him are his own people, and wherever he goes they go. He leads them into green pastures, and beside the still waters. And there is this peculiarity about them: he knows them as he looks upon every one of them, and they every one of them know him. There is a deeply intimate and mutual knowledge between them. As surely as he knows them, they know him. The world knows neither the Shepherd nor the sheep, but they know each other. As surely as truly, and as deeply, as God the Father knows the Son, so does this Shepherd know his sheep; and as God the Son knows his Father, so do these sheep know their Shepherd. Thus in one band, united by mutual intercourse, they travel through the world to heaven. “I know mine own, and mine own know me, even as the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father.” Is not that a blessed picture? God help us to figure in it!
III. The last subject is COMPLETE SACRIFICE. The complete sacrifice is thus described, — / lay down my life for the sheep”
These words are repeated in this chapter in different forms some four times. The Saviour keeps on saying, “I lay down my life for the §heep.” Read the eleventh verse: “The good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” The fifteenth verse: “I lay down my life for the sheep.” The seventeenth verse: “I lay down my life, that I may take it again.” The eighteenth verse: “I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” It looks as if this was another refrain of our Lord’s personal hymn. I call this passage his pastoral song. The good Shepherd with his pipe sings to himself and to his flock, and this comes in at the end of each stanza, “I lay down my life for the sheep.”
Did it not mean, first, that he was always doing so? All his life long he was, as it were, laying it down for them; he was divesting himself of the garments of life, till he came to be fully disrobed on the cross. All the life he had, all the power he had, he was always laying it out for his sheep. It means that, to begin with.
And then it means that the sacrifice was actively performed. It was ever in the -doing as long as he lived; but he did it actively. He did not die for the sheep merely, but he laid down his life, which is another thing. Many a man has died for Christ: it was all that he could do. But we cannot lay down our lives, because they are due already as a debt of nature to God, and we are not permitted to die at our own wills. That were suicidal and improper. With the Lord Christ it was totally different. He was, as it were, actively passive. “I lay down my life for the sheep. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.”
I like to think of our good Shepherd, not merely as dying for us, but as willingly dying — laying down his life: while he had that life, using it for us; and when the time came, putting off that life on our behalf. This has now been actually done. When he spoke these words, it had not been done. At this time it has been done. “I lay down my life for the sheep” may now be read, “I have laid down my life for the sheep.” For you, beloved, he has given his hands to the nails, and his feet to the cruel iron. For you he has borne the fever and the bloody sweat; for you he has cried “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani;” lor you he has given up the ghost.
And the beauty of it is that he is not ashamed to avow the object of it. “I lay down my life /or the sheep.” Whatever Christ did for the world — and I am not one of those who would limit the bearings of the death of Christ upon the world — yet nig peculiar glory is, “I iaj down my life for the sheep.
Great Shepherd, do you mean te say that you have died for such <ia these t What! for these sheep? Died for them? What! die for sheep, Shepherd? Surely you have other objects for which to live beside sheep. Have you not other loves, other joys? We know that it would griex e rou to see the sheep killed, torn by the wolf, or scattered; but you really have not gone so far in love for them that for the sake of those poor creatures you would lay down your life? “Ah, yes,” he says, “I would, I have! “Carry your wondering thoughts to Christ Jesus. What! What! What! Son of God, infinitely great and inconceivably glorious Jehovah, wouldst thou lay thy life down for men and women? They are no more io comparison with thee than so many ants and wasps, pitiful and obnoxious creatures. Thou couldst make ten thousand millions of them with a word, or crush them out of existence at one blow of thy hand. They are poor things, make the most you can of them. They hare hard hearts, and wandering wills; and the best of thjem are no better than they should be. Saviour, didst thou die for such? He looks round, and says,” Yes, I did. I did. I laid down my life for the sheep. I am not ashamed of them, and I am not ushamed to say that I died for them.” No, beloved, he is not ashamed of his dying love. He has told it to his brethren up yonder, and made it known to all the servants in his Father’s house, and this has become the song of that house, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain! “Shall not we take it up, and say,” For thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood “? Whatever men may talk about particular redemption, Christ is not ashamed of it. He glories that he laid down his life for the sheep. For the sheep, mark you. He says not for the world. There is a bearing of the death of Christ towards the world; but here he boasts, and glories in the specialty of his sacrifice. “I lay down my life for the sheep” — “instead of the sheep,” it might be read. He glories in substitution for his people. He makes it his boast, when he speaks of his chosen, that he suffered in their stead — that he bore, that they might never bear, the wrath of God on account of sin. What he glories in, we also glory in. “God forbid that I should glory gave in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world!”
0 beloved, what a blessed Christ we have who loves us so, who knows us so — whom we also know and love! May others be taught to know him, and to love him! Yea, at this hour may they come and put their trust in him, as the sheep trust to the shepherd! We ask it for Jesu’s sake. Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON — John I.
Sfabmrad* flutpit,
OTHER SHEEP AND ONE FLOCK.
DELIVERED ON LORD’S-DAY MORNING, MARCH 25TH, 1883, er
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABHIINACLE, NKVVINGTON.
“And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and they shall be one fold, and one shepherd (or more correctly, ouejtock, one shepherd).” — John x. 16.
THIS verse is guarded before and behind by two notable statements. Before it we hear the Master say, “I lay down my life for the sheep,” and immediately after it we meet with another grand sentence, “I lay down my life, that I might take it again.” The first statement, “7 lay down my life for the sheep” is the sheet anchor of our confidence when storms assail the vessel of the church. The Lord Jesus has by his death proved his love to his people; and his determination to save them is made clear by his laying down his life for them; therefore doubt and fear should be banished and the very name of despair should be unknown among the Israel of God. Now are we sure of the love of the Son of God to his chosen flock, for we have an infallible proof of it in the laying down of his life for them. Now also are we absolutely certain that Christ’s purpose is perpetual: it cannot alter; the Lord Jesus has committed himself to that purpose beyond recall, for the price is paid and the deed is done by which the purpose is to be effected. Beyond this we are hereby assured beyond a shadow of a doubt that the divine purpose will be carried out, for it cannot be that Christ should die in vain. We think it a kind of blasphemy to suppose that his blood should be spilt for naught. Whatever was proposed to be accomplished by the laying down of the life of the Son of God, we feel absolutely certain that it will be fully performed in the teeth of all adversaries; for we are not now speaking of man’s design, but of the purpose of God, to which he devoted the heart’s blood of his only-begotten Son. We both patiently hope and quietly wait to see the salvation of God, and the performance of all his designs of love; for that deach upon the cross is a cause which will surely produce its effect. Christ did not die at a peradventure. The supposition of a Saviour disappointed in the results of his blood-shedding is not to be tolerated for a moment. In darkest times that glorious cross flames with light. No evil event can prevent its efficacy. Still in that sign we conquer. If Jesus has laid down his life for the sheep, then all is well. Rest assured of the Father’s No. 1,713. 4(3 love to those sheep; rest assured of the immutability of the Divine purpose concerning them, and rest assured of its ultimate achievement. It must not, shall not be that God’s own Son shall lay down his life in vain. Though heaven and earth should pass away, the precious heart’s blood of the Son of God shall accomplish the end for which it was so freely poured forth. Jesus says, “I lay down my life for the sheep,” therefore the sheep must live who have been redeemed at such a price as this, and the Shepherd in them shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. So far we are cheered by the vanguard which marches in advance of our text.
But as if the poor, timid people of God would, nevertheless, at times fancy that the purpose of Christ would not be achieved, behold in the rear another sentence, “/ lay down my life that I might take it again.” He that died, and so redeemed his people by price, lives that he may himself personally see that they are also redeemed by power. If a man dies to achieve a purpose, you feel sure that his very soul must have been in it: but if that man should rise again from the dead, and still pursue his purpose you would see how resolutely he was set on his design. If he rose with greater power, clothed with higher rank, and elevated to a more eminent position, and if he still pursued his great object, you would then be more than certain of his never-ending determination to perform his design. In the risen life of Jesus assurance is made doubly sure: now are we sure that his design must be carried out, nothing can hinder it. We dare not dream that the Son of God can be disappointed of the object for which he died, and for which he lives again. If Jesus died for a purpose he will accomplish it; if Jesus rose for a purpose, he will accomplish it; if Jesus lives for ever for a purpose, he will accomplish it. To me this conclusion seems to be past question: and if it be so, it puts the destiny of the sheep beyond all hazard. Did not Paul argue much in the same way when he said, “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life”?
If any of you have been cast down by reason of present difficulties, let these two grand texts sound their silver trumpets in your ears. If you have been looking forth from the windows, and the outlook has seemed to be exceeding dark, take courage, I pray you, from what your Lord has done: his death and resurrection are prophetic of good things to come. You dare not think that Christ will miss the end of his death: you dare not think that he will miss the purpose of his glory-life: why, then, are you cast down? His will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven, as surely as he came from heaven to earth, and has returned from earth to heaven. His purpose shall be carried out as surely as he died and lives again. Is not this the secret reason why, when the Lord appeared to his sorrowing servant John, he said to him, “I am he that liveth and was dead and am alive for evermore, amen, and have the keys of death and of hell”? Is not the dying and then living Shepherd the safety and the glory of the flock? Wherefore comfort one another with these words of your Lord, “I lay down my life for the sheep”; “I lay down my life, that I might take it again.”
I. There are four things in the text itself which deserve your attention, for they are full of consolation to minds troubled by the evil a of these perilous times. The first is this, — OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST HAD A PEOPLE UNDER THE WORST CIRCUMSTANCES. When he speaks of “other sheep,” it is implied that he had certain sheep at the time; and when he says “other sheep have I which are not of this fold,” it is manifest that even then the Good Shepherd had a fold. The times were grievously dark and evil, but a few true hearts clustered about the Saviour and by his divine power were protected as in a “fold.” It has been supposed that our Lord here alludes to the Jews as “this fold”; but the Jews, as such, were never Christ’s fold. He could not have meant to call the Jews around him his fold, for a little further on he exclaims, “Ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.” His fold were that little handful of disciples whom by his personal ministry he had gathered, and who stood folded, as it were, about their Good Shepherd. They might be sneered at as a little company, but he saith to his enemies who are standing outside the fold foaming with wrath, “Other sheep I have that are not of thm little fold: these you cannot see, but I have them none the less for that; these I must in due time lead, and then there shall be one flock and one Shepherd.”
See, then, that the Lord Jesus had a people in the worst times. Doubtless these days are exceedingly dangerous, and I have certain brethren round me who never allow me to forget it, for they play well in the minor key, and dwell most judiciously upon the necessary topic of the general declension of the church and the growing depravity of the world. I would not stop them from their faithful warnings, although I can assure them that, with slight variations, I have heard the same tune for years. Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth up, and it has been good for me. I recollect hearing some thirty years ago that we lived in awful times; and, as nearly as I can recollect, the tinier have been awful ever since; and I suppose they always will be. The watchmen of the night see everything except the coming of the morning. Our pilots perceive dangers ahead and steer with caution. Perhaps this is as it should be; at any rate, it is better than sleeping in a fool’s, paradise. Be this as it may, it is clear that the days of our Lord Jesus Christ were emphatically terrible times. No age can be worse than that age which literally crucified the Son of God, crying, “Away with him! Away with him!” Whether the present days are better than those I will not determine, but they cannot be worse. The day of our Lord’s first advent was the culmination and the crisis of the world’s career of sin; and yet the Good Shepherd had a fold among men in the midnight of history.
There was a sad lack of vital godliness in those days. A few godly ones watched for the coming of the Messiah; but they were very few, such as good old Simeon and Anna. A small remnant sighed and cried for the abounding sin of the nation; but the salt was almost gone: Israel was becoming like Sodom and Gomorrah. The choice band of mourners in Zion had not quite died out, but their number was so few that a child might write them. Speaking generally, when the Saviour came to his own, his own received him not. The mass of professing people in that day was rotten throughout; the life of God was gone; it could not dwell with the Pharisees nor the Sadducees, nor any of the sects of the times, for they were altogether gone out of the way. The Lord looked, and there was no man to help or to uphold his righteous cause: those who professed to be its champions had altogether become unprofitable. As for the religious teachers, their mouth was become an open sepulchre, and the poison of asps was under their tongues: and yet the Lord had a people in Judea even then. On earth there was still a fold for sheep whom he had chosen who knew the Shepherd’s voice and gathered to his call and followed him faithfully.
It was a time when will-worship abounded. Men had given up worshipping God according to the Scriptures, and they worshipped according to their own fancies. Then you might hear the trumpet in every corner of the street, for Pharisees were distributing their alms. You could see fathers and mothers neglected, and families broken up because the scribes had taught the people that if they should say “Oorban” they were free from all obligation to help father or mother. They taught for doctrines the commandments of men, and the commandments of God were laid on one side. To wear broad-bordered garments and phylacteries was exalted into a matter of first importance; while to lie and cheat were mere trifles. To eat with unwashen hands was thought to be a crime, but to devour widow’s houses was a thing which to the most self-righteous Pharisee caused no qualm of conscience. The land was filled with will-worship, and that is one great and growing hindrance nowadays; but for all that Christ had a fold of his own, and in it were those who knew his voice, and these, following at his heel, were enabled to go in and out and find pasture.
It was a day when there was the most fierce opposition to f.he real truth of God. Our Lord Jesus could hardly open his mouth but they took up stones to stone him. It was said that he had a devil and was mad; and that he was a “gluttonous man and a wine bibber, the friend of publicans and sinners.” The rage of men against Christ was then boiling at its greatest heat, till at last they took him and nailed him to the cross because they could not endure that he should live among them. And yet he had his own in those dreadful times: even then he had his chosen company for whom he laid down his life, of whom he said to the Father, “Thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.” To those he spake saying “Ye are they that have continued with me in my temptations. And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me.” Wherefore, beloved, I gather that though at this time there is a sad decline in vital godliness, and though will worship sweeps over the land with its tumultuous waves, and though opposition to the pure truth of Christ is more fierce than ever; nevertheless even at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. Even to-day the answer of God saith to the complaining prophet, “Yet have I left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal.” Wherefore, my brethren, in confidence possess ye your souls.
Now, it is to be noticed that this little company of Christ’s people he calls a “fold.” Afterwards they were to be a “flock,” but while hia bodily presence was with them they were pre-eminently a “fold.” They were few in number, all of one race, mostly in one place, and so compact that they could fitly be said to be a fold One glance of the Shepherd’s bodily eye saw them all. Happily, also, they were so thoroughly distinct from the rest of the world that they were eminently and evidently folded. Our Lord said of them, “Ye are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” He had shut them in to himself, and shut the world out. Within this blessed seclusion they were perfectly safe, so that their Lord said to the Father, “While I was with hem in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest ae I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that he scripture might be fulfilled.” Whatever their mistakes and faults, and they were many, yet they did not conform themselves to the generation among which they dwelt, but they were kept apart as in a fold while Jesus was with them. In that fold they were protected from all ill weathers, and from the wolf, and the thief. The Lord’s presence with them was like a wall of fire round about them: they had only to run to him and he answered all their adversaries, and defended them from reproach. Like another David, the Lord Jesus guarded his flock from all the ravening lions that sought to devour them. True, even in that little fold there were goats, for he himself said, “I have chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil.” Even then they were not absolutely pure, but they were wonderfully so; and they were marvellously separated from the world, preserved from false doctrine, and kept from dividing and scattering. Within that fold they were being strengthened for the future following of their great Shepherd. They were learning a thousand things which would be useful to them when afterwards he sent them forth as lambs among wolves; so that they would be “wise as serpents and harmless as doves,” because of what they had learned of their Lord. Thus you see that in the worst times the Lord had a church, I might almost say the best church. May 1 not call it so? for that apostolic church upon which the Holy Ghost descended was nut a whit behind the church of any era that succeeded it. It was the choice flock of all the flocks of the ages, even that feeble company of which Jesus said, “Fear not, little little Sock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
Yet you see one thing is notable here, that when Jesus had thus shut them all in he would not allow them to become exclusive and glide into a state of selfish satisfaction. No, he opens wide the door of the sheepfold and cries to them, “Other sheep I have.” Thus he checks a tendency so common in the church to be forgetful of those outside the fold, and to make one’s own personal salvation the sum and substance of religion. 1 do not think it wrong to sing —
“We are a garden wall’d around,
Chosen, and made peculiar ground;
A little spot, enclosed by grace
Out of the world’s wide wilderness.”
On the contrary, I judge that the verse is true, and sweet, and ought to be sung; but then there are other truths besides this one. To us also the Shepherd opens the door of the enclosed garden and says, “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them, and the desert rejoice and blossom as the rose.” The fold is our abode, but it is not our sole sphere of action; for we are to go forth of it into all the world seeking our brethren. Seeing that our Lord has other sheep which are not of this fold, and these are to be found by him through his faithful people, let us arouse ourselves to the holy enterprise. u O, come, let us go and find them
In the paths of death they roam;
At the close of the day ‘twill be sweet to say,
* I have brought some lost one home.’”
Beloved, I shall leave this point when I have said to you, — never despair! The Lord of hosts is with his people. They may be few and poor, but they are Christ’s, and that makes them precious. A common sheepfold is not a thing of glory and beauty, four rough walls compose it, and it is but a hovel for sheep; even so the church may appear mean and base in men’s eyes; but then it is the sheepfold of tke Shepherd-King, and the sheep belong to the Lord God Almighty. There is a glory about this which angels do not fail to see. Here is human weakness, but also divine power. We do not, I fear, estimate the strength of a church aright. I read of three brethren who had to carry on a col-lege when funds were running short. One of them complained that they had no helpers, and could not hope to succeed; but another who had more faith said to his brother, “Do you ask what we can do? Do you say that we are so few? I do not see that we are few; for we are a thousand at the least.” “A thousand of us!” said the other, “how is that?” “Why,” replied the first, “I am a cipher, and you are a cipher, and our brother is a cipher; so we have three noughts to begin with. Then I am sure the Lord Jesus is ONE: put him down before the three ciphers and we have a thousand directly.” Was not this bravely spoken? What power we have when we do but set the great ONE in the front. You are nothing, brother; you are nothing, sister; I am nothing; we are all nothing when we are put together without our Lord: but, oh, if he stands in front of us then we are thousands; and again is it true on earth as in heaven, the chariots of the Lord are twenty thousand, even thousands of messengers, the Lord is among them as in the holy place. Wherefore, my friends, be ye not cast down at any time, but say untoyourselves — We are not even now come to so dark a night as once fell on this world. We are not at this painful moment in such a desperate condition as the church of Christ was in his own day; and if the Lord be spiritually in the midst of us we need not fear though the earth be removed, and the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, for there is a city which abides for ever, and there is a river the streams whereof shall for ever make her glad. God is in the midst of her,, she shall not be moved; God shall help her, and that right early. Wherefore, my fellow-believers, be ye strong and of good courage!
II. But now, secondly, it is clear, for the text teaches it in so many words, that OUR LORD HATH OTHER SHEEP NOT YET KNOWN TO us. He says, “Other sheep I have.” I want you to notice that strong expression, “Other sheep / have,” — not “I shall have,” but “I have other sheep.” Many of these sheep were not even in the thoughts of the apostles. I do not think it had crossed the mind of Peter, James, or John that their Lord had any sheep in this poor savage island, then scarcely regarded as being within the borders of the earth. I do not suppose the apostles at that time even dreamed that their Lord Jesua had sheep in Home. No, their most liberal notion was that the Hebrew nation might be converted, and the scattered of the seed of Abraham gathered together in one. Our Shepherd-King has greater thoughts than the most large-hearted of his servants. He delights to enlarge the area of our love. “Other sheep have I.” You do not know them, but the Shepherd does. Unknown to ministers, unknown to the warmest-hearted Christians, there are many in the world whom Jesus claims for his own through the covenant of grace.
Who are these? Well, these “other sheep” were, first, his chosen; for he lias a people whom he has chosen out of the world, and ordained unto eternal life. “Ye have not chosen me,” said he, “but I have chosen you,” — there is a people upon whom his sovereignty has fixed its loving choice from before the foundation of the world. And of these elect ones he says, “I have them.” His election of them is the basis of his property in them. These are also those whom his Father gave him, of whom he says in another place, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me”: and again, u Of those whom thou hast given me I have lost none.” His Father’s eternal donation of them seals his title to them. These are the people for whom he peculiarly and especially laid down his life, that they might be the redeemed of the Lord. “Christ loved his church, and gave himself for it.” These are they that are redeemed from among men, of whom we read, “Ye are not your own, ye are bought with a price.” The Lord Jesus laid down his life for his sheep: he tells us so himself, and none can question his own statement. These are those of whom Jesus says ‘* I have them,” for on account of these he entered into suretiship engagements, even as Jacob undertook the flock of Laban and watched day and night that he should not lose them, and if one had been torn, he would have had to make it good. These sheep represent a people for whom Christ hath entered into suretiship engagements with his Father that he will deliver each one of them safely at the last day of account, not one of them being absent when the sheep shall pass again under the hand of him that telleth them as they will at the last great day. “Other sheep I have,” says Christ. How wonderful that he should say, “I have them,” though as yet they were far off by wicked works.
What was their state? They were a people without shepherd, with out fold, without pasture, lost on the mountains, wandering in the woods, lying down to die, ready to be devoured by the wolf; yet Jesus says, “Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold.” They were sheep that had wandered exceeding far, even into the most shameful iniquity, and yet he says, “I have them.” Bad as this world is to-day, it must have been far worse in the cruel Roman age as to open vices and unmentionable abominations; and yet these wanderers were the sheep of Christ, and in due time they were delivered from their sins, and fetched away from all the superstition and idolatry and filthiuess into which they had wandered. They were Christ’s even while they were afar off; he had chosen them, the Father had given them to him, he had bought them, and he determined to have them; nay, he suith, “I have them,” and he calls them his own even while they are transgressing and running headlong to destruction.
It seems to ine that these were as well known to Christ as those that were in his fold. I think I see him, the Divine Man, standing there confronting his adversaries, and when he has cast his glance upon his foes, I see his eyes going to and fro throughout the whole earth to gaze upon a sight far more pleasant to him. While he speaks his eyes flash with joyous fire as they light upon thousands out of every kindred and people and tongue, and while he quotes to himself the words of the twenty-second Psalm: “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the Lord’s: and he is the governor among the nations. A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.” He spies out the myriads that are his, and he rejoices before his scornful foes as he sees his growing kingdom which they are powerless to overthrow. Proud, self-righteous men may blindly refuse the leadership of the Lord’s anointed Shepherd, but he shall not be without a flock to be his honour and reward. Did not the Lord at that time rejoice in his inmost heart and soliloquize within himself thus — “Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength”? This led him to say, “Other sheep I have.”
In this there is great comfort for God’s people who love the souls of their fellow-men. The Lord has a people in London, and he knows them. “I have much people in this city,” was said to the apostle when as yet nobody was converted there. “I have them,” says Christ; though as yet they had not sought him. Oar Lord Jesus has an elect redeemed people all over the world at this time, though as yet they are not called by grace. I know not where they are, nor where they are not; but for certain he has them somewhere, since still it stands true, “Other sheep I have which are not of this fold.” This is a part of our authority for going out to find the lost sheep; for we brethren have a right to go anywhere to ask after our Master’s sheep. I have no business to go hunting after other people’s sheep; but if they are my Master’s sheep who shall stop me over hill or dale enquiring, “Have you seen my Master’s sheep?” If any say, “You do intrude in this land,” let the answer be, “We are after our Master’s sheep which have strayed here!” “Excuse our pushing further than politeness might allow, we are in haste to find a lost sheep.” This is your excuse for going into a house where you are not wanted, to try and leave your tract and speak a word for Christ: say, “I think my Master has one of his sheep here, and I am come after it.” You have received a search-warrant from the King of kings, and therefore you have a right to enter and search after your Lord’s stolen property. If men belonged to the devil we would not rob the enemy himself; but they do not belong to him; he neither made theni nor bought them, and therefore we seize them in the King’s name whenever we can lay hands on them. I doubt not but what there are some here this morning who neither know nor love the Saviour as yet, who nevertheless belong to the Redeemer, and he will yet bring them to himself and to his flock. Therefore it is that we preach with confidence. I do not come into this pulpit hoping that peradventure somebody will of his own free will return to Christ; that may be so or not, but my hope lies in another quarter; I hope that my Master will lay hold of some of them and say, “You are mine, and you shall be mine; I claim you for myself.” My hope arises from the freeness of grace, and not from the freedom of the will. A poor haul of fish will any gospel fisherman make if he takes none but those who are eager to leap into the net. Oh, for an hour of Jesus among this crowd! Oh, for five minutes of the great Shepherd’s handiwork! When the good Shepherd overtakes his lost sheep he has not much to say to it. According to the parable he says nothing, but he lays hold of it, lays it on his shoulders and carries it home, and that is what I want the Lord to do this morning with some of you whose will is all the other way, whose wishes and desires are all contrary to him. I want him to come with sacred violence and mighty love to restore you to your Father and your God. Not that you will be saved against your will, but your consent will be sweetly gained. Oh, that the Lord Jesus would take you in hand and never let you go again. May he sweetly say to you, “Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.”
III. Our third head contains in it much delight. OUR LORD MUST BRING OR LEAD THOSE OTHER SHEEP. “Them also I must bring” — read it, and it will be more accurate, “them also I must lead:” Christ must be at the head of these other sheep, and they must follow his lead — “them also I must lead, and they shall hear my voice.” Those who belong to Christ secretly must be openly led to follow him.
First, it is Christ that has to do it, even as he has done it hitherto. The text says, “Them also I must bring,” and this language implies that those who have already come he has brought. All that were in the fold Christ had brought there, and all that are to be in the fold he must lead there. All of us who are saved have been saved by the mighty power of God in Christ Jesus. Is it not so? Is there anyone among us that came to Jesus without Jesus first coming to him? Surely, no. Without exception we all admit that it was his love that sought us out and brought us to be the sheep of his pasture. Now, as the^Lord Jesus has done this for us he must do it for others; for they will never come except he fetch them.
Here comes in that emphatic, imperious “must.” The proverb is that “must “is for the king, and the king may say 4< must” to all of us: but did you ever hear of a “must” that bound the king himself and constrained him? Kings generally do not care to have it said to them you “must;” but there is a king, the like of which king there never was nor shall be for glory and for dominion, and yet he is bound by a “must” — the Prince Immanuel saith, “them also I must bring.” Whenever Jesus says “must” something comes of it. Who can resist the omnipotent must f Clear out, devils! Clear out, wicked men! Flee, darkness! Die, 0 death I If Jesus says “must” we know what is going to happen: difficulties vanish, impossibilities are achieved. Glory, glory, the Lord shall get the victory! Jesus says of his chosen, his redeemed, his espoused, his covenanted ones, “Them also I must bring,” and therefore it must be done.
Furthermore, he tells us how he must do it. He says, “They shall hear my voice.” So that our Lord is going to save people still by the gospel. J do not look for any other means of converting men beyond the siinpla preaching of the gospel and the opening of men’s ears to hear it — “They shall hear my voice.” The old methods are to be followed to the end of the chapter. Our standing orders are, — “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” We are not commissioned to do anything else but continue to preach the gospel, the selfsame gospel which saved us and which was delivered to us at the beginning. We know of no alterations, enlargements, or amendments to the gospel. We obey and follow one voice, not many voices. One gospel of salvation is to be proclaimed every where, and no other work is in our commission.
Then it is added, “They shall hear my voice.” It is promised that they shall first lend an attentive ear and then that they shall yield a willing heart to the voice of divine love, and follow Jesus where he leads. ‘-What then,” saith one; “suppose I speak in Christ’s name, and they will not hear?” Do not suppose what cannot be! The Scripture says of the chosen sheep, — “they shall hear my voice.” The rest remain in their blindness, bui. the redeemed will hear and see. Do not again say, “Suppose they will not!” You must not suppose any thing that is contrary to what Jesus promises when he says, “They shall hear my voice.” The graceless may stop their ears if they will, and perish with Christ’s voice as a witness against them, but his own redeemed shall hear the heavenly voice and obey it. There is no resisting this divine necessity: Jesus says — “I must bring them, and they shall hear my voice.” It was with this that Paul turned to the Gentiles, and said to the Jews, “Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it.” He had no fear about the reception the word would meet with; neither ought we to entertain any, since Christ has a people who must be led, and shall hear the voice of the Bishop and Shepherd of souls.
We have heard it said that “If Christ must have his people, what is the good of preaching?” What would be the good of preaching if it were otherwise? Why, dear sir, this fact is one great reason why we preach. That which you suppose to be a motive for inaction is the strongest motive for energetic movement. Because the Lord has a people that must be saved we feel an imperious necessity laid upon us to join with him in bringing this people to himself. They must come, and we must fetch them: Christian brethren, do you not feel that you must help in compelling them to come to the wedding-feast? Is it not laid upon you that you must go after lost souls, that you must speak to them, seeing that you must have a hand in bringing these blood-bought ones to Christ by his Holy Spirit?
And again, are there not some in this place who feel a necessity laid upon them also that they must come? Do I not hear some of you saying, “I have stood out a long while, but I must come; I have resisted divine grace long enough, and now Christ has laid his hand on me, I must come.” How I wish that a heavenly “must,” a blessed necessity of omnipotent decree may overshadow you, and bear you as a sheep to the fold. Oh that you may now yield yourselves unto God because the love of Christ constraineth you. Submit yourselves unto God, owning the supreme authority of his grace, which shall lead every thought into captivity, that henceforth Christ may reign in your hearts, and put every enemy under his feet. He saith, “Him that cometh to me I will in nowise cast out.” “I will trust him,” saith one; “I feel I must.” Just so; and that trust is a mark of your election of God, for “He that believeth in him hath everlasting life.” “Whom he did predestinate them he also called.” If he is calling you it is because he did predestinate you; and you may rest quite sure of it, and yield to him with holy joy and delight. As for me, I feel so happy in preaching the gospel, because I am not fishing with a “chance “and a u perhaps” that some may come. The Lord knoweth them that are his, and they shall come. Every congregation is, in this sense, a picked assembly. I felt this morning when I came here that there were so many friends out in the country for the holidays that we should very likely have a thin house. I rejoice that I was altogether out in ray reckoning, but even then I thought, God has a people that he will bring whom he means to bless. Here they are, and now while standing here I know that God’s word “shall not return to him void, but it shall accomplish that which he pleases, and shall prosper in the thing whereto he hath sent it.”
IV. But now, lastly, OUR LORD GUARANTEES THK UNITY OF HIS CHURCH. “Them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.” We hear a great deal about the unity of the church, and notions upon this subject are rather wild. We are to have the Roman and the Greek and the Anglican church all joined together in one: if they were so, the result would not be worth two-pence; but much evil would come of it. God has, I doubt not, a chosen people amongst all these three great corporations, but the union of such questionable organizations would be a dire omen of mischief to the world: the dark ages, and a worse Popedom than ever, would soon be upon us. The more those three quarrel with each other the better for truth and righteousness. I should like to see the Anglican Church standing at drawn daggers with the Roman, and coming into a more and more open opposition to its superstitions. I would to God that the national church would in all things be delivered from the Pope of Rome and his Antichristian enormities.
Truly, this has been carried out as a matter of fact; there never was but one Shepherd of the sheep yet, even Christ Jesus; and there never was but one flock of God yet, and there never will be. There is one spiritual church of God, and there never were two. All the visible churches up arid down the world contain within themselves parts of the one church of Jesus Christ, but there were never two bodies of Christ, and there cannot be. There is one church, and there is one Head of the church: the motto of Christianity is, — one flock and one Shepherd.
As a matter of experience this is carried out in believers. I do not care who the man is, if he is a truly spiritually-minded man he is one with all other spiritually-minded men. Those people in any visible church who have no grace are usually the greatest sticklers for every point of difference and ever particle of rite and form. Nominal professors are soon at war, quickened believers follow after peace Of course, when a man has nothing else but the outside, he rights for it tooth and nail; but a man who loves the Lord, and lives near him, perceives the inner life in others, and has fellowship therewith: that inner life ia one in all the quickened family, and compels them to be one in heart,
Set two brethren at prayer, the one a Calvinist and the other at* Arniinian, and they pray alike. Get a real work of the Spirit in a district and see how Baptists and Paedo-Baptists pull together. Tell out your inward experience and speak of the Spirit’s work in the soul, and see how we are all moved thereby. Here is a brother, a member of the Society of Friends, and he likes silent worship; and here is another who enjoys hearty singing; but when they get near to God they do not quarrel over this, but agree to differ: the one says, “The Lord be with you in your holy silence,” and the other prays that the Lord may accept his brother’s psalm. All who are one with Christ have a certain family feeling, a higher form of clannishness, and they cannot shake it off. I have found myself reading a gracious book which has drawn me near to God, and though I have known that it was written by a man with whose opinions I had little agreement, I have not therefore refused to be edified by him in points which are unquestionably revealed. No, but I have blessed the Lord that, with all his blunders, he knew so much of precious vital truth, and lived so near his Lord. What Protestant can refuse to love the holy Bernard? Was there ever a more consecrated servant of God or a dearer lover of Christ than he? Yet he was most sorrowfully in bondage to the superstitions of his age and of the Romish Church. Are you not all one with him who sang — Jesus, the very thought of thee
With sweetness fills my breast -t
But sweeter far thy face to see,
And in Thy presence rest”?
The external church is needful, but it is not the one and indivisible church of Christ. Jesus as the life binds his church together, and that life flows through all the regenerate, even as the blood flows through all the veins of the body. Drop the external, and look by faith into the spiritual realm and you will see one flock and one Shepherd.
The practical lesson is, let us belong to that one flock. How are they known? Answer: they are a hearing flock — they hear the Lord and follow his lead. Be you one of those who listen to Christ’s voice, and to none besides. Keep to the one Shepherd! How do you know him? It is Jesus: in his feet and hands are nail-prints, and* his side bears yet the scar. He it is who leads the one only flock. Follow Jesus and you are right. Follow him everywhere and you are happy. The best way to promote the unity of the church is for all the sheep to follow the Shepherd. If they all follow the Shepherd they will all keep together. Let us go forth and try and do that, and let us long for that happy day when all disputed points shall be settled by all obeying the Lord. Compromises would only mean an agreement to disobey the Lord. Let no man yield a principle under pretence of charity: it is not charity to call falsehood truth. We must follow Jesus fully, and we shall co-ne together. First pure then peaceable is the rule. Oh, when shall the triple banner again float over all, — “One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism!” Oh, God the Holy Ghost, forgive us our errors, and bring us to thy truth! Oh, God the Son, forgive us our want of holiness, and renew us in thine own image! Oh, God the Father, forgive us our want of love, and melt us into one family. To the one God be glory, in the one church, for ever and ever. Amen.
Sfabmrack f ulpit.
THE SHEEP AND THEIK SHEPHERD.
& £*rmon
DELIVERED BY
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NKWINGTON.
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” — John x. 27.
CHRISTIANS are here compared to sheep. Not a very flattering comparison you may say; but then we do not wish to be flattered, nor would our Lord deem it good to flatter us. While far from flattering, it is, however, eminently consoling, for of all creatures there are not any more compassed about with infirmity than sheep. In this frailty of their nature they are a fit emblem of ourselves; at least, of so many of us as have believed in Jesus and become his disciples. Let others boast how strong they are; yet if there be strong ones anywhere, certainly we are weak. We have proved our weakness, and day by day we lament it. We do confess our weakness; yet may we net repine at it, for, as Paul said, so we find, when we are weak then are we strong. Sheep have many wants, yet they are very helpless, and quite unable to provide for themselves. But for the shepherd’s care they would soon perish. This, too, is our case. Our spiritual needs are numerous and pressing, yet we cannot supply any of them. We are travellers through a wilderness that yields us neither food nor water. Unless our bread drop down from heaven, and our water flow out of the living rock, we must die. Our weakness and our want we keenly feel: still we have no cause to murmur, since the Lord knows our poor estate, and succours us with the tenderest care. Sheep, too, are sillj creatures, and in this respect likewise we are very sheepish. We meekly own it to him who is ready to guide us. We say, as David said, “O God, thou knowest my foolishness;” and he says to us as he said to David, ‘« I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go.” If Christ were not our wisdom, we should soon fall a prey to the destroyer. Every grain of true wisdom that we possess we have derived from him; of ourselves we are dull and giddy; folly is bound up in our heart. The more conscious you are, dear brethren, of your own deficiencies, your lack of stamina, discretion, sagacity, and all the instincts of self-preservation, the more delighted you will be to see that the Lord accepts you under these conditions, and calls YOU the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. He discerns YOU as you are, claims you as his own, foresees all the ills to which you are exposed, yet tends you as his flock, sets store by every lamb of the fold, and so feeds you according to the integrity of his heart, and guides you by the skilfulness of his hands. “/ will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God.” Oh, what sweet music there is to us in the name which is given to our Lord Jesus Christ of “the good Shepherd”! It not only describes the office he holds, but it sets forth the sympathy he feels, the aptness he shows, and the responsibility he bears to promote our well-being. What if the sheep be weak, yet is the shepherd strong to guard his flock from the prowling wolf or the roaring lion. If the sheep suffer privation because the soil is barren, yet is the shepherd able to lead them into pasturage suitable for them. If they be foolish, yet he goes before them, cheers them with his voice, and rules them with the rod of his command. There cannot be a flock without a shepherd; neither is there a shepherd truly without a flock. The two must go together. They are the fulness of each other. As the church is the fulness of him that filleth all in all, so we rejoice to remember that “of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.” That I am like a sheep is a sorry reflection; but that I have a shepherd charms away the sorrow and creates a new joy. It even becomes a gladsome thing to be weak, that I may rely on his strength; to be full of wants, that I may draw from his fulness; to be shallow and often at my wit’s end, that I may be always regulated
by his wisdom. Even so doth my shame redound tg his praise. Not to you, ye great and mighty, who lift your heads high, and claim for yourselves honour: not for you is peace, not to you is rest; but unto you, ye lowly ones, who delight in the valley of humiliation, and feel yourselves to be taken down in your own esteem — to you it is that the Shepherd becomes dear; and to you will he give to lie down in green pastures beside the still waters.
In a very simple way, we shall speak about the proprietor of the sheep. “>My sheep,” says Christ. Then, we shall have a little to say about the marks of the sheep. After that I propose to talk awhile about the privileges of the sheep. “I know my sheep:” they are privileged to be known of Christ. “My sheep hear my voice.”
I. Who is the proprietor of the sheep? They are all Christ’s. “My sheep hear my voice.” How came the saints to be Christ’s?
They are his, first of all, because he chose them. Ere the worlds were made, out of all the rest of mankind he selected them. He knew the race would fall, and become unworthy of the faculties with which he endowed them, and the inheritance he had assigned them. To him belonged the sovereign prerogative that he might have mercy on whom he would have mercy; and he, out of his own absolute will, and according to the counsel of his own good pleasure, made choice severally and individually of certain persons, and he said, “These are mine.” Their names were written in his book: they became his portion and his heritage. Having chosen them of old so many ages ago, rest assured he will not lose them now. Men prize that which they have long had. If there is a thing that was mine but yesterday, and it is lost to-day, I might not fret about it; but if I h ave long possessed it, and palled it my patrimony, I would not willingly part with it. Sheep of Christ, ye shall be his for ever, because ye have been his from ever. They are Christ’s sheep, because his Father gave them to him. They were the gift of the Father to Christ. He often speaks of them in this way. “As many as thou hast given me: ““Thou hast given them me,” saith he, over and over again. Of old, the Father gave his people to Christ. Separating them from among men, he presented them to him as a gift, committed them into his hand as a trust, and ordained them for him as the lot of his inheritance. Thus they become a token of the Father’s love to his only begotten Son, a proof of the confidence he reposed in him, and a pledge of the honour that shall be done unto him. Now, I suppose we most of us know how to value a gift for the donor’s sake. If presented to us by one whom we love, we set great store by it. If it has been designed to be a love-token, it awakens in our minds many sweet memories. Though the intrinsic worth may he of small account, the associations make it exceedingly precious. ‘”We might be content to lose something of far greater value in itself rather than that which is the gift of a friend, the offering of his love. I like the delicate sentiment of the poet, as it is expressed in that pretty verse —
“I never cast a flower away,
The gift of one who cared for me;
A little flower — a faded flower,
But it was done reluctantly.”
Yet, oh, how weak the words of human passion! but, oh, how strong the expressions of divine ardour, when Jesus speaks to the Father of “the men whom thou gavest me out of the world “I “Thine they were,” he says, “and thou gavest them me; and those that thou gavest me I have kept.” Ye sheep of Christ, rest safely; let not your soul be disturbed with fear. The Father gave you to his Son, and he will not lightly lose what God himself has given him. The infernal lions shall not rend the meanest lamb that is a love-token from the Father to his best Beloved. While Christ stands defending his own, he will protect them from the lion and the bear, that would take the lambs of his flock; he will not suffer the least of them to perish.
“• My sheep” says Christ. They are his, furthermore, because, in addition to his choice and to the gift, he has bought them with a price. They had sold themselves for nought; but he has redeemed them, not with corruptible things as with silver and gold, but with his precious blood. A man always esteems that to be exceedingly valuable which he procured with risk — with risk of life and limb. David felt he could not drink the water that the brave warriors who broke through the host of the Philistines brought to him from the well at Bethlehem, because it seemed to him as though it were the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives; and he poured it out before the Lord. It was too precious a draught for him, when men’s lives had been hazarded for it. But the good Shepherd not only hazarded his life, but even laid it down for his sheep. Jacob exceedingly valued one part of his possessions, and he gave it to Joseph: he gave him one portion above his brethren. Now, you may be sure he would give Joseph that which he thought most precious. * But why did he give him that particular portion? Because, he says, “I took it out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.” Now, our blessed Shepherd esteems his sheep because they cost him his blood. They cost him his blood — I may say, he took them out of the hand of the Amorite with his sword and with his bow in bloody conflict, where he wa& victor, but yet was slain. There is not one sheep of all his flock but what he can see the mark of his blood on him. In the face of every saint the Saviour sees, as in a glass, the memorial of his bloody swea,t in Gethsemane, and his agonies at Golgotha. “Ye are not your own, foT ye are bought with a price.” That stands as a call to duty, but it is at the same time a consolation, for if he has bought me, he will have me. Bought with such a price, he will not like to lose me, nor suffer any foe to take me out of his hand. Think not that Christ will suffer those to perish for whom he died. To me the very suggestion seems to draw near to the verge of blasphemy. If he has bought me with his blood, I cannot conceive he cares nothing for me, will take no further concern about me, or will suffer my soul to be cast into the pit. If he has suffered in my stead, where is justice gone that the substitute should bear my guilt, and I should bear it too? and where is mercy fled, that God should execute twice the punishment for one offence? Nay, beloved, those whom he hath bought with blood are his, and he will keep them.
“My sheep’’ says Christ. They are his, or in due time they shall become so, through his capturing them by sacred power. As well by power are we redeemed as by price, for the blood-bought sheep had gone astray even as others. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way;” but, my brethren, the good shepherd lias brought many of us back with infinite condescension: with boundless mercy he followed us when we went astray. Oh, what blind slaves we were when we sported with death! We did not know then what his love had ordained for us: it never entered our poor, silly heads that there was a crown for us; we did not know that the Father’s love had settled itself on us, or ever the day-star knew its place. We know it now, and it is he that has taught us; for he followed us over mountains of vanity, through bogs and miry places of foul transgression; tracked our devious footsteps on and on, through youth and manhood, till at last, with mighty grace, he grasped us in his arms and laid us on his shoulder, and is this day carrying us home to the great fold above, rejoicing as he bears all our weight and finds us in all we need. Oh, that blessed work of effectual grace! He has made us his own, he has defeated the enemy, the prey has been taken from the mighty, and the lawful captive has been delivered. “He hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron asunder,” to set his people free. “0 that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!”
“MY SHEKP,” saith Christ, as he stands in the midst of his disciples. ‘My Shepherd,” let us one and all reply. All the sheep of Christ who have been redeemed by his power, become his by their own willing and cheerful surrender of themselves to him. We would not belong to another if we might; nor would we wish to belong to ourselves if we could; nor, I trust, do we want any part of ourselves to be our own property.
Judge ye whether this be true of you or not. In that day when I surrendered my soul to my Saviour, I gave him my body, my soul, my spirit; I gave him all I had, and all I shall have for time and for eternity. I gave him all my talents, my powers, my faculties, my eyes, my ears, my limbs, my emotions, my judgment, my whole manhood, and all that could come of it, whatever fresh capacity or new capability I may be endowed with. Were I at this good hour to change the note of gladness for one of sadness, it should be to wail out my penitent confession of the times and circumstances in which I have failed to observe the strict and unwavering allegiance I owe to my Lord. So far from regretting, I would fain renew my vows and make them over again. In this I think every Christian would join.
u ‘Tis done! the great transaction’s done
I am my Lord’s, and he is mine:
He drew me, and I follow’d on,
Charm’d to confess the voice divine.
Now rest, my long-divided heart;
Fix’d on this blissful centre, rest:
With ashes who would grudge to part,
When call’d on angels’ bread to feast?
High heaven, that heard the solemn vow,
That vow renew’d shall daily hear:
Till in life’s latest hour 1 bow,
And bless in death a bond so dear.”
And yet, brethren, though our hearts may now be all in a glow, lest they should presently grow cold, or the bleak atmosphere of this evil world should chill our devotion, let us never cease to think of the good Shepherd in that great, good act, which most of all showed his love when he laid down his life for the sheep. You have heard the story told by Francis de Sales. He saw a girl carrying a pail of water on her head, in the midst of which she had placed a piece of wood. On asking her why she did this, she told him it was to prevent the motion of the water, for fear it might be spilt. And so, said he, let us place the cross of Christ in the midst of our hearts to check the movement of our affections, that they may not be spilt in restless cares or grievous troubles.
“My sheep” says Christ, and thus he describes his people. They are Christ’s, his own, a peculiar property. May I hope that this truth will be henceforth treasured up in your soul! It is a common truth, certainly; but when it is laid home by the Holy Spirit it shines, it beams, not merely as a lamp in a dark chamber, but as the day-star rising in your hearts. Remember this is no more our shame that we are sheep, but it is our honour that we are Christ’s sheep. To belong to a king carries some measure of distinction. We are the sheep of the imperial pastuies. This is our safety: he will not suffer the enemy to destroy his sheep. This is our sanctity* we are separated, the sheep of the pasture of the Lord’s Christ. This is sanctin’cation in one aspect of it: for it is the making of us holy, by setting us apart to be the Lord’s own portion for ever. And this is the key to our duty: we are his sheep: then let us live to him, and consecrate ourselves to him who loved us and gave him self for us. Christ is the proprietor of the sheep; and we are the property of the good Shepherd.
TI. JSTow, let us commune together awhile upon the marks of the pheep. When there are so many flocks of sheep, it is necessary to mark them. Our Saviour marks us. It has been very properly observed, that there are two marks on Christ’s sheep. One is on their ear, the other is on their foot. These are two marks of Christ’s sheep not to be found on any other; but they are to be found on all his own — the mark on the ear: “My sheep hear my voice” — the mark on the foot: “I know them, and they follow me.”
Think of this mark on their ear. “My sheep hear my voice.” They hear spiritually. A great many people in Christ’s day heard his voice who did not hear it in the way and with the perception that is here intended. They would not hear; that is to say, they would not hearken or give heed, neither would they obey his call or come unto him that they might have life. These were not always the worst sort of people: there were some of the best that would not hear Christ, of whom he said, according to the original, as translated by some, “Ye search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” They would get as far as curiosity or criticism might allure them; but they would not go any farther: they would not believe in Jesus. Now, the spiritual ear listens to God. The opening of it is the work of the Holy Spirit, and this is a mark of Christ’s chosen blood-bought people, that they hear not only the hollow sound, but the hidden sense; not the bare letter, but the spiritual lesson; and that too not merely with the outward organ, but with the inward heart. The chief point is that they hear his voice. Oh, if all that heard my voice heard Christ’s voice, how would I wander down every street in this city to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ; but, alas! the voice of the minister is utterly ineffectual to save a soul, unless the voice of Christ reach the conscience and rouse its dormant powers. “My sheep hear my voice;” the voice of Jesus, his counsel, his command, clothed with the authority of his own sacred sovereign utterance. When the gospel comes to you as Christ’s gospel, with demonstration of the Spirit, the invitation is addressed to you by him. You can look upon it in no other light; so you must accept and receive it. When his princely power comes with it — being mighty to save, he puts saving power into the word — then you hear Christ’s voice as a fiat that must be obeyed, as a summons that must be attended to, as a call to which there must be a quick response. 0 beloved, do not ever rest satisfied with hearing the voice of the preacher. We are only Christ’s speakingtrumpets: there is nothing in us: it is only his speaking through us that can do any good. 0 children of God, some of you do not always listen to Christ’s voice in the preaching. While we comment on the word, you make your comments on us. Our style, or our tone, or even our gesture, is enough to absorb — I might rather say, to distract — your thoughts. “Why look ye so earnestly on u~;?” I beseech you, give less heed to the livery of the servant, and give more care to the message of the Master. Listen warily, if you please; but judge wisely, if you can. See how much pure grain, and how much of Christ, there is in the sermon. Use your sieve; put away all the chaff; take only the good wheat; hear Christ’s voice. Well were it if we could obscure ourselves that we might manifest him. I could wis’i so to preach that you could not see even my little finger; might I but so preach that you could get a full view of Jesus only. 0 that you could hear his voice drowning ours! This is the mark, the peculiar mark of those who are Christ’s peculiar people: they hear his voice. Sometimes, truly, it sounds in the ministry; sometimes it thrills forth from that book of books, which is often grossly neglected; sometimes it comes in the night-watches. His voice may speak to us in the street. Silent as to vocal utterance, but like familiar tones that sometimes greet us in our dreams, the voice of Christ is distinctly audible to the soul. It will come to you in sweet or in bitter providences; yea, there is such a thing as hearing Christ’s voice in the rustling of every
leaf upon the tree, in the moaning of every wind, in the rippling of every wave. And there be those that have learned to lean on Christ’s bosom, till they have looked for all the world as though they were a shell that lay in the ocean of Christ’? love, listening for ever to the sonorous cadence of that deep, unfathomed, all-mysterious main. The billows of his love, never cease to swell. The billowy anthem still peals on with solemn grandeur in the ear of the Christian. 0 may we hear Christ’s voice each one of us for ourselves! I rind that language fails me, and metaphors are weak to describe its potent spell.
One point is worth noticing, however. I think our Lord meant here that his sheep, when they hear his voice, know it so well that they can tell it at once from the voice of strangers. The true child of God knows the gospel from the law. It is not by learning catechisms, reading theological books, or listening to endless controversies, that he finds this out. There is an instinct of his regenerate nature far more trustworthy than any lessons he has been taught. The voice of Jesus! Why, there is no music like it. If you have once heard it, you cannot mistake it for another, or another for it. Some are babes in grace: others are of full age, and by reason of use, have their senses exercised; but one sense is quickly brought out — the sense of hearing. It is so easy to tell the joy-bells of the gospel from the death-knell of the law; for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. “Do, or die,’* says Moses. “Believe, and live,” says Christ: you must know whicbHs which. Yes; and I think they are equally shrewd and quick to discriminate between the flesh and the Spirit. Let some of the very feeblest of God’s people sit down under a fluent ministry, with all the beauties of rhetoric, and let the minister preach up the dignity of human nature, and the sufficiency of man’s reason to fitul out the way of righteousness, and you will hear them say: “It is very clever; but there is no food for me in it.” Bring, however, the best and most instructed, and most learned Christian man, and set him down under a ministry that is very faulty as to the gift of utterance, and incorrect even in grammar; but if it ‘is full of Jesus Christ, I know what he will say: “Ah! never mind the man, and never mind the platter on which he brought the meat; it was food to my soul that 1 fed upon with a hearty relish; it was marrow and fatness, for I could hear Christ’s voice in it.” I am not going to follow out these tests; but certain it is, that the sheep know Christ’s voice, and can easily distinguish it. I saw hundreds of lambs the other day together, and there were also their mothers; and I am sure if I had had the task of allotting the proper lamb to each, or to any of them, it would have kept me till now to have done it. But somehow the lambs knew the mothers, and the mothers knew the lambs; and they were all happy enough in each other’s company.
Every saint here, mixed up as he may be at times with parties and professors of all sorts, knows Christ, and Christ knows him, and he is therefore bound to his owner. That is the mark on the ear. You have seen sometimes in the country two flocks together on the road, and you say: “I wonder how the shepherds will manage to keep them distinct? They will get mixed up.” They do not; they go this way and that way; and after a little commingling they separate, for they know their master’s voice; “and a stranger will they not follow.” You will go to-mcrrow, many of you, out into the world, son:e to the Exchange, others to the market, and others again into the factory: you are all mixed. Yes; but the seeming confusion of your company is temporary, not real and permanent. You will come right again, and you will go to your own home and your own fellowship. And at the last, when we shall have ended our pilgrimage, the one shall wend his way to the glory land, and the other to the abyss of woe. There will be no mistake. You will hear the Master’s call, and obey. There is a mark on the ear which identifies every saint.
Christ’s sheep hear his voice obediently. This is an important proof of discipleship. Indeed, it may serve as a reproof to many. Oh, 1 would that you were more careful about this 1 “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them,” said Jesus, “he it is that loveth m«.” “He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings.” How comes it to pass, then, that there are certain commands of Christ which some Christians will suffer to lie in abeyance? They will say, “The Lord commands this, but it is not essential.” Oh, unloving spirit, that can think any thing unessential that thy Bridegroom bids thee do! They ihat love, think little things of great moment, especially when they are looked upon as tokens of the strength or the tenderness of one’s regard. It may not be essential, in order to prove the relation in which a wife stands to her husband, that she should study his tastes, consult his wishes, or attend to his comfort. But will she the less strive to please, because love, not fear, constrains her? I trow not. And can it be that any of you, my brethren, would harbour such a thought as your negligence implies? Do you really suppose that after the choice of Christ has been fixed on you, and the love of Christ has been plighted to you, you may now be as remiss or careless as you like? Nay, rather, might we not expect that a sacred passion, an ardent zeal, a touch of inspiration would stir you up, put you on the alert, make you wake at the faintest sound of his voice, or keep you listening to do his will? Be it ours, then, to act out with fidelity that verse we have often sung with enthusiasm: —
44 In all my Lord’s appointed ways
My journey I’ll pursue.”
However little the precept may appear in the eyes of others; however insignificant as compared with our salvation, yet — doth the Lord cominand it? — then his sheep hear his voice, and they follow him.
Christ has marked his sheep on their feet as well as their ears. They follow him: they are gently led, not harshly driven. They follow him as the Captain of their salvation; they trust in the power of his arm to clear the way for them. All their trust on him is stayed; all their hope on him they lean. They follow him as their teacher; they call no man “Rabbi” under heaven, but Christ alone. He is the infallible source of their creeds; neither will they allow their minds to be ruled by conclaves, councils, nor decrees. Hath Christ said it? It is enough. If not, it is no more for me than the whistling of the wind. They follow Christ as their teacher.
And the sheep of Christ follow him as their example; they desire to be in this world as he was. It is one of their marks, that to a greater or less degree they have a Christ-like spirit; and if they could they would be altogether like their Lord.
They follow him, too, as their Commander, and Lawgiver, and Prince. “Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it,” was his mother’s wise speech; and it is the children’s wise rule: “Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.” Oh, blessed shall they be above many of whom it shall be said, “These are they that have not defiled their garments.” “These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.” Some of his followers are not very scrupulous. They love him. It is not for us to judge them. Rather we place ourselves among them and share in the censure. But happiest of all the happy are they who see the footprint — the print of that foot that once was pierced with the nail — and put their foot down where he placed it, and then again, in the selfsame mark, follow where he trod, till they climb at last to the throne. Keep close to Christ; take care of his little precepts unto the end. Remember, “Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.” Do not peril being least in the heavenly kingdom, though it is better to be that than to be greatest in the kingdom of darkness. 0 seek to be very near him, to be a choice sheep in his chosen flock, and to have the mark distinctly upon your footl
1 will not stay to apply these truths, but leave each one of you to make such self-searching enquiries as the text suggests. Have I the ear mark? Have I the foot mark? “My sheep hear my voice,” “and they follow me.” I hope that I am among the number.
III. The last point, with which we now proceed to close, is — THE PRIVILEGE OF CHRIST’S SHEEP. It does not look very large, but if we open it we shall see an amazing degree of blessedness in it. “I know them,” “I know them.” What does it mean?
1 have. not time now to tell you all it means. “/ know them” What is the reverse of this but one of the most dreadful things that is reserved for the day of judgment? There will be some who will say, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out devils?” And he shall say, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, 1 never knew you; depart from me, ye cursed.” Now measure the height of that privilege by the depth of this misery. “I never knew you.” What a volume of scorn it implies! What a stigma of infamy it conveys! Change the picture. The Redeemer says, “I know them,” “I know them.” How his eyes flash with kindness; how their cheeks burn with gratitude, as he says, “I know them “! Why, if a man had a friend and acquaintance that he used to know, and some years after he found him a disreputable, abandoned, wicked, guilty criminal, I feel pretty sure he would not say much about having known such a fellow, though he might be driven to confess that he had some years ago a passing acquaintance with him. But our Lord Jesus Christ, though he knows what poor, unworthy ones we are, yet when we shall be brought up before the Lord, before the great white throne, he will confess he knew us. He does know us, we are old acquaintances of his, and he has known us from before the foundation of the world, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called.” There are riches of grace in this; but we will consider it in another way. Our Saviour knows us, our Shepherd knows us. Beloved, he knows your person and all about you. You, with that sick body, that aching head, he knows you and he knows your soul with all its sensitiveness; that timidity, that anxiety, that constitutional depression — he knows it all.. A physician may come to see you, and be unable to detect what the disease is that pains or prostrates you, but Christ knows you through and through; all the parts of your nature he understands. “I know them,” saith he; he can therefore prescribe for you. He knows your gins. Do not let that dismay you, because he has blotted them all out; and he only knows them to forgive them, to cover them with his righteousness. He knows your corruptions; he will help you to over come them; he will deal with you in providence and in grace, so that they shall be rooted up. He knows your temptations. Perhaps you are living away from your parents and Christian friends, and you have had an extraordinary temptation, and you wish you could go home and tell your mother. Oh, he knows it, he knows it; he can help you better than your mother cm. You s,iy: “I wish the minister knew the temptation I have passed through.” Do not tell it; God knows it, As Daniel did not want Nebuchadnezzar to tell him the nature of his dream, but gave him the dream and the interpretation at the same time, so God can send you comfort. There will be a word as plainly suited to your case as though it were all printed and the preacher had known it all. It must be so. Depend upon it, the Lord knows your temptation, and watches your trial; or be it a sick child, or be it a bad matter of business that has lately occurred; or be it a slander that has wounded your heart, there is not .a pang you feel but God as surely sees it as the weaver sees the shuttle which he throws with his own hand. He knows your trial, and he knows the meaning of your groans: he can read the secret desire of your heart. You need not write it nor speak it: he has understood it all. You were saying: “0 that my child were converted! O that I grew in grace!” He knows it: he knows it every whit. There is not a word on your tongue, nor a
wish in your heart, but he knoweth it altogether. 0 dear heart, he knows your sincerity! Perhaps you want to join the church, and your proposal has been declined, because you could not give satisfactory testimony. If you are sincere, he knows it; he knows, moreover, what your anxiety is. You cannot tell another what it is that is bitter to you — the heart knoweth its own bitterness — he knows. it. As his secret is with you, so your secret is with him. He knows you: he knows what you have been trying to do. That secret gift — that offering dropped so quietly where none could see it — he knows it. And he knows that you love him. “Yes,” you are saying in your soul, “if ever I loved thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.” No, you cannot tell him, nor tell others; but he knows
it all.
So, now, in closing, let us say that in the text there is mutual knowledge. “I know them, but they also know me, because they hear my voice, and recognise it.” Here is mutual confession. Christ speaks, else there would be no voice: they hear, else were the voice not useful. “I know them;” that is his thoughts go towards them, follow me;” that is, their thoughts go towards him. He leads the way, else they could not follow. They follow, however, when he leads the way. Being the counterpart of each other, what the one does the other returns through grace; and what grace puts into the sheep the shepherd recognises, and makes t* return to them. Christ and his church become an echo of each other: his the voice, theirs is but a faint echo of it; still it is a true echo, and you shall know who are Christ’s by this. Do they echo what Christ saith? Oh, how I wish WQ were all sheep! How my soul longs that we may many of us who are not of his fold be brought in. The Lord bring you in, my dear hearers. The Lord give you his grace, and make you his own, comfort
336’ METROPOLITAN 7ABERNACLK PULPIT.
you, and make you to follow him. And if you are his, show it. These, dear brethren and sisters, here at this time, desire to confess Christ in your presence. If they are doing right, and you are not doing as they do, then you are doing wrong. If it is the duty of one, it is the duty of all; and if one Christian may neglect making a profession, all may do so, and then there will be no visible church whatever, and the visible ordinances must die out. If you know him, own him, for he hath eaid: “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.” God bless you, for Christ’s sake. Amen.
Latter from Mr. Spur g eon, read at the Tabernacle on Lor -d ’s-day ‘, June 18th: —
MY BELOVED FRIENDS, —
As soon as the church had resolved to meet for special prayer for me, I began rapidly to recover. It pleased God to turn the wind at the beginning of this week, and the change in the temperature has worked wonders. We may truthfully say of the Wednesday meeting for prayer, that the Lord fulfilled his word: “Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.” For all this great goodness I pray you to unite with me in sincere and intense gratitude to the Lord our God.
I feel bound publicly to express my happiness of heart. This week has furnished me with the liveliest proofs of your true love. I have been deeply touched with the various ways in which the afl’ection of so many of you has sought to find expression. I value this not only for my own sake, though it is very sweet to be the object of such hearty love, but because I see in it the evidence that our union has been cemented by years, and the earnest of future years of united effort, if God spares us. The absence of unity is weakness: its indisputable presence is strength.
On the closing day of my thirty-seventh year, I find myself the pastor of a beloved flock, who have borne the test of twelve Sabbaths of their minister’s absence, and the severer test of more than seventeen years of the same ministry, and are now exhibiting more love to him than ever. I bless God, but I also thank you, and assure you that I never felt happier in the midst of my people than I do now in the prospect of returning to you.
I am still weak, but the improvement in strength has been this week very surprising. I hardly dare speak of the future; but I earnestly hope we shall look each other in the face on the first Sabbath of July.
The collection to-day is to enable the London Baptist Association to build a new chapel in the Wandsworth Road. We are to carry out the project, so that it will not become us to be slack in our collection. London grows so rapidly, that much must be done to keep pace with its spiritual needs. Our Association does something, but ten times more would be little enough. You will I am sure give as God has prospered you. The College, of course, will be less helped; but I must beg to thank you for the continued series of noble contributions which have made each week remarkable.
Peace be with you and the Lord’s own anointing. May those who speak to you to-day be filled with the Spirit. May the soft south wind of the Spirit’s love be among you, and may you pour forth praise as flowers breathe perfume.
Yours very truly,
rtropoliten Stomach fhtlpit.
THE SECURITY OF BELIEVEES; OR, SHEEP WHO
SHALL NEVER PERISH.
T
INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD’S-DAY, DECEMBER 29TH, 1889,
DELIVERED BY
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTOtf,
On Thursday Evening, September 5th, 1889.
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man la able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.” — John x. 27 — 30.
OUR Saviour did not hesitate to preach the deeper doctrines of the gospel to the most miscellaneous assembly. When he began to preach where he was brought up, they all gathered with admiration about him, until he preached the doctrine of election; and then, straightway, they were so maddened that they would have destroyed him. They could not bear to hear of the widows of Israel passed by, and the woman of Sarepta chosen; nor of a heathen leper healed, while the many lepers of their own race were left to die. Election seems to heat the blood and fire the wrath of many. Not that they care to be chosen of God themselves; but, like the dog in the manger, they would keep other people out of the privilege. Not even to prevent these displays of bad temper did our Lord keep back the discriminating truths of the Word. Here, when addressing the Jews, he did not hesitate to speak, even to a rude rabble, concerning that glorious doctrine. He says, “Ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.” He does not lower the standard of doctrine; but he holds hia ground, and carries the war into the enemy’s camp. The notion that certain truths are not fit to be preached to a general assembly, but are to be kept for the special gathering of the saints, is, I believe, horribly mischievous. Christ has not commanded us to keep a part of our teaching sub rosd; reserved from the common folk, and set aside for the priests alone. He is for openly proclaiming all truth. “What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.” There is no truth that No. 2,120. 4ft we need be ashamed of, and there is no truth that will do any harm. We grant you that every truth can be twisted; but even this would be a less evil than the concealment of it. Whatever the doctrine may be, ungodly men can pervert it according to their own lusts; and if we have to stop preaching a doctrine because of the possibility of perverting it, we shall never preach anything at all, for every truth may be perverted, and made to be the mother of infinite mischief. Our Saviour did not teach his disciples to keep certain things for the instructed few who were able to receive them; but he bade us publish all the great truths, since they are necessary for conviction, for conversion, for edification, for sanctification, and for the perfecting of the people of God. Even to his brutish opponents he exhibited but little reserve. He flashed in the faces of his adversaries this grand, but humbling truth, “Ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep.” Your unbelief is just an evidence that you were not chosen, that you have not been called by the Spirit of God, and that you are still in your gins.
The Jews had said to him, “If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly.” They professed that they wanted to know more certainly concerning him. This was a vain pretence, for he had told them all they needed to know, and they had not believed him. Therefore he answered them to a large degree by making them know more about themselves. Sometimes the point in which a man is deficient is not as to the gospel, but as to his own need of it. He may know all of Christ that is needful for his salvation, but he may not know enough about himself and his own lost condition; and therefore he is not in the way in which Christ becomes precious to him, because he is ignorant of his deep and terrible need. So the Saviour began to talk to them, not so much about himself as about his people, and what they were to be. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”
I pray God, the Holy Ghost, to bless the word to many, that they may learn more about the work of Christ in their hearts, and more about their need of it, and thus may be led to seek Jesus, and find him to-night as their Saviour and their Shepherd.
There are two things in my text which will suffice for our meditation. First, here is a description given of the Lord’s people. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” And then, secondly, there is a privilege secured to them, namely, their everlasting, unquestionable safety. “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.”
I. First, and all that I can say will be but little, considering the largeness of the subject, let us notice THE DESCRIPTION HERE GIVEN OF
THE PEOPLE OF GOD.
They are first described by a speciality of possession: “My sheep.” All men are not sheep, for some are foxes, or ravening wolves, and others are compared to dogs and lions. All persons who might be called sheep are not Christ’s sheep. All do not belong to his flock. All are not gathered into his fold. There is a speciality of possession.
OR, SHEEP wno SHALL NEVER PERISH. 265
There may be many sheep, but the Saviour speaks of “My sheep,” those whom he chose of old, those who were given him of the Father, those who have been bought with his blood, redeemed from among men, and in due time have been ransomed by his power, for he has bought them back from the hand of the enemy, and therefore claims them to be his own. “The Lord’s portion is his people.” Other lords have their portion, and Christ takes his portion. His people are the lot of his inheritance. He speaks of “my sheep” as a peculiar heritage, whom, as a shepherd, he claims for his own. Of these he ia the sole Owner. He is not merely their Keeper, but their Possessor. We read of the hireling shepherd, “whose own the sheep are not “; but in the case of our good Shepherd, “he putteth forth his own sheep.”
There is a speciality of character about them. They are “my sheep.” They are dependent, timid, trembling, obedient, teachable; they are made sheep by his own Spirit. They have received a nature which is not that of the doggish world, nor that of the swinish multitude, nor that of the wolfish persecutor; but that of men indwelt of the Spirit of God, who are therefore clean, gentle, loving, gracious. He calls them “My sheep,” for they have a special relation to himself: they are like Jesus. Being his sheep, he has become their Guardian as well as their Proprietor, and they look up to him as such. They are sheep to him, and he is a shepherd to them.
We may judge ourselves to-night by considering whether towards Christ we are his sheep. Do we acknowledge ourselves as belonging to him, spirit, soul, and body? Do we regard ourselves as being, in relation to him, no wiser, no stronger, than sheep to a shepherd? I know some who are certainly no sheep of Christ’s flock, for they will be led by nobody in heaven, or on earth; but must have their own sweet way. They are critics of the Bible, not disciples of it. They might be very good dogs, but they are very queer sheep. They would make very respectable wolves, for they are great in destructive criticism; but they certainly are not sheep; and their temper and spirit are such that they would disdain the character, if they understood it. “What! to go where I am led? To lie down where I am bidden to lie down? Not to choose my own way? Just to see nothing, and know nothing; but to have my eyes in his head, and my wisdom in his mind? To be shepherded by another mind than my own? Is it so? Am I to be nothing but a sheep to the Lord Jesus?” Yes, it is even so; and hence the modern wise man is indignant, and proudly repudiates the character of a sheep. As for us, we accept all that the name implies. 0 brethren, we can play the man before other people, but when we come before our Lord, as the sheep is a mere animal in comparison with its shepherd, we feel ourselves to be less than that. How often have we cried with David, “So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee “! 0 my Lord, in thy presence I sink as low as low can be, and thou becomest very high, yea, all in all to me, the Shepherd of my weak, vacillating, trembling spirit! There is a speciality, then, about these people in the description. I have only time to hint at it.
A chief mark of Chrises people u attention. “My sheep hear.”
They can hear, because they have had spiritual ears given them. Once the Shepherd might have spoken all day long, and they would not have heard him; but it is not so now. Even from the cross our Lord’s plaintive cries were all unheard by them; but now he has given them spiritual capacity and perception, and they can hear, and they do hear what his dying love would make them know and understand. Their Lord has spoken to them. They have heard his voice, and have known it to be his; they still hear it, and they distinguish between his voice and other voices. “A stranger will they not follow: for they know not the voice of strangers.” They now so hear that voice as to hear it in a true way; and joyfully to own it by obeying it. Do you not say, sometimes, to a child that is disobedient, ‘’Did you not hear me speak, child? “So Christ may say to many who hear with the outward ear, but who will not yield obedience, that they have not heard him; for indeed they have not hearkened with the inner ear. Their ear does not reach down to their heart; and thus, for spiritual purposes, it is no ear at all. It is an awful thing when the ear is a closecl-up passage, shut against the voice of the Saviour. You can tell the sheep of Christ by their being marked in the ear.” My sheep hear my voice.” They may not hear a good deal that other people hear; they may even be glad to be deaf to it. There are many calls exceedingly musical to carnal ears, which have no charms for them. They try to be deaf to some voices from which they could gather nothing but temptation; but they hear Christ’s voice. They are all there when he speaks: their soul sits at the door to hear his softest whisper. They try to hear: they charge themselves to take heed that they lose no sound from heaven. They do hear; but they long to hear yet more completely, and to be more obedient to that voice which rings through the chambers of their soul. Oh, what a hearing we have sometimes given to Christ! I have heard him with my body, my soul, my spirit; at least, I have thought so; but whether in the body, or out of the body, I could not tell. If in the body, every pore has been an ear for my Lord’s sweet voice. As though my blood were tingling from the crown of my head to the sole of my foot, so has my spirit been wholly and entirely affected by the charming tones of the voice of the Well-beloved. Oh, that he would speak to-night! Can you not hear him? Beloved, is he not now calling us? Do’ you not rejoice to hear him?
No music’s like his charming voice,
Nor half so sweet can be.
So, you see, a noteworthy speciality of the elect ones lies in their attention to Jesus, their Shepherd. He calls in vain to others; but his sheep hear his voice.
Another mark of the Lord’s people i* intimacy. “My sheep hear my voice, and / know them” “I know them.” Yes, the Lord discerns them. He singles them out, for “the Lord knoweth them that are his.” Sometimes we do not know them; but he says, “I know them.” In cloudy times they do not know themselves; but he says, “I know them.” When a child of God does not know whether he is a child of Q-od or not, his Father knows his own children, and the great Shepherd knows his own sheep. His is a discernment which never fails. The hypocrite cannot get into the true fold of Christ. He may get into the visible fold; but not into the real spiritual fold of Christ; for Christ does not know him, and bids him depart. This is the very seal upon the foundation — “The Lord knoweth them that are his.” His eyes discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that feareth God and him that feareth him not; hia is a knowledge of quick and certain discernment.
But this might make us tremble if we did not know that the expression, “I know them,” means a knowledge of approbation. “I know them,’’ says the Shepherd; “I take a delight in them. I kncur their secret sighs and mournings. I hear their private prayers. I know their praises in the silence of their hearts. I know their consecration, and their aspirations after perfect service. I know their longings and their lovings. I know how they delight in me. I know how they trust my promise. I know how they look to my atoning blood. I know how in their inmost souls they rejoice in my name. I know them, and approve their secret thoughts.” 0 sweet word, understood in that sense! And this is one part of the character of the Lord’s people — that he did foreknow them in his sovereign grace; and now he personally knows them by taking a delight in them.
This divine complacency leads to a very intense observation of them. “He knoweth the way that I take.” “The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous.” He has an eye upon them, and marks their paths. His ears are open to their cry, and he hears their petitions. Though there be all the world for his omniscience to consider, yet he looks upon each one of his saints as much as if there were only that one person in the universe. Oh, to think of this! “I know them,” sounds like music in this sense. He that knows the stars, and knows the infinite multitude of living creatures in the universe, has a special and peculiar knowledge of his own chosen. “I know them,” says he; and he intends thereby an intense observation.
Now, beloved, just try a little here, to see whether you come into this number — “I know them.” Does the Lord know you as his own? Has he had personal intercourse with you, and you with him? Or will he have to say to you at the last, “I never knew you “? AVhy, some of you have made him know you! You have gone to him in such trials, and in such troubles, and you have cried to him in such bitterness and anguish, that, if he asks your name, you can say —
“Once a sinner near despair
Sought thy mercy-seat by prayer;
Mercy heard, and set him free;
Lord, that inercy caine to me I”
When thou didst help me in great need, when thcu didst pass by my great sin, then didst thou know me, 0 my Lord! “Dost thou ask me who I am? Ah, my Lord! thou knowest niy name.” Just as some men know right well the importunate beggar who is often at their door, so does the Lord for certain know some of you, for you go every day begging at his gate, and you receive a constant alms at his hand. Besides that, you go every day thanking him for the mercies you receive. He knows your name: the name of one who is drowned in debt to his infinite bounty. He can never forget your groans and cries; and day by day your praises are a memorial to him. By his love, and pity, and compassion, he is sure to remember you. Sooner can a woman forget her sucking-child than your Grod forget you.
Well, here are things well worth the noting — speciality, attention, and intimacy. Are these yours?
But here is one more: actual obedience. How does he put it f “I know them, and they follow me.’1 All the Lord’s sheep are marked in the foot, as well as in the ear. The foot and ear-mark must be in every sheep of the Lord’s flock. “They follow me.” That is to say, they openly avow him as their Shepherd. Other shepherds come, and other sheep go after them; but these sheep know the Lord Jesus, and they follow him. He alone is their Leader. They are not ashamed to own it. They take up the cross, and follow the Cross-bearer, and they bear his name.
More than that, they practically carry out their open avowal, and they follow him in daily life, copying his example. They not only say, “He is my Leader,” but they follow him. Christ’s sheep try to follow in the track that the Shepherd marks for them. Christ’s people are never so happy as when they can put down their feet where Christ put his feet down. The very marks that he has left by his bleeding footsteps we would desire to follow, all the day, and every day. Beloved, look you carefully to this! Do what Jesus did, according to your measure and power. This is what the people of God try to do. If you do not endeavour to be like Christ, you are not his sheep; for of his sheep it is true, “I know them, and they follow me.”
And this is personally operative upon them. I could not tell you exactly in English words, but the Greek word gives here a kind of personality to the whole company. “My sheep hear my voice,” that is, the whole of the flock of God. “I know them,” that is, again, the whole flock of them, altogether. But, “• they follow me,” is in the plural number. It is as though it said, “They, each one, follow me.” We, who are the Lord’s chosen, hear en masse, and the Lord knows the whole church, for, as a whole, it is redeemed by Christ; but we individually follow — each one for himself, through grace. We each one follow him. “They follow me.” I like that singular personal pronoun. It is not written, “They follow my commandments,” though they do. It is not said, “They follow the route that I have mapped for them,” though they do that. But, “they follow me” distinctly. In their individual personality they follow their Lord in his individual personality. They have recognized himself above his words, above his ways, and even above his salvation. “They follow me,” saith he. This is a grand mark of a Christian, not merely a life of morality, a life of integrity, a life of holiness, but a life of all these in connection with Christ. They follow him, not holiness, nor morality, nor integrity, apart from Christ, but they follow their Lord. A good life is good in any man. We cannot speak evil of virtue, even when we find it in the ordinary moralist; but this is not the complete mark of Christ’s sheep. The virtues of Christ’s sheep are in connection with himself. The Christian is holy, and all that, but that is because he follows his
.perfect Master, and keeps close to him. This is one of the peculiaj and unfailing marks of the child of God.
I have run through, very briefly, the description, and I now leave you to meditate upon it when you are alone. This description of the sheep of Christ is worthy of reading, marking, and inwardly digesting.
II. But my main object to-night is to show you THE GREAT PRIVI LEGE HERE CONFERRED ON THE PEOPLE OF GOD. Christ has secured to them the priceless boon of eternal security in him. No sheep of Christ shall ever be lost. None that he has purchased with his blood, and made to be his own, shall ever wander away so as to perish at last. This is the doctrine of the verses now before us. At any rate, if I wanted to express that doctrine, I could not find words in which I could set it forth more definitely, or more completely, than is done by the words before me.
The security of the people of God lies, first of all, in the character oj the life which they have received. Listen to this: “And I give unto them ETERNAL LIFE.” All the spiritual life which all the sheep in the flock now possess has been given to them by their Shepherd. Never was there another flock of which this could be said. No shepherd but this one can give life to his sheep; but he gave them all the true life that they have. Nay, stop: he not only gave them life, but he sustains that life by a constant gift. Observe, it is not written, “I gave to them eternal life,” but “I give unto them eternal life.” They are always living by virtue of the life which he is always giving. They are constantly receiving life from him, according to that assurance, ‘’Because I live, ye shall live also.” What he always gives they must always receive, and therefore it cannot cease.
Notice the nature of that life. “I give unto my sheep eternal life.” Now, you all know what “eternal” means: or say, rather, none of you can form an idea of eternity which can grasp all its length of endurance. Only this, you know it has no end, and cannot therefore close. If anybody said that he had eternal life and lost it, he would be flatly contradicting himself. It could not be eternal, or «lse he must still have it. If it is eternal, it is eternal, and there is no end to it; and there is an end of further argument about it. If the life that Christ gives us, when we are born again, can die, it is not “eternal” life, or else words have ceased to have any meaning at all. In its nature, as being the work of the Holy Spirit, and an emanation from God, the life bestowed in regeneration is an undying one. Has not the Holy Ghost described us as “being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever “? The life of God imparted by the Holy Ghost must live for ever. As the gift is continuous, and it is always being given, and as it is in itself eternal life, it must always exist.
But, principally, I dwell upon the glorious character of the Giver. “/ give unto my sheep eternal life.” The life that Christ gives is not that poor, paltry life which lasts the professor for about three weeks, and then dwindles down, and dies out; or, say, three months, and then the revival is over, and the convert is spun out and done for, and has to begin again. Such is the religious life which is excited by men j but it is not so with the life which comes from God. I said thai cue false convert begins again, though, how he begins again I know not, because I read in Scripture of people being born again; but I have never read of their being born again, and again, and again, and again. I am told that some of our religionists have had their people converted and born again more times than they can count; and I heard that a woman had been born again twelve times down at a certain meeting; but he who stated the fact said shrewdly that he feared it was not done well the last time. No, I do not think it will ever be done well in that way. He that is born again, according to Scripture, has received eternal life; and this is the only life worth receiving. I would not preach my very soul away in order to proclaim such a twopenny, trumpery, temporary salvation as that; but to preach the Lord Jesus as giving eternal life is worth living for and dying for. I tell you, sirs, it is this that brought me to Christ. While I was yet young, and thinking over matters, I saw young lads that were brought up with me, excellent in character, who left their homes to be apprenticed, and after a while the temptations of the world overcame them, and they went astray, and had no religion at all. But when I read that Christ gave his sheep eternal life, I looked at it as a kind of moral life insurance for my soul, and I came to Christ, and trusted him to keep me to the end. I shall suffer a grievous disappointment if I ever find out that the life of God in me is not eternal, and that the new birth does not assure final perseverance. I did not go up to the booking-office, and take a ticket for a quarter of the distance to heaven; but I took my ticket all the way through. I trust, nay, I know, that according to my faith, so will it be unto me. I am very glad to have my through-ticket with me, and I believe that unless the train of Almighty grace smashes up — which it never will — I shall get through to the Celestial terminus as surely as ever divine power can draw me there; for so it is written, “I give unto my sheep eternal life.”
Now, depend upon it, it is what you hold out to people that has much to do with how they behave themselves afterwards. Tell them that if they believe in Christ, they are going to get, not eternal life, but life for a little while — life for as long as they take good care of it, and I fear it will prove to be so. It may do them good to get the poor little change you offer them; but as surely as they are converted to a temporary life, they will die out before long. You told them that they would. You did not propose any more to them. But when you propose to them this — “Here is everlasting life to be had by believing in Christ. It is not temporary, but eternal fife” — why, then they grip it as such. They believe in Christ for that, and according to their faith it is unto them; and the Lord and Giver of life is glorified in giving to them this great and splendid gift, the gift of all gifts. “I give unto my sheep eternal life.”
I do not know in what other way to preach from this text than the one in which I am preaching from it. Somebody says, “Oh, that is Calvinism!” I do not care what it is. It is Scriptural. I have this inspired Book before me, and I cannot see any meaning in the words before me, if they do not mean that those who have received life from the Lord Jesus have an endless inheritance. I cannot make them mean anything else. “I give unto my sheep eternal life,” must mean that believers are eternally secure. “It is dangerous doctrine,” cries one. I have not found it dangerous, and I have tried it these many years. I conceive that it would be far more dangerous to tell people that they could be truly converted, and yet the work of grace would end in six months, and then they could come back again, and begin again, and do so as many times as they liked; whereas the Word of God tells them that if they shall fall away, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance. Men may fall and be restored; but if they fall away utterly, there remains no other work which can be done for them. If this everlasting life could die, the Holy Ghost would have done his best, and nothing more would remain to be done. If it were so that this salt which is good should lose its savour, wherewith could it be salted? See what a gulf opens before you; and do not look for a work which will not endure every possible strain. Oh, that you may get this eternal life!
So we take a step farther. The children of God are safe, again, not only because of the life they receive, but because of the inner dangers which are averted. Take the next sentence — “And they shall never perish.” They have a tendency to spiritual sickness, but their Shepherd will doctor them so that they shall never perish. They are sheep, and have a tendency to wander; but their Shepherd shall keep them so that they shall never perish. Time tries them, and they grow old, and the novelty of religion wears off; but they shall never perish. Think what you will of them, “they shall never perish,” for so the promise stands.
The first statement, “I give unto them eternal life,” is as broad as well can be, and this is broader still — “they shall never perish.” The rule has absolutely no exception. The whole of them shall be preserved. Let them live to be as old as Methuselah, they shall never perish, whatever temptation may assail them. They may be tried, and troubled, and broken down, so that they may be hardly able to live; but they shall never perish. “Never” is a long day; but it is not longer than grace will last. Blessed be God, this grand promise stands fast — “They shall never perish.”
Now we must go a step farther. We have no time to urge these arguments at any great length. They are safe, next, by outer injuries being prevented. “Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” Many will pluck at them, but none shall pluck them away. The devil will give many a horrible pluck and pull, to get them away; but out of the great Shepherd’s hand he shall never take them. Their old companions, and the memory of their old sins will come, and pluck at them very hard, and very cunningly; but the Saviour says, “None shall pluck them out of my hand.” * So, first, here is their security: they are in his hand; that is, in his possession, and he grasps them, as a man holds a thing in his hand, and says, “It is mine.” Neither shall any take them away from being under his protection. Never shall they be plucked away from Christ. When he says this, he pledges his honour to preserve them, for if it could be that one were plucked out of his hand, then would the devils in hell rejoice, and say, “He could not keep them. He said that he would, but he could not. We have managed to pluck this one, or that one, out of the pierced hand of their Bedeemer.” But such a horrible exultation shall never be heard throughout the ages of eternity. “They shall never perish; neither shall any pluck them out of my hand.”
Some one wickedly said,” They may get out of his hand themselves.” But how can this be true, when the first sentence is, “They shall never perish “? Treat Scripture honestly and candidly, and you will admit that the promise “they shall never perish” shuts out the idea of perishing by going out of the Lord’s hand by their own act and deed.” They shall never perish; neither shall any pluck them out of my hand.” “Who is to loosen the clasp of that hand which was pierced with the nail for me? My Lord Jesus bought me too dearly ever to let me go. He loves me so well that his whole omnipotence will work with that hand, and unless there is something greater than Godhead, I cannot be plucked away from that dear, fast-holding grip.
Now, to make quite sure about it, and to pile on the comfort, the Saviour goes on to add the care and power of God himself. Our Lord says, “My Father, which gave them me.” The saints of God are safe, because the Father gave them to his Son. He did not give him a transitory inheritance. He did not bestow on him a something which he might, after all, lose. Will the Lord Christ lose what his Father gave him? You know how people say, “Oh, I hope that, if a burglar takes anything from my house, he will not take that cup, which is an heirloom. My father gave it to me.” If a man had to defend his property, he would be sure to take care of that which was a very special gift, given in his honour, as a memorial of a great work. So is it with our Lord Jesus: he values that which his Father gave him. I delight in the thought. I picture my blessed Lord looking at each one of his believing people, and saying, “My Father gave you to me.” That poor woman, that struggling young man, that decrepit old lady, that man who is half -starved, but who loves his Lord — Jesus says of each one, “My Father gave this soul to me.” He cannot lose what his Father gave him. He would die again sooner than he would lose them. His death has made their salvation safe beyond all jeopardy. He laid down his life for the sheep. The lion came, and leaped into the fold; but the Shepherd met the lion; yea, he received him on his naked breast, and held him there. It was a terrible tug. The Shepherd sweat great drops of blood as he held the monster; but he rent him, and he hurled him to the earth, and said, “It is finished:” and it was finished. He has so saved all his flock until now that we are sure that he will never lose one of those whom his Father committed to his trust. “My Father gave them me.”
Then he goes on to say that his people are kept by the Father’s power; for he says, “My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.” Beloved, although God gave us to Christ, he did not cease to care for us himself! Our sweet text last Sunday night I must bring to your memory. I could not fully preach from it, but the text was enough without a sermon: “All mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.” We tried to show you how we were none the less the Father’s because we were the Son’s, and none the less the
Son’s because we belonged to the Father. So here Jesus in effect says. “My Father gave you to ine; yet he takes care of you none the less, but all the more. Because he is determined that what he gave to me shall be mine, the Lord will put forth his wisdom and power to preserve you.”
Let me by a symbol illustrate the latter words of the text. There lie the chilolren of God in the hand of Christ. Do you see that fast closed hand? They are safe enough there. Jesus says, “No man shall be able to pluck them out of my hand.” But see the Father, he puts his hand over the hand of Jesus! There, now: you are inside two hands, “And no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’ 9 hand” Oh, the serene security of those who hear the voice of Christ, and whom he calls his sheep! A double-handed force keeps them safe against all ill. Pluck away, Satan! You will never pluck them away from the hand of Jesus, and the hand of his Father! “Quit separabit?” “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” It is impossible to be done.
And then the Saviour finishes all by saying that, while he has spoken of the Father and himself as two — and two they are as persons — yet in their divine essence they are but one. He says, “I and my Father are one; “and especially one in love to his people.” The Father himself loveth you,” even as he loves his Son; and, while you read the love of Christ in his death, you must read the Father’s love quite as much in that great sacrifice. It is true of our Lord Jesus that — “He loved the church, and gave himself for it; “but it ia equally true of the Father —” God so loved the world, that he gave his Only-begotten Son.” They are one in an infinite love to all those who, called according to the divine purpose, are following Christ, and hearing his voice. I fall back with great joy upon this blessed conviction — that he will not suffer those to perish who have received eternal life at his hands. Of course, if you have only taken temporary life — if you only believe in that — you will get no more than you believe. Your gift will be measured by your faith. But if you say, <4 1 gave myself up to Christ that he might be Alpha and Omega t# me; and I wholly trust myself to him without reserve, throughout all my life, to save me,” he will do it; for “I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” “He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesug Christ.” “The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”
You are safe in Christ’s hand. Know it, and feel the joy of it. “Oh,” says one, “but if I thought so, I should run into sin! ‘I am sorry for you: things act very strangely upon you. Nothing binds me to my Lord like a strong belief in his changeless love. “Oh, but it would be far safer to tell your hearers that they may be overcome by sin, and perish!” I will not tell them what I do not believe. I will not dishonour my Lord by a falsehood. Shall I come home to your house, and tell your children that, if they do wrong, you will cut their heads off; or that, if they disobey you, they will cease to be your children. If I were to propound that doctrine, your children would grow angry at such I slander upon their father. They would say,
THE SECURITY OF BELIEVERS.
11 No, we know better than that! “Far rather would I say to them, “My dear children, your father loves you; he will love you without end, therefore do not grieve him.” Under such doctrine true children will say, “We love our ever-loving father. We will not disobey him. We will endeavour to walk in his ways.”
“Tis love that makes our willing feet
In swift obedience move”
Our loving Lord will not cast away those to whom he is bound by niarriage-bonds.
“Well, but suppose we sin.” He will chasten us, and restore us “If I believed that doctrine, I should live as I like,” says one. Then you are not one of his sheep, for his sheep love holiness, and will not love iniquity. The change wrought by the new birth is such that a man will not return to his old ways of sin and folly. This is the doctrine; and how can you make it to be an indulgence to sin? True saints never turn the grace of Grod into licentiousness, but the very mention of eternal love leads them to careful obedience.
One thing I must say at the end. Some ministers preach a gospel with a very wide door to it, but there is nothing to be had when you get within. I am sometimes told that I make my door a little too narrow. It in not true, for I preach the gospel to every creature under heaven, with all my might; but if the door be narrow, there is something worth having when you enter by it. Even if the way be narrow, if you once get in, you have got in, and you have found eternal life, and you shall never perish, neither shall any pluck you out of Christ’s hands. Sinner, come and have an eternal blessing! It is worth having. Come and have it! If thou believest, thou shalt assuredly be saved. “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved;” saved from sin so as never to go back and live in it again; so saved as to be made holy; so saved as to be preserved in holiness. Holiness shall be the set of the main current of thy life, until, made perfectly holy, thou shalt dwell with Grod above.
Into his hands let us commit our spirits to-night, and we may rest assured that they stall be safe eternally. Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON — John x. 19 — 42.
HYMNS FROM “OuR OWN HYMN BOOK” — 196, 670, 676.
je(r0p0ltfcm SFabcnraclc f) utyit
LIFE ETERNAL.
pennon
DELIVERED BY
C. FT. S I’ll RGB ON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
“And I giv* unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” — John x. 28.
SOME will say that this is a mixed congregation, and that such a doctrine as this should not be advanced in the presence of ungodly men and women. This shows how little such objectors read their Bible, for this very text was spoken by the Saviour, not to his loving disciples, but to his enemies. Read the thirty-first verse of the chapter, and you will see the temper of the congregation to whom Jesus Christ preached upon this subject — “Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.” So that an indignant multitude of bigots had this hurled into their face by the Saviour, that although they might reject him, and because of their wilful obstinacy might miss the blessings of grace, yet those blessings were rich and rare. He would have them to know that what they lost was inexpressibly precious, and that his message was not to be despised without great damage to their souls. Thus, if there be a mixed multitude here — and I fear the allegation is true, that there are many here who cannot comprehend the preciousness of the things of God — yet, for the same reason which prompted the Saviour to preach of this doctrine to the wicked in his day, we will do the same now, that they may know what it is they lose by losing Christ, what those comfortable things are which they despise, and what are the inestimable treasures which those must miss who seek after the treasures of this world, and let their God, their Saviour go.
We have no time to loiter, and let us therefore, as the bee sucks honey from the flower, seek after the sweet essence of the text, “I give unto them eternal life.” The connection tells us that the pronoun “them’* refers to Christ’s sheep, to certain persons whom he had chosen to be his sheep, and whom he had also called to be such. Lest we should be in the dark as to whom they are, our Saviour has kindly put us in possession of the marks by which his sheep may be discovered. We cannot read the secret roll of election, nor can we search the heart, but we can mark the outward conduct of men, and the verse before the text tells us by what signs we are to know God’s people. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” The marks aie the
No. 726 49 hearing of Christ, and then the following of Christ, first, by faith in him, and then by an active obedience to his precepts. “Faith which worketh by love” is the mark of Christ’s sheep, and it is of true believers that he speaks when he says, “I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand.” Would to God that aJl of us wore the livery of the elect, namely, active, sanctifying faith! Oh that we all listened to the Great Shepherd’s voice, that we received the truth which he delivers! and then resolved by his grace to follow him whithersoever he goeth, as the sheep follow the shepherd.
Having thus explained to whom the text belongs, we will now handle it in a threefold manner. The text implies, first, sometvhat concerning the past of these people; the text plainly states, in the second place, a great deal about the present of these people; and, thirdly, the text not obscurely hints at something about their future.
I. In the first place, the studious reader will observe that the text implies SOMEWHAT CONCERNING THE PAST HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD.
It is said, “I give unto them eternal life.” There is an implication, therefore, that they had lost eternal life. Every one of God’s people fell in Adam, and all have fallen also by actual sin; consequently, we came under condemnation, and Christ Jesus has done for us what Her Majesty the Queen has sometimes done for a condemned criminal — he has brought us a free pardon. He has given us life. When our own desert was eternal destruction from the presence of the Lord, Jesus Christ stepped in, and he said, “Thou art forgiven; the sentence shall not take place upon thee; thine offence is blotted out; thou art clear,” Nay, I think the text implies that there was something more than condemnation, there was execution. We were not only condemned to die, we were already spiritually dead. Jesus did not merely spare the life which ought to have been taken, and in that sense gave it to us, but he imparted to us a life which we had not before enjoyed. It is implied in the text that we were spiritually dead; nay, we are not left here to our own surmisings, nor even to our own experience, for the apostle Paul has said, “You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.” What, Paul, dead? Are you not mistaken? Perhaps they were only a little sick? Nay, we are ready to admit, 0 apostle, that they were sick and near to death, but surely they had a little vital energy, a little power to assist themselves! “No,” says the apostle, “you were dead, dead in trespasses and sins.” The work of salvation is tantamount, not only to the healing of the sick, but to the actual resurrection of a dead man from his grave. All the saints who are now alive unto God were once as dead as others, quite as corrupt and offensive as others, and as much an ill savour in the nostrils of Divine Justice by reason of their sins as even the most corrupt of their fellows. We had altogether gone out of the way; we had altogether become abominable, for “there is none that doeth good, no not one.” When we were all shut up under sin then Jesus Christ came into the region of death, and brought life and immortality to us. Life was forfeited by all the saints; spiritual life they had none: Jesus the Quickener has made them alive unto God.
Is it not also very clearly implied that, so far from having any life, these people could not otherwise have obtained life except by its being
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given to them? It is a rule well kno*n to all Biblical students, that you never meet in God’s Word with an unnecessary miracle, that a miracle is never wrought where the ordinary course of nature would suffice. Now, my brethren, the greatest of all miracles is the salvation of a soul. If that soul could save itself God would not save it, but would let it do what it could do; and if the spiritually dead could quicken themselves, rest assured, from the analogy of all the divine transactions, that Jesus Christ would not have come to give them life. I believe that it would be utterly impossible for any one of us to enter heaven, let us do what we might, unless Jesus Christ had come from heaven to show us the way, to remove the bolts and bars for us, and to enable us to tread in the path which leads to glory and immortality. Lost! lost! Lost! The race of man was utterly lost, not partly lost, not thrown into a condition in which it might be ruined unless it worked hard to save itself; but BO lost, that but for the interposition of a divine arm, but for the appearance of God in human flesh, but for the stupendous transaction upon Calvary, and the work of God the Holy Ghost in the heart, not one dead soul ever could come to life. Eternal life would not be the peculiar work of the Lord Jesus if man had a finger in it, but now man’s power is excluded and grace reigns.
It is clearly to be seen in the text, by a little thought, that eternal life was not the merit of any one of God’s people, for it is said that it is (/teen to us. Now, a gift is the very opposite of payment. What a man receives as a gift he certainly does not deserve. If it be given to us, then it is no more a debt, but if it be a debt then it can be no more a gift. None of us merits eternal life, or ever can merit it. Mere mortal life is a gift of divine mercy, we do not deserve it; and as for the eternal life spoken of in the text, it is a boon too high for the fingers of human merit to hope to reach it; if a man should work never so hard after it, yet upon the footing of the law it would be impossible for him to obtain it. Man merits nothing but death, and life must be the free gift of God. “The wages of sin is death;” that is to say it is earned and procured as matter of debt; “but the gift of God,” the free-grace gift of God, “is eternal life.” Now, this is a very humiliating doctrine, I know, but it is true, and I want you all to feel it. Children of God, I know you do. You see the hole of the pit whence you were drawn? Do you see it? Or have you grown proud of late? Those fine feelings and prayings of yours have you stuck them like feathers in your cap? I pray you recollect what you were 1 Ton be proud! do not forget the dunghill where you once grew! Remember the filth out of which God took you, and instead of being scarlet with the garments of pride, your cheeks may well be scarlet with a blush! Oh! may God forbid, once for all, that we should glory, for what have we to glory in? What have we that we have not received?
It is clear, too, from the text, that those who are now right&om would have perished but for Christ. Christ says, “they shall never perish.” Promises are never given as superfluities. There is a necessity, therefore, for this promise. There was a danger, a solemn danger, that every one of those men who are now saved would have perished eternally. Sin made them heirs of wrath even as others, so Scripture tells us; and justice must have overwhelmed them with the rest if distinguishing grace had not prevented. Even now it is solemnly true, that there is no reason why a truly righteous soul should not perish, except that Christ still prevents it. You are alive, but you would not be spiritually alive an hour, unless the Holy Spirit continued to pour his vital energy into your soul. You shall be preserved, but, mark you, it is stated as a promise, and therefore it is not at all a matter of natural necessity. Apart from grace you are in fearful danger of apostacy, and probably you have fears about it even now; like the apostle, who fea*red lest after having preached to others, he himself should be a castaway; a very proper fear, a fear which will often come upon sincere souls, who feel a holy jealousy of themselves. But we need have no fear when we come to the promise of God, for if we are really in Christ we have a guarantee of security, since Christ’s own word is, “They shall never perish.” The promise was certainly given because it was wanted. There is a danger of perishing; there are ten thousand risks of perishing; only Omnipotence itself keeps off the fiery darts of Satan; the blessed Physician gives the antidote or the poison would soon destroy us; he who swears to bring us safely home protects us from a thousand foes, who otherwise would work our ill. “They shall never perish.”
It is also implied, that naturally the people of God have ten thousand enemies who would pluck them out of Christ’s hand. They were once in the hand of the enemy; they were once willing bond-slaves of Satan. All this they know, and all this they are willing to acknowledge. I would to God that some here would feel the truth of that which I have been saying. You self-righteous ones will say, “I am all right; I do my best, I go to a place of worship.” Now, soul, that is right enough in itself, but if thou boastest of it, it is an evidence that thou knowest neither God nor thyself. When I have heard of some who have boasted that they felt no inbred sin, I have wished that they would read the story of the Pharisee and the Publican. At the Fulton Street Prayer Meeting, a brother asked for the prayers of believers, because he felt so much the corruption of his own heart, the temptations of Satan, and especially the natural vileness of his own nature. A brother stood up on the opposite side of the hall, and said he thanked God that was not his experience; he did not feel any corruption, and his heart was not depraved. The other one made no reply, but a friend present read these words: “Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publiean. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted,” A sense of sin is a blessed sign either of pardon received, or of pardon to come. He that says he has no sin makes God a liar, and the truth is not in him. He who will not confess his sin shall never be absolved; but he who with a broken and a trembling heart goes to the foot of the cross shall find forgiveness there. This much, then, upon the past estate of the heirs of heaven.
If. And now, to plunge at once into the subject. THE TEXT SHEDS
A FLOOD OF LIGHT UPON THE PRESENT STATE OF EVERY BELIEVER.
We shall have to give you hints rather than a long exposition; so kindly take the first sentence, which speaks of a gift received. “I give unto them eternal life.” This gift is, first of all, life. You will make strange confusion of God’s Word if you confound life with existence, for they are very different things. All men will exist for ever, but many will dwell in everlasting death; they will know nothing whatever of life. Life is a distinct thing altogether from existence, and implies in God’s Word something of activity and of happiness. In the text before us it includes many things. Note the difference between the stone and the plant. The plant has vegetable life. You know the difference between the animal and the plant. While the plant has vegetable life, yet it is altogether dead in the sense in which we speak of living creatures. It has not the sensations which belong to animal life. Then, again, if we turn to another and higher grade, namely, mental life, an animal is dead so far as that is concerned. It cannot enter at all into the mysterious calculations of the mathematician, nor revel in the sublime glorieg of poetry. The animal has nothing to do with the life of the intellectual mind; as to mental life it is dead. Now, there is a grade of life which is higher than the mental life — a higher life quite unknown to the philosopher, not put down in Plato, nor spoken of by Aristotle, but understood by the very meanest of the children of God. “it is a phase of life called “spiritual life,” a new form of life altogether, which does not belong to man naturally, but is given to him by Jesus Christ. The first man, Adam, was made a living soul, and ail his descendants are made like unto him. The second Adam is made a quickening spirit, and until we are made like the second Adam we know nothing of spiritual life. This body of ours is by nature adapted for a soulish life. The apostle tells us, in that wonderful chapter in Corinthians, that the body is sown — what? “A natural body.” The Greek is, “A soulish body” — “but it is raised “— what? ‘* A spiritual body.” There is a soulish body, and there is a spiritual body. There is a body adapted to the lower life which belongs to all men, a mere mental existence; and there is to be a body which will belong to all those who have received spiritual life, who shall dwell in that body as the house of their perfected spirit in heaven. The life which Jesus Christ gives his people is spiritual life, therefore it is mysterious. “Thou hearest the sound thereof, but thou canst not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” You who have mental life cannot explain to the horse or the dog what it is, neither can we who have spiritual life explain to those who have it not what it is. You can tell them what it does and what its effects are, but what the “spark of heavenly flame” may be you yourselves do not know, though you are conscious that it is there.
It is spiritual life which Jesus Christ gives his people, but it is more; it is divine life. This life is like the life of God, and therefore it is elevating. “We are made,” says the apostle, “partakers of the divine nature.” “Begotten again by God the Father, not,” says the apostle, “with corruptible seed, but with incorruptible.” We do not become divine, but we receive a nature which enables us to sympathize with
Deity, to delight in the topics which engage the Eternal Mind, and to live upon the same principles as the Most Holy God. We love, for God is love. We begin to be holy, for God is thrice holy. We pant after perfection, for he is perfect. We delight in doing good, for God is good. We get into a new atmosphere. We pass out of the old range of the mere mental faculties; our spiritual faculties make us akin to God. “Let us,” said he, “make man in our own image, after our own iikeness.” That image Adam lost; that image Christ restores, and gives to us that life which Adam lost in the day when he sinned, when God said to him, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” In that sense he did die; the sentence was not postponed; he died spiritually directly he touched the fruit; and this long-lost life Jesus Christ restores to every soul who believes in him.
This life, you will gather from my remarks, is heavenly life. It is the same life that expands and develops itself in heaven. The Christian does not die. What does the Saviour say? “He that believeth in me shall never die.” Does not the mental life die? Yes. Does not the mere bodily life die? Ay, but not the spiritual life. It is the same life here which it will be there, only now it is undeveloped and corruption impedes its action. Brethren, nothing of us shall go to heaven aa flesh and blood, but only as it is subdued, elevated, changed, and perfected by the influence of the spirit-life. Know ye not that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.” Then what is the “I,” the “myself” that shall enter heaven? Why, if you be in Christ a new creature, then that new creature and nothing but that new creature, the very life which you have lived here in this tabernacle, the very life that has budded and blossomed in the garden of communion with God, that life which hasled you to visit the sick, and clothe the naked, and feed the hungry, that life which has made tears of repentance stream down your cheeks,, that life which has caused you to believe in Jesus, — this is the life which will go to heaven; and if you have not this, then you do not possess the life of heaven, and dead souls cannot enter there. Only living men can enter into the land of the living. “As we have borne the image of the earthy, so also shall we bear the image of the heavenly.” Even now the heavenly life heaves and throbs within us.
I think it may also be inferred from all this that the life which Christ gives his people is an energetic life. If the spiritual life is poured into a man it raises him above his former state, and lifts him out of the range of merely carnal comprehension. He himself is discerned of no man. “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” You cannot expect the world to understand this new life. It is a hidden thing. It will be a mystery to yourselves, a wonder to your own hearts. But oh! how active it will be! It will fight with your sins, and will not be satisfied until it has slam them. If you tell me you never have a conflict within, I tell you I can not understand how you can have the divine life, for it is sure to come into conflict at once with the old nature, and there will be perpetual strife. The man becomes a new man at home; his wife and family observe it; he is a different man in business; he is a changed man altogether, whether you view him in connection with his fellow-men or
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with his God. He is a new creature. He feels that the new and wondrous life which has been planted in him has made him of a different race from the common herd, and he walks amongst the sons of men feeling that he is an alien and a stranger. “Beloved, now are we the eons of God, and it doth not- yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear* we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
I wish there were more time to describe the inward life, but this must suffice to indicate the blessing which Jesus gives to the believer by the work of the Holy Ghost.
There is a word in the text which qualifies it: “I give unto them eternal life.” “Eternal” means “without end.” If Christ puts the life of God into a man that life cannot be taken away. It cannot die, that were impossible. When I have heard one say that you mav be a child of God to-day but that next week may find you a child of the devil, I have supposed that the word “eternal “according to him could only have meant five or six days; but according to the dictionary I use, according to the mind of the Spirit,” eternal “means” without end.” If, then, a man says, “I had spiritual life once, but I do not possess it now,” it is clear that either he is mistaken altogether or he never had it at all. If Jesus had said, “I give unto them life which shall last for seven years, but which may perhaps be quenched and put out under temptation,” I could understand a man saying that he had fallen from grace; but if it be “eternal life,” then it mupt be “eternal;” there is no end to it, it must go on. The mere existence of the soul we believe will be never-ending, but it will be no boon to the ungodly that it will be so. It is not for Christ to give us mere immortality “of existence, for that will be a fearful curse to some men. Lost souls would be glad enough if they could be rid of their immortal existence, but Christ gives an eternal, a holy life, a happy life, which is infinitely more than existence. Existence may be a curse, but life is a blessing. This life begins here: “I give unto them.” Not, “I shall give,” but “I give.” Not, “I will give it to them when they die,” but “I give it them here, I give unto them eternal life.” Now, my hearer, you have either got eternal life to-night, or you are still in death. If you have not received it yon are “dead in trespasses and sins,” and your doom will be a terrible one; but if God has given you eternal life, fear not the surrounding hosts of hell nor the temptations of the world, for the eternal God is your refuge, and underneath you are the everlasting arms.
This life is given as a free gift to every one of the Lord’s people, and is bestowed by the Lord and by none else.
2. Let us turn now to the second part of the blessing. Here ia preservation secured. “They shall never perish.” 6ertain gentlemen who cannot endure the doctrine of final perseverance manage to slip away from the next sentence, “Neither shall any pluck them out of my hands,” and suggest, “but they may get out themselves.” No. no, no, because the text says, “They shall never perish.” Our present sentence which we have now in hand puts aside all suppositions of every kind about the destruction of one of Christ’s sheep. “They shall never perish.” Take each word. “They shall never perish.” Some of their notions may, some of their comforts mav, some of their expejriences may, but THEY never shall. That which is the essence of the man, his true soul, his inward renewed nature, shall never be destroyed. See, then, Christian, you may be deprived of a thousand things without any violation of the promise. The promise is not that the ship shall not go to the bottom, but that the passengers shall get to the shore. The promise is not that the house shall not be burned; the pledge is that you who are in the house shall escape. “They shall never perish.” Take another word: “They shall never perish” They shall go very near it, perhaps. They shall lose their joys and their comforts, but “they shall never perish” The life in them shall never be starved out, nor beaten out, nor driven out. If you once get leaven into a piece of bread you cannot get it out; you may boil it, you may fry it, you may bake it, you may do what you like with it, but the leaven is in it, and you .cannot get it out. Get the soul saturated with the grace of God, and -you can never eradicate it. The man himself shall never perish. He -may think he shall, the devil may tell him he shall, his comforts may be withdrawn, he may go to his death-bed full of doubts and fears about himself, but he shall never perish. Now, this is either true or it is not. You who think it is not true tell the Lord so; but I believe that it is a most sure and infallible fact, for Jehovah says it. I do not know how it is that they do not perish, it is a wondrous tiling; but then it is all a marvel throughout from first to last. Now take the word “never.” We have shown how long the preservation endures: “They shall never perish.” “Well, but if they should live to be very aged, and should then fall into sin?” “They shall never perish.” Oh! but perhaps they may be assaulted in quarters where they least expect it, or they may be beleaguered by temptation.” They shall never perish.” “Well, but a man may be a child of God and yet go to hell.” How so, if he can never perish? Why, that “never” includes time and eternity, it includes living and dying, it includes the mount and the valley, the tempest .and the calm. “They shall never perish.”
* In every state secure,
Kept by the eternal Hand.”
Beneath the wings of the Almighty God night with its pestilence cannot smite them, and day with its cares cannot destroy them; youth with its passions shall be safely passed; middle age with all its whirl of business shall be navigated in safety; old age with its infirmities shall become the land of Beuiah; death’s gloomy vale shall be lit up with the coming splendour; the actual moment of departure, the last and solemn article shall be the passing over of a river dryshod. “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee, saith the Lord.” “They shall never perish.”
There is a way of explaining away everything, I suppose, but I really do not know how the opponents of the perseverance of God’s saints will get over this text. They may do with it as they will, but I shall still believe what I find here, that I shall never perish if I am one of Christ’s people. If I perish, then Christ will not have kept hig promise; but I know he must abide faithful to his word. “He is not a man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he should repent.” Every soul that resteth on the atoning sacrifice is safe, and safe for ver; “they shall never perish.”
3. Then comes the third sentence, in which we have a position guaranteed — “in Christ? 9 hand” We have not time to expound it: it is to be in a place of honour; we are the ring he wears on his finger. It is a place of love: “I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.” It is a place of power: his right hand encloses all his people. It is a place of property: Christ holds his people; “all the saints are in thy hand.” It is a place of discretion: we are yielded up to Christ, and Christ wields a discretionary government over us. It is a place of guidance, a place of protection: as sheep are said to be in the hand of the shepherd, so are we in the hand of Christ. As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, to be used by him, as jewels in the hands of the bride to be her ornament, so are we in the hand of Christ. Now, what says the text? It reminds us that there are some who want to pluck us thence. There are those who, with false doctrine, would deceive, if it were possible, the very elect. There are roaring persecutors who would frighten God’s saints, and so make them turn buck in the day of battle. There are scheming tempters — the panderers to hell, the jackals of the lion of the pit, who would fain drag us to destruction. Then there are our own hearts that would pluck us thence. You know in the text before us we need not read the word “man,” for it is not in the original. The translators have put the word “man” in italics to show that it is not in the Greek, and so we may read it — “Neither shall any pluck them out of my hand.” Not only — any “man,” but any devil either. Nothing that is present shall do it, nothing to come; no principality, no power, nothing whatsoever that is conceivable. “None shall pluck them out of my hand.” It does not merely include men, who are sometimes our worst foes, for the worst that we have are they of our own household; it also includes fallen spirits; but none shall be able to pluck us out of his hand. By no possibility shall any be able, by any of their schemes, to remove us from being his favourites, his property, his dear sons, his protected children. Oh, what a blessed promise!
Now, do you know, while I have been preaching to you about this, I have been thinking a little about my own history before I knew the Lord. One of the things that made me want to be a Christian was this. I had seen some young lads that I was at school with, they were excellent lads, and some of them had been held up as patterns of imitation to me and to others. I saw them, though only a very few years older than myself, turn out as vain and ungodly as well could be, and yet I knew them to have been excellently well disposed as boys, nay, to have been very patterns; and this kind of thought used to cross my young brain, “Is there not some means of being pre- €e>-ved from making a shipwreck of my life? “When I came to read the Bible, it seemed to me to be full of this doctrine: ‘• If you trust Christ, he will save you from all evil; he will keep you in a life of integrity and holiness while here, and he will bring you safe to heaven at the last.” I felt that I could not trust man, for I had seen some of the very best wandering far from truth; if I trusted Christ, it was not a chance as to whether I should get to heaven, but a certainty; and I learned that if I rested all my weight upon him he would keep me, for I found it written, “The righteous shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger.” I found the apostle saying, “I am persuaded that he that hath begun a good work in you will carry it on,” and such-like expressions. “Why,” I reasoned, “I have found an insurance office, and a good one too; I will insure my life in it; I will go to Jesus as I am, for he bids me; I will trust myself with him.” If I had listened to the-Arminian theory I should never have been converted, for it never had any charms for me. A Saviour who casts away his people, a God who leaves his children to perish, were not worthy of my worship, and a salvation which does not save outright is neither worth preaching nor listening to. When I stand here and say to thisassembled mass, Trust my Master, believe him, and it is no matter of question as to whether you shall be s-aved, for he has said that “he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved;” when I say that, I feel that I have something to say which is worth listening to. My dear hearer, with a new heart and a right spirit you will be a new man. As you now are, if you were to be pardoned to-night you would be condemned to morrow, for the tendencies of your nature would lead you astray. But if God shall put a new nature into you, your old nature shall not be able to control it. The new immortal principle shall get the mastery; you shall be kept from sinning; you shall be preserved in holiness, and though you will have to mourn over your imperfection, yet you will feel that you have God’s own life in you; though you will realize that you are not perfect, yet you will wish you were, and this wishing to be so will be a sign of grace in your soul, and these wishes and desires will go on waxing stronger and stronger, till, having mastered sin by the power of the Spirit, the day shall come when this body shall be dropped off, and the new life, disencumbered of the vile rags which it was compelled to wear while it was here, shall leap in its disembodied existence into perfection, and then shall wait for the trumpet’s sound, and the body itself, purified and made fit for the new and higher life, shall be again inhabited, and so both the body and the soul, delivered from all sin, shall be an everlasting testimony to the promise of Christ, for those who rest in him shall have eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of his hand.
III. I have anticipated the last point, as to THE OUTLOOK OF MY
TEXT INTO THE FUTURE.
If God has given you eternal life, that comprehends all the future. ‘Your spiritual existence will flourish when empires and kingdoms decay. Your life will live on when the heart of this great vcorld shall grow cold, when the pulse of the great sea shall cease to beat, when the eye of the bright sun shall grow dim with age. You possess eternal life. When, like a moment’s foam which melts into the wave that bears it, the whole universe shall have gone, and left not a wreck behind, it shall be well with you, for you have eternal life. You have an existence that will run parallel with the existence of the Deity. Eternal life! Oh! what an avenue of glory is opened by those words — Eternal Life! “Because I live,” saith Christ, ki ye shall live also.” As long as there is a Christ there shall be a happy soul, and you shall be that happy soul. As long as there is a God there shall be a ‘beatified existence, and you shall enjoy existence, for Jesus gives you eternal life. Spin on, old world, until thine axle is worn out. Fly on, Old Father Time, until thine hour-glass is broken, and thou shalt cease to be! Come, mighty angel! plant thy foot upon the sea and upon the land, and swear by him that liveth that time shall be no more, for «ven then every Christian shall still live, because Christ gives unto them eternal life.
Does not the next sentence also look into the future? — “They shall never perish.” They shall never cease to exist in perpetual blessedness! never cease to be like God in their natures; never. Think you have been in heaven a thousand years — can you realize it? A thousand years’ blessed communion with the Lord Jesus! A thousand years in his bosom! A thousand years with the sight of him to ravish your spirit! Well, but you will have just as long to be there as if you had never begun, for you shall never, never perish. When the millennium shall come, or when the judgment shall sit, and when all the great transactions of prophecy shall be fulfilled, these need not distress you, for if you trust Christ you shall never — oh! turn that word over — you shall never, never, never, never, NEVER perish! What an eternity of glory, what unspeakable delight is wrapped up ir this promise — “They shall never perish!”
Then, surely, this is another glance into the future — “And none shall pluck them out of my hand.” We shall be in his hand for ever, we shall be in his heart for ever, we shall be in his very self for ever — one with him, and none shall pluck us thence. Happy, happy is the man who can lay claim to such a promise as this!
Oh! there are some of you to whom I wish this promise belonged! It is very rich, and very full of comfort; I wish it belonged to. you. Dost thou say, “I wish it belonged to me”? Oh! friend, I am glad to hear thee say that! Dost thou know, soul, that there is but one key to open this precious treasure, and that is the key of the cross of the Lord Jesus? What sayest thou? Canst thou trust him? When one told me the other day she could not trust Christ, I looked her in the face and said, “What has he done that you should not trust him? Can trust me?” “Yes,” she said, “I can trust my fellow-creatures, but I cannot trust God.” Oh! I thought, what terrible blasphemy! It honestly spoken, and it was spoken by one who did not perceive the greatness of the offence in it, but I do not know that there is any worse thing that can be said than that — “I cannot trust God!” Well, sir, you have made him a liar thenl That is the practical result of it; for if j’ou believe a man to be honest you can always trust him. Can I trust my fellow-man, and not trust God? Oh! the horror of that thought! There is such an amount of blasphemy in it that I must not quote it again! Not trust Christ! “Well,” says one, “but may we not have a merely natural trust and so be deceived?” I do not know of any trust in Christ except a spiritual one, nor do I believe in any. If thou trustest Christ thou hast not done that of thyself. There was never a soul that did trust Christ unless he was enabled to do it by God the Holy Spirit, and if you wholly and simply trust Christ you need not ask any questions about natural trusting or spiritual trusting. If you trust the Lord Jesus wholly you are right. Rest on him then; rest on him only, wholly, and solely, and if you perish then I do not understand the gospel, and I cannot comprehend what the Bible means. I will tell you one thing, and then close. If you trust Christ and you perish, then I must perish most certainly, and so must all my brethren and sisters here who have believed in Jesus. It is all over with us if it is all over with you. When there is a storm, one passonger cannot very well go to the bottom, if he is in the ship, unless the whole of the ship’s company go too. We must gotogether. We have got into the life-boat, and if the life-boat goes down with you it must go down with all the saints, and all the apostles, and all the martyrs too. They went to heaven resting upon Christ,eand if you rest on Christ you will get there also.
Oh! sinner, mayest thou be led to-day to rest on Jesus and on Jesus only, and then take the text. Do not be afraid of it — “I give unto my sheep eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand.”
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON — John x. 1 — 30.
ifabcrmtde f) utyit.
A SHARP KNIFE FOR THE VINE-BRANCHES.
DELIVERED ON LORD’S-DAY MORNING, OCTOBER GTH, 1867, BY
C. II. Sl’UKGEOiX,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
“Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” — John xv. 2.
THESE are the words of Jesus. Unto you that believe he is precious; and every word that he speaks is precious for his sake: you will be sure, then, to give every syllable its weight, and to let each word fall upon your soul as coming directly from his lips. These are the words of our Lord Jesus just before his departure from the world. We reckon the words of dying men to be worth storing, and especially of such a matchless man as our Lord and Master. It may be said of him, “Thou hast kept the best wine until now;” for, in this chapter, and in that which follows, we have some of the choicest, deepest, and richest words that the Master ever uttered. You will endeavour then, to hear him speaking as upon the verge of Gethsemarie; you will listen to these sentences as coming to you associated with the groans and bloody sweat of his agony. These are words, moreover, about us, and, therefore, to be received by us with profound attention; the most of us who are here are in Christ, some one way or another; the majority of us profess to be Christians; the text, then, is directed to us. When Jesus speaks about anything, it is weighty, and demands our ear, but when he speaks about ourselves to ourselves, we must give him the heart as well as the ear, and give most earnest heed to the things which he speaks to usr lest by any means we let them slip. We may have to regret one day that we did not listen to his voice in love, for we may have to hear it when we must listen to it, when the tones have become those of judgment, and Jesus the judge shall say unto us, “I know you not,” even though we shall venture to plead that we ate and drank in his presence, and that he taught in our streets.
Having, then, your solemn attention, we will read the text again: ‘•Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.”
The text suggests self-examination; conveys instruction; and, invites meditation.
I. In the first place, it SUGGESTS SELF-EXAMINATION^
I hear in these solemn words the tones of his voice of whom Malachi said, “Who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap.”
No. 774 50
I discern in these two heart-searching sentences, the voice of him of whom John said, “His fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Truly the Lord’s “fire is in Ziou, and his furnace in Jerusalem,” Happy shall that man be who can bear to be thrust into the flame, and to be covered with the hot coals of the burning truths here taught: but he shall be found reprobate who cannot bear the trial
1. Observe, that our text mentions two characters who are in some respects exceedingly alike / they are both branches, they are both branches in the vine: “Every branch in me” How much alike persons may be apparently, who in God’s sight stand at opposite poles of character! Both the persons described in the text were in Christ: in Christ in different senses it is plain, because the first persons were not so in Christ as to bring forth fruit, consequently, as fruit is that by which we are to judge a man, they were not in Christ effectually, graciously, influentially, or so as to receive the fruit-creating sap. If they had brought forth fruit, their fruitfulness would have been a sign that they were in Christ savingly. Who will venture to say that a man who yields no fruit of righteousness can be really a Christian? Yet they were in Christ in some sense or other; that is to say, the two characters were equally esteemed to be Christians; their names were enrolled in the same church register; in the common judgment of men they were equally Christian; according to their own profession, they were so; in many other respects which we need not now catalogue, they were both in Christ as his avowed disciples, as soldiers professedly fighting under his banner, as servants wearing his livery.
These two persons were probably equally sound in their doctrinal views, they held the same precious truth. If they heard falsehood, they were equally earnest to denounce it. When they listened to the gospel, they received it with joy, and so received it as to be willing to assist in the spread of it, and even to make sacrifices for its extension. These persons were equally attentive to ordinances. How often has it happened that two persons of widely different state before the Lord, have been baptised at the same hour, in the same water, into the same name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and have then broken bread together with equal apparent fervency, and with equal professions of enjoyment and devotion! These people have been equally fair in their profession; their moral conduct has in the judgment of :all onlookers been much the same; they have avoided every thing of ill repute, and they have in their measure sought after that which was comely and lovely in the estimation of men. Ah! there will often be found two who publicly pray alike, have an equal gift in prayer — and what is worse, preach with equal earnestness and zeal, to all appearance, who have family prajrer maintained with the same consistency, and yet for all this, the end of the one shall be to be cast away as a branch to be burned, while the end of the other shall be to bring forth fruit unto perfection, with everlasting life as the reward. Ah! friends, man can counterfeit cleverly, but when the devil helps him, he becomes master of the art. You will see pieces of coinage which it is aJmost impossible for you to discover to be mere counterfeit!* by their appearance, or even by their ring; in the scales they almost deceive you, but you put them into the fire, and then the discovery is made. Doubtless there are thousands in all Christian churches who have the stamp and the impress of the King upon them, and look like the genuine shekels of the sanctuary, who after all are only fit to be like bad money, fastened down on the footstool of the judgment seat, with a nail driven through them, to their everlasting reprobation and disgrace. How can we tell a bold man from a coward? Two soldiers wear the same regimentals: they will talk equally loudly of what they will do when the enemy shall come. It is the battle that tests and proves them; some peculiar phase of the conflict will bring out the difference; but till the battle comes, how easy it is for the poltroon to play the hero, while perhaps the bravest man may modestly shrink into the rear! Our text, then, brings before us two characters apparently alike.
2. Then, in the second place, it shows us IM distinction between them — the great and solemn difference. The first branch brought forth no fruit; the second branch bore some fruit. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” We have no right to judge of our neighbours’ motives and thoughts, except so far as they may be clearly discoverable by their actions and words. The interior we must leave with God, but the exterior we may judge, and must judge. There is a sense in which we are not to judge men; but there is another sense in which he would be an arrant fool who did not constantly exercise his judgment upon men. “By their fruits ye shnll know them,” is our Lord’s own canon of sacred criticism. If you would judge men and judge yourselves, this is the one test — “by their fruits.”
Now, then, what say you professors who are present here to-day; you who are so regular in your attendance upon the means of grace? Will you now search yourselves, to see whether you have any fruit? That you may be helped in such an investigation, let me remind you that the apostle Paul has given us a list of these fruits, in his fifth chapter of the epistle to the Galatians. He says in the twenty-second verse, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” Nine kinds of fruit: all these should be 41 in us and abound.” Let us question ourselves whether we have any of them.
Say, professor, hast thou brought forth the fruit of “love”? Searching question, this! I do not ask thee, canst thou talk of love? but, dost thou feel it? I do not say, is love upon your tongue? but, does love rule thy heart? Dost thou love God as a child loves its father? Dost thou love the Saviour from a sense of gratitude to him who bought thee with his blood? Dost thou feel the love of the gracious Comforter, who dwells in thee, if thou be indeed a child of God? What kuowest thou about love to the brethren? Dost thou love the saints, as saints, whether they belong to thy church or no; whether they please thee or serve thy turn or no? Say, dost thou love God’s poor? Dost thou love God’s persecuted and despised ones? Answer, I pray thee. What about love to the kingdom of the Lord’s dear Son, and to the souls of men? Canst thou sit still and be satisfied with being saved thyself, while thy neighbours are being damned by thousands? Are thine eyes never wet with tears for impenitent souls? Do the terrors of the Lord never get hold upon thee, when thou thinkest of men plunging themselves into perdition? “He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” Hast thou this fruit, then? for if not, “every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away.”
Next comes joy. Does thy religion ever give thee joy? Is it mere matter of duty, a heavy chain for thee to drag about like a convict, or is thy religion a harp for thee to dance to the tune of? Dost thou ever rejoice in Jesus Christ? Dost thou know what the “joy of the Lord” means ?« Does it ever give thee joy to think that he is the same even when the fig tree does not blossom, and the herd is cut off from the stall? Dost thou feel a joy in reading the promises of God’s word? Hast thou a joy in secret prayer; that joy which the world never gave thee, and cannot take away from thee? Hast thou a secret joy, like a spring shut up, a fountain sealed, which is only open to thee and thy Lord, because thy fellowship is with him, and not with the sons of sin? He that never mourned because of sin, has never repented; but he who has never rejoiced because of forgiveness, cannot have seen the cross. Corne, then, hast thou produced this fruit of joy? The Lord give it more and more to thee! If thou hast never had it, then hear the sentence — “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away.”
Next follows “peace.” Oh, blessed fruit! an autumn fruit, mellow and sweet, and fit for an angel’s tooth. It is the fruit the blessed feed upon in heaven — peace with God, peace of conscience, peace with one’s fellow men, “the peace of God wnich passeth all understanding,” which “keeps the heart and mind through Jesus Christ.” “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Ah! my hearers, some of you make a great deal of noise perhaps about religion, and yet never have peace of conscience. This is what ceremonialists never can obtain. “We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle” of outward ordinances, and carnal, vainglorious, pompous ceremonies. Of our altar, where the finished sacrifice is eaten as a peace offering, they cannot eat. They find no peace after all their masses, and holy offices, and processions, and sacred hours, and priestcraft, and I know not what; poor slaves, they go down to their graves as much in bondage as ever, with the dreary prospect of a purgatorial fire before them: no delightful prospect of waking up in the likeness of Christ; no sense of the truth of that glorious passage, “and ye are complete in him.” He that hath Christ hath this one of his fruits, namely, peace. He who knows no peace with God, has good need to tremble.
Mention is next made of long suffer ing. I fear there are many professors who have very little of this, a quality which may be viewed in many aspects. There is patience, which bears God’s chastising hand, and does not turn against him, but says, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Long-suffering towards God, suffering long. Then there is longsuffering towards man, bearing persecution without apostacy, bearing slander and reproach with out revenge, bearing the errors and mistakes of mankind with tender compassion. The believer should have much of this. Some of us, perhaps, may be naturally quick tempered; grace must overcome angry passions. It is not for you to say, “I cannot help it;” the fruit of the Spirit is longsuffering — you must help it. If there is no change in your temper, there is no change in you at all; you have need to be converted. If the grace of God does not help you in a measure to keep under that temper which will be there, but which you must restrain, you have need to go to God and ask him to make sound work in you, for there is no work of grace there yet. We must have longsuffering, or we may be found fruitless, and then woe unto us.
Next in order is gentleness, by which I understand kindness. The Christian is a man of kindness. He recognises hi* kinuedness with his fellow men, he wishes to treat them as his kin. He has compassion for those who are suffering; he endeavours to make his manners kind and courteous. He knows that there is a natural offence in the cross to carnal men, he does not wish therefore to make any offence of his own. He desires in his own life not to be morose, suspicious, harsh, proud domineering, but he seeks to imitate his Master, who said of himself, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart.” The believer in Christ should be gentle towards all men with whom he comes in contact. This is one of the fruits of the Spirit, and, I may add, a fruit of the Spirit in which many professors fire terribly deficient. Do not think that I judge you. I jud<re you not — there is one that judgeth you, it is this word of God which we speak. Gentleness is the fruit” of the Spirit, and if you have it not, you have not this fruit of the Spirit: and what saith the text, “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away!”
We are next reminded of goodness, by which is undoubtedly meant beneficence, benevolence, generosity, not merely kindliness of manner, but bounty of heart. Oh, what a fine thing it is when our Christianity gives us a noble spirit! We cannot all be nobles in pocket, but every child of God should be a noble in his heart. “Come in,” said a poor Scotch woman to some of the Lord’s people, “I have room for ten of you in my house, but I have room for ten thousand of you in my heart.’* So should the believer say, “Come in, ye that are in need; Thave not the power to help many of you. but I have the will to help all of you if I could.” The Christian should be like his Lord and Master, easily entreated, ready to communicate, making it his delight and his business to distribute, like a cloud that is full of rain, and empties itself upon the earth; like the bright and sparkling sun scattering his beams abroad, and not hiding or hoarding his light. If ye have not this fruit of the Spirit in some measure, I beseech you to remember the solemn words of the text, “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away.”
Then comes faith, by which is probably not meant the grace of faith which is rather a root than a fruit, yet that is included. The fruit of the Spirit is indeed faith in God; without this, there is not even the commencement of anything like security in the soul. Dost thou believe on the Son of God? Hast thou faith? If thou hast faith but as a grain of mustard-seed, it is a sign of life within thee. If thou hast little of it, pray, “Lord, increase our faith 1” But the faith here, I think, means faithfulness — faithfulness towards God, faithfulness towards conscience. How little some Christians make of that nowadays! Why, they swallow their consciences. There are ministers who subscribe to words which they know to be deceiving the people, and help to buttress a church which is doing its utmost to lead this nation into downright Popery. The good and gracious ministers in the Establishment are the prop and pillar of it, and by their influence they maintain a system which enables traitors to pollute this land with Popery. 0 that our friends had a little more tenderness of conscience, and would come out from their unhallowed alliance with the Popish Eitualists. How earnestly do I pray that none of us have the remotest connection with anything which would take us back to that Antichrist which God hateth, which he so hateth, that he has bidden his servant John, call the apostate church by a dreadful name, a brand of infamy, a name which God never uses till he has cast off and utterly abhorred a thing. My brethren, may your consciences be faithful, and may you be faithful to your consciences: men that trifle with doctrine, it seems to me, little know what sins they commit. I tell you who trifle with doctrines, that you are as bad as thieves; you are worse, for the thief only robs men, but you rob God and your own souls. By helping to foster error, you are heaping together the elements of a pestilence which, unless grace prevent, will utterly destroy this land. We must have faithfulness also in our dealings with our fellow men in business. Saints are men of honour still. The Christian man “sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.” He does not take an oath, but his word is his bond. 0 that we may have this fruit of the Spirit: faithfulness, directness, straightforwardness, doing the right, loving the true, and walking uprightly before the Lord our God!
The next fruit is meekness. May we possess much of this, for there is a peculiar benediction promised to the meek: “Blessed are -the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” The Christian is to be as harmless as a dove. In his Master’s battles, bold as a lion, but for himself and for his own cause, tender, gentle, shunning debate, loving quietness, ready to take a rebuke rather than to administer one; feeling himself to be weak and frail. Moses was the meekest of men, -often provoked, but only once speaking unadvisedly with his lips. It is marvellous how he bore with the people; they were the most provoking people in the world, except ourselves — but yet, like as a nurse is tender with a sick child, even so was he with a foolish people. How oft did they provoke him and grieve his spirit! He grew indignant, and dashed the two tables of stone upon the ground, when he saw the idolatry of the people. Moses, the meekest of men, could not bear that; and God’s meekest servants grow wrath when they think of the idolatry into which this land is sliding so rapidly. But meek we must be towards all men; and if we have not this fruit, the Master says, “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away.”
Do not forget temperance, which is now generally used in respect to meats and drinks, but which has a far wider signification, though it includes that. The man who indulges the appetites of the flesh, and cannot control himself as to eating and drinking, need not pretend <to be a Christian. He has first to prove that he is equal to a beast before he may pretend to be a child of God; he has first to show that he is a man before he may claim to be a Christian. Those who indulge in drunkenness shall drink of the wine of God’s wrath ere long, and then how bitter will their sweet wines be to them! how will that which has been sweet to the throat, be as poison in the bowels for ever and ever! If we have not that kind of temperance, evidently we can know nothing about true religion. But there must be an equal temperance in all other things, a temperance in your dress, in your expenditure, in your temper, and indeed in every act. There is a moderation to be observed, a narrow road to be followed, which the tutored eye of the spiritual man can see, and which it is a fruit of the Spirit for the spiritual foot to tread. God grant that we may havethese fruits.
Beloved in the Lord, I am persuaded that no truth needs to be pressed more upon my own soul and yours than this, that positive fruit is the only test of our being in Christ. It is so easy for us to wrap ourselves up in the idea that attention to religious ceremonies is the test, but it is not so, for “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees,” who were the most religious people of their day, “ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” I know it is easy to think, “Well, I do not indulge in drunkenness; I am no rogue; I do not do this or that.” This “is little to the matter, ttemember that the judgment will not be about those things which you do not do, but about positive things. How does Jesus Christ put that judgment matter? “I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: 1 was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me’ not: sick, and in prison, and ye risited me not.” The absence of positive fruit was that which condemned the lost. “Every tree,” says John, “that bearcth not fruit shall be hewn down and cast into the fire.” He does not say, “Every tree that bears bitter fruit, or sour grapes,” but “Every tree that bringcth forth no fruit.” Fruitless professors, tremble! I may not speak so as to make this truth penetrate as I would it should into your inmost souls,, but I pray the eternal Spirit to make ife like fire in the bones of every deceived man and woman. If my Lord shall come to you, my hearer, day after day, as he once came to the fig-tree, and should find leavesupon you and no fruit, I tell you he will say, “Henceforth let no fruit be on thee for ever,” and thou shalt wither away. What is hia own parable! The master of the vineyard said to the husbandman, “Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?” And when the husbandman interceded, you will remember his intercession was only so far: “If it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.” Jesus the intercessor agrees with his Father the Husbandman; Mercy agrees with Justice; if there be no fruit, the tree must come ‘down. May I beseech you to lay these things to heart. Thou must bear fruit unto God by the power of the Spirit, or it isdown with thee. God fingers his axe this morning; it is sharp, and if he doth but lift it, woe to thee, barren fig tree! Woe, indeed, to me also, if I be found barren in the day of the Lord’s appearing.
In closing this weighty business of self-examination, I must remind you that our Lord tells us, that although these persons were in some points alike, the solemn difference between them led to a solemn result. “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away.” There are many ways in which the Lord takes away barren branches. Some times he allows the professor to apostatise. He gets rich, and then he will not go to the place of worship which he used to frequent when he was a poorer man, and was humble enough to hear the gospel; he must go to some fashionable place, where he can listen to anything but the truth; and thus by his own pride he is taken away. Or else he is allowed to fall into open sin. “We always should regret the falls of professors, but sometimes it is possible that discovered sins may be a blessing, for they take away from the church men who never ought to have been there, and who were an injury to it. Many bright professors have stood well for a long time, but at last they have been snuffed out ecclesiastically by reason of their outward sins. God has taken them away. Some have been taken away in a more terrible sense by death; God has removed them. They have lived in the church and died in the church, but have been taken away in solemn judgment, and cast into the fire. Then there is a taking away which is worst of all, when the Master shall say, “Depart, ye cursed!” Now, do observe it: these were respectable people; these were people like you, decent, good people, who attended a place of worship, and contributed, and were very moral, but still they had not grace in their souls. They had nominal Christianity, but not the fruit of the Spirit; and what was done with them? “Lord, cannot some mild means be used? How sad to see these branches cut off!” “No,” saith he, “if they bring not forth fruit, they must be taken away.” “But, Lord, they never reeled in and out of the gin palace 1 Lord, they were much too good and much too amiable to be found amongst the debased and the debauched!” “Take them away; they brought no fruit, and they must be taken away.” “But, Master, they were so diligent in the use of ordinances, they were so constant and regular in the form of prayer!” “They brought forth no fruit,” saith he, “take them away.” There is only this one thing for them: if they had through saving faith been made to bear the fruit of the Spirit, they should have been saved; but as there was no fruit, take them away.
What is done with that which is taken away? If I could take you just outside the garden wall, I would let you see a heap of weeds and slips that are taken from the vine, and there they are neaped together with a little straw, and the gardener burns them. The other branches with their purple clusters are in honour, but these dishonoured things are burnt outside the gate. I cannot picture to you that day of doom, that fate tremendous which shall come upon fruitless branches of the spiritual vine — outside the gate, with a great gulf fixed between them and heaven, where the smoke of their torment goeth up for ever and ever, “where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” If such people are cast away, what will become of some of you? If these good people who were in Christ, in a way, still perish, because they brought forth no fruit, 0 ye who are like hemlock in the furrows of the field, ye who produce the grapes of Gomorrha and the apples of Sodom what shall be your doom ia the day of account when the Master shalj come forth in robes of judgment to execute righteousness among the sons of men?
II. Briefly on the second point. THE TEXT CONVEYS INSTRUCTION.
Looking at it carefully, we observe chat th-e fruit-bear i/v, branches are not perfect. If they were perfect, they would not need pruning; but the fact is there is much of original inbred sin remaining in the best of God’s people, so that whenever the sap within them is strong for the production of fruit, there is a tendency for that strength to turn into evil, and instead of good fruit evil is produced. It is the strength of the tree, and the richness of the sap which makes the branch produce too much wood, so that it needs pruning. The gardener desires to see that strength in clusters, but alas! instead it runs into wood. Now, observe that in a Christian when the sap comes into him to produce confidence in God, through the evil that is in him, it often produces confidence in himself, and he who should be strong in faith becomes strong in carnal security. When the sap would produce zeal, how very frequently it turns into rashness, and instead of zeal with knowledge, fanaticism is brought forth! Suppose the sap flows to produce self-examination, very generally unbelief is the outgrowth, and instead of the man doubting himself, he begins to doubt his Lord. How often have I seen even the joy of the Lord turned into pride, and when the man should rejoice in Christ Jesus, he has began to rejoice in himself, to grow proud and say, “What a fine experience I possess!” That love which we ought to bear towards our neighbours, how apt is that to run into love of the world and carnal complacency towards its evil ways! The gentleness which I praised just now, often turns to a silly compliance with everybody’s whim, and meekness which is a fruit of the Spirit, how often that becomes an txcuse for holding your tongue, when you ought boldly to speak! The fact is, it is very difficult to keep ourselves, when we are in a flourishing state, from producing wood instead of grapes. God grant us grace to keep us from this evil; and I do not know how the grace can come except by his judicious pruning.
I say the fruit- bearing branches are not perfect because they bear a great deal that is not fruit, and, moreover, not one of them bears as much fruit as it ought to do. I do not agree with Mr. Wesley’s opinion about perfection. It is very difficult to see how he could have done more than he did, but I do not doubt that even he felt that he might have been more like his Lord. None of the Lord’s people with whom I ever came into communion have dared to think themselves perfect; and if they had said so, and proved it, I should have rejoiced to think that there were such people, but greatly sorrowed to find that I belong to a very different order of beings myself; for “in me, that is, in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing.” The Master is bringing us upon our way to bring forth more fruit, but as yet, the fruit-bearing branches are not perfect.
Hence we are taught, in the second place, that pruning is the lot of all the fruitful saints. You may escape it if you are not fruitful, you will be cut off, you will not be pruned, but all the fruit-bearing saints must feel the knife. Observe Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, had not those patriarchs their trials? Moses and David, Jeremiah and Daniel, who among those escnped? Though they honoured their Master much, who escaped without the pruning knife? And if you come to the saint* of the New Testament, surety the flame was seven times hotter with regard to them than with regard to the elder brethren. How does tb» Lord prune his people, then? It is generally said by affliction; I question if that could be proved as it stands; it needs explanation. It is generally thought that our trials and troubles purge us: I am not sure of that, they certainly are lost upon some. Our Lord tells us what it is that prunes us. “Now,” saith he, in the third verse of the chapter, “yeare clean (or pruned) through the word which I have spoken unto you.” It is the word that prunes the Christian, it is the truth that purges him, the Scripture, made living and powerful by the Holy Spirit, effectually cleanses the Christian. “What then does affliction do?” say you. Well, if I may say so, affliction is the handle of theknife; affliction is the grindstone that sharpens up the word; affliction is the dresser which removes our soft garments, and lays bare the diseased flesh, so that the surgeon’s lancet may get at it; affliction makes us ready to feel the word, but the true pruner is the word in the hand of the Great Husbandman. Sometimes when you lay stretched upon the bed of sickness, you think more upon the word than you did before, that is one great thing. In the next place, you see more the applicability of that word to yourself. In the third place, the Holy Spirit makes you feel more, while you are thus laid aside, the force of the word than you did before. Ask that affliction may be sanctified, beloved, but always remember there is no more tendency in affliction in itself to sanctify us than there is in prosperity; in fact, the natural tendency of affliction is to make us rebel against God, which is quite opposite tosanctification. It is the word coming to us while in affliction that purges us; it is God the Holy Ghost laying home divine truth, and applying the blood of Jesus, and working in all his divine energy in the soul; it is this that prunes us, and affliction is only the handle of the knife, or what if I say the ladder which the gardener takes to reach the vine, so that he may prune it the betterl Now, it may be that some of us have been afflicted a great deal, and have not been pruned. I know some people who have been very poor, I do not see that they are any better for it, and I know some others who have been very sick, and I have never heard that they have been improved. Alas 1 some people are of such a character, that if they were stricken till their whole head W3?e sick, and their whole heart faint, they would not be benefited; if they were beaten till they were all bruises and putrifying sores, they would still go on to rebel, for these things only provoke them to a greater hatred against the Most High. We must be pruned, but it must be by the word, through affliction.
Now, the object in this pruning is never condemnatory. God does not purge his children with a view to visit them penally for sin; he chastises, but he cannot punish those for whom Jesus Christ has been already punished. You have no right to say, when a man is afflicted, that it is because he has done wrong; on the contrary, “every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth.” Just the branch that is good for something gets the pruning knife. Do not say of yourselves, or of other people, “That man must have been a great offender, or he would not have met with such a judgment.” Nonsense, who a holier man than »Job; but who brought lower than he? Why, the fact is, it is because the Lord loves his people that he chastens them, not because of any
•”•anger that he hath towards them. But learn, beloved, especially you
under trial, not to see an angry God in your pains or your losses, or
your crosses; but instead thereof see a husbandman, who thinks you a
branch whom he estimates at so great a rate, that he will take the
trouble to prune you, which he would not do if he had not a kind con-
’ sideration towards you.
The real reason is that more fruit may be produced; which I understand to mean more in quantity. A good man, who feels the power of the word pruning him of this and that superfluity, sets to work, in the power of the Holy Ghost, to do more for Jesus. Before he was afflicted he did not know how to be patient. He learns it at last — a hard lesson. Before he was poor he did not know how to be humble, but he learn a that. Before the word came with power he did not know how to pray with his fellows, or to speak to sinners, or lay himself out for usefulness; but the more he is pruned, the more he serves his Lord. More fruit in variety too, may be intended. One tree can only produce one kind of fruit usually, but the’Lord’s people can produce many, as we have already seen; and the more they are pruned the more they will produce. There will be all kinds of fruits, both new and old, which they will lay up for their beloved. There will be more in quality too. The man may not pray more, but he will pray more earnestly; he may not preach more sermons, but he will preach them more thoroughly from his heart, with a greater unction. It may be that he will not be more in communion with God as to time, but it will be a closer communion; he will throw himself more thoroughly into the divine element of communion, and will become more hearty in all that he does.
This is the result of the pruning which our heavenly Father gives; And if such be the result, the Lord keep on pruning, for what greater blessing can a man have than to produce much fruit for God? Better to serve God much than to become a prince. He that doeth much for Christ, shall shine as the stars for ever and ever. He is glorifying God; he is blessing his fellow men; he is bringing joy into his own spirit. Oh, if on bended knee we might seek but one favour, methinke we would not ask the wisdom which Solomon craved; we would petition for this, that we might bring forth much fruit, that so we might be •Christ’s disciples.
III. To conclude. Our text INVITES MEDITATION.
I will hint at the points on which it invites our thoughts. It suggests to every unconverted person here this one question. It seems that it is not very easy for the righteous to be saved: “If the righteous scarcely be saved, ivliere shall the ungodly and the wicked appear?” If the branches in Christ that bear no fruit, are taken :uway, what must become of the Sabbath-breakers, the despisers of God, the atheists, the drunkards, the unchaste, the dishonest, the blasphemers? I raise the question — solve it! Let it burn into your soul!
Secondly, what a mercy it is to the believer that it is pruning with him and not cutting off! Ah, let the knife be very sharp, let the word throw us into the great, deeps, till we almost despair; yet, thank God, we are not cast into hell! Dear friends, your prayer should be, “Lord, let thy word cut deep into me. Do not let the preacher mince matter* with me. Deliver him from sewing pillows under my armholes, and lulling me to sleep. Lord, I would be faithfully dealt with! I put the proud flesh before thee, cut it out, that the wound heal not so as to be worse when healed than it was when a running sore.” What a mercy it is not to be cut off! Ah, Christian, you are desponding and doubting to-day, while the word is searching you, but you might have been in hell! Think of that. You are poor, or you are full of pain, but you might have been driven from the presence of God. How can you, as a living man, complain, whatever God may place upon you?
In the next place, it would be well to think how gently the pruning has been done tvith the most of us up till now, compared with our barrenness. I wonder the Lord has not cut us about much more. He who has a deep-seated disease requires sharp medicine; and when the sore runs deep, the doctor must cut deep too. With all the rust that is on usr I wonder we are not filed more. There is so much alloy, it is marvellous that we are not oftener put into the fire. 0 Spirit of God, thou hast hard work with some of us, still we bless thee, for thy gentleness hath been manifested very graciously. How tenderly hast thou dealt with our frail dust, 0 God of love!
Again, how earnestly ive ought to seek for more fruit. If this is what God seeks after, we should be after it. If he often goes the length of pruning the vine, although he does not love to do it, for he does not afflict willingly, or grieve the children of men for nought, let us agree with God, and seek to yield more fruit.
How concerned should every one of us be to be efficaciously and truly one with Christ! I ought to have said that the whole gist of the text lies in that “in me, in me, in me.” You see, if a man is not in Christ at all, why then, of course, there is no hope of any sort; and then, when he is in Christ, there comes the question, is he in Christ by living faith, by real trust? has he the faith of God’s elect? has he been born again from above? is he a spiritual grace- taught soul? Let this be the question which shall rest upon our minds. I would that this morning my text might be sweet to you; sweet, I said, because if for the moment it seemeth bitter, the end is sweetness. Faithful are the wounds of such a friend as Jesus. If he has wounded any of you, it is not to drive you from him, but to make you cling the closer to him. Have you never learned that, when you feel the most humbled, most afraid, most full of sin, most conscious of your own imperfection, the best thing is to cling to Christ the more? “Well, Lord, if I have been the most cursed hypocrite that ever lived, I will come to thee now. If up to this moment I have been deceived, and have not had a grain of true faith, nor a single one of the fruits of the Spirit, yet here J am, a poor black sinner, I to the fountain fly; a naked sinner, I wrap thy righteousness about my loins; a poor sin-sick, lost sinner, I look up to thee on yonder cross, and I do believe that thou canst save me. From the very jaws of death, and out of the belly of hell, do I cry unto thee, and thou wilt hear me. 0 sinners and saints, come to Christ again, whether you are his experimentally, or are strangers to him, come to him now, for still the gospel-bell rings out sweetly, “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” 0 God, grant us grace to come now afresh, and his be the praise 1 Amen, and Amen.