OUR
MOTTO
#1484, Delivered on Sunday Morning,
July 20, 1879,
By C. H. Spurgeon, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
"With goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men."
Ephesians 6:7
This sentence was expressly
addressed, in the first place, to "servants," which term includes and, first
of all intends, those who unhappily were slaves. There were many slaves in
the Roman Empire and the form of bondage which then existed was of the
bitterest kind. I can imagine a slave becoming a Christian and so finding
peace as to his former guilt and obtaining renewal of heart—and then,
although rejoicing in the Lord, I can well conceive that he would often be
downcast in view of his sad condition as a slave. I see him sitting down and
moaning to himself, "I am a bondsman under a tyrant master. I have already
endured many cruelties and may expect many more. I would be free, but there
is no hope of escape, since there is no place to which I can flee, for
Caesar’s arm is long and would reach me at the very ends of the earth. I
cannot purchase my liberty, nor earn it by long years of faithful servitude.
"Neither can my fellow salves and I effect our deliverance by rebellion, for
this has been tried and has ended in terrible bloodshed. I am hopelessly a
slave. What shall I do? How shall I sustain my fate? My life is well-near
intolerable—would to God it were at an end." I can imagine the poor slave
going to his cramped bed under the stairs—for in any hole or corner, the
Roman slave might find such little rest as was allowed him—and there he
would almost wish to sleep himself into another world. Being a Christian, as
I have supposed, he pours out his heart before God in prayer and, in answer
to his cry, the Lord Jesus sets before him the rich consolation which He has
provided for all that mourn—consolation strong enough to enable him to
endure to the end and glorify the name of Jesus even under such hard
conditions!
While yet troubled in mind, this
freeman of the Lord, who is yet in bonds to man, is met by the Savior
Himself. He appears to him—I will not say in such form as could be perceived
by the eyes, but in clear enough vision to be exceedingly influential
over his spirit. Jesus stands before him. The five wounds adorning Him like
precious rubies are infallible tokens! The face lit up with an unearthly
splendor is still marked with the old lines of sorrow and the head bears the
crown of thorns still about its brow. The poor slave casts himself at his
Redeemer’s feet with astonishment, with awe and with intense delight! And
then I think I hear those dear lips which are as lilies dropping
sweet-smelling myrrh saying to His poor servant, "Fulfill your service
bravely. Do it unto Me. Forget your tyrant master and remember only Me. Bear
on, work on, suffer on and do all as unto Me and not unto men."
Then I think I see the
broken-hearted captive rising up refreshed with inward strength and I hear
him say, "I will even bear the yoke until my Lord shall call me away! Unless
His Providence shall open for me a door of liberty, I will patiently abide
where I am and suffer all His will, hopefully and joyfully serving because
He bids me do it for His sake." A vision which would so greatly comfort the
poor Roman slave in his extremity may well stand before each one of us. Let
us each hear our Savior say, "Live unto Me and do all for My sake." Our
service is so much more pleasant and easy than that of slaves—let us perform
it "with good will doing service, as unto the Lord, and not to men." Our
princely motto is, "I serve"—be this sentence emblazoned on our banner and
used as the battle cry of life’s campaign!
Notice well that the Holy Spirit
does not bid us leave our stations in order to serve the Lord. He does not
bid us forego the domestic relations which make us husbands or wives;
parents or children; masters or servants! He does not suggest to us to put
on a peculiar garb and seek the seclusion of a monastery, or the retirement
of monastic or conventual life. Nothing of the kind is hinted at! But rather
He bids the servant continue in his or her service—"with goodwill doing
service." Our great Captain would not have you hope to win the victory by
leaving your post! He would have you abide in your trade, calling,
profession and all the while serve the Lord in it, doing the will of God
from the heart in common things. This is the practical beauty of our holy
faith—that when it casts the devil out of a man it sends him home to bless
his friends by telling them what great things the Lord has done for him.
Grace does not transplant the tree, but bids it overshadow the old house at
home, as before, and bring forth good fruit where it is! Grace does not make
us unearthly, though it makes us unworldly.
True religion distinguishes us from
others, even as our Lord Jesus was separate from sinners, but it does not
shut us up or hedge us round about as if we were too good or too tender for
the rough usage of everyday life! It does not put us in the salt box and
shut the lid, but it casts us in among our fellow men for their good!
Grace makes us the servants of God while we are the still servants of men—it
enables us to do the business of Heaven while we are attending to the
business of earth—it sanctifies the common duties of life by showing us how
to perform them in the light of Heaven. The love of Christ makes the
lowliest acts sublime. As the sunlight brightens a landscape and sheds
beauty over the most common scene, so does the Presence of the Lord Jesus!
The spirit of consecration renders the offices of domestic servitude as
sublime as the worship which is presented upon the sea of glass before the
Eternal Throne by spirits to whom the courts of Heaven are their familiar
name.
I suggest my text to all Believers
as the motto of their lives! Whether we are servants or masters, whether we
are poor or rich, let us take this as our watchword, "As to the Lord, and
not to men." From now on may this be the engraving of our seal and the
motto of our coat of arms! May it be the constant rule of our life and the
sum of our motives. In advocating this gracious aim of our being, let me say
that if we are enabled to adopt this motto it will, first of all,
influence our work itself. And, secondly, it will elevate our spirit
concerning that work. Yet let me add, thirdly, that if the Lord shall really
be the All in All of our lives, it is, after all, only what He has a
right to expect and what we are under a thousand obligations to give to
Him!
I. Our subject opens with this reflection, that if from
now on whether we live, we live unto the Lord, or whether we die, we die
unto the Lord, THIS CONSECRATION WILL GREATLY INFLUENCE OUR ENTIRE WORK.
1.
Do you say, my Brothers and Sisters, that from now on
your whole life shall be a service of the Lord? Then it will follow, first,
that you will have to live with a single eye to
His Glory. See how in verse 5 we are told, "Servants, be
obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and
trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ"? If we do, indeed,
live "as to the Lord," we must necessarily live wholly to the Lord.
The Lord Jesus is a most engrossing Master. He has said, "No man can serve
two masters," and we shall find it so. He will have everything or nothing!
If, indeed, He is our Lord, He must be our only Sovereign, for He will not
tolerate a rival. It comes to pass then, O Christian, that you are bound to
live for Jesus and for Him alone.
You must have no coordinate or even
secondary objective or divided aim—if you divide your heart, your life will
be a failure. As no dog can follow two hares at one time, or he will lose
both, certainly no man can follow two contrary objectives and hope to secure
either of them. No, it behooves a servant of Christ to be a concentrated
man—his affections should be bound up into one affection—and that affection
should not be set on things on the earth, but on things above. His heart
must not be divided, or it will be said of him as of those in Hosea, "Their
heart is divided; now shall they be found wanting." The chamber of the heart
is far too narrow to accommodate the King of kings and the world, or
the flesh, or the devil at the same time. We have no wish, desire, ambition,
or exertion to spare for a rival lord—the service of Jesus demands and
deserves all.
Such is the eminence of this
objective, that all a man has or can have by reason or strength must be
spent this way if he is to win. Nor is this too much for our great Lord to
expect from those for whom He has done so much. To whom should I give a part
of myself, my Master? You have redeemed me wholly and I am altogether
Yours—take full possession of me! Who else can be worthy of my heart? Who
else can have a right to set foot within the province where You are King?
No, rule alone, blessed and only Potentate! As You, alone, have redeemed me,
alone treading the winepress of wrath for me, so shall You be sole Monarch
of my soul! You are all my salvation and all my desire and, therefore, You
shall have all my homage and service. With such a Lord to be served, the
current of our life must run in only one channel—that He may have it all and
none may run to waste.
2. Next, to do service to the Lord,
we must live with holy carefulness ,
for what says the context? We are to serve, "with fear and trembling." In
the service of God we should use great care to accomplish our very best and
we should feel a deep anxiety to please Him in all things. There is a trade
called paper staining, in which a man flings colors upon paper to make
common wall decorations. And by rapid processes acres of paper can be
speedily finished. Suppose that the paper stainer should laugh at an eminent
artist because he had covered such a little space, having been stippling and
shading a little tiny piece of his picture by the hour together? Such
ridicule would, itself, be ridiculous! Now the world’s way of
religion is the paper stainer’s way, the daubing way—there is plenty of it
and it is quickly done. But God’s way, the narrow way, is a careful
matter. There is but little of it and it costs thought, effort, watchfulness
and care.
Yet see how precious is the work of
art when it is done and how long it lasts—and you will not wonder that a man
spends his time upon it. Even so, true godliness is acceptable with God and
it endures forever and, therefore, it well repays the earnest effort of the
man of God. The miniature painter has to be very careful of every touch and
tint, for a very little may spoil his work. Let our life be a miniature
painting—"with fear and trembling" let it be worked out. We are serving the
thrice Holy God who will be held in reverence of them that come near to Him.
Let us mind what we do. Our blessed Master never made a faulty stroke when
He was serving His Father. He never lived a careless hour, nor let drop an
idle word. Oh, it was a careful life He lived—even the night watches
were not without the deep anxieties which poured themselves forth in prayer
unto God! And if you and I think that the first thing which comes to hand
will do with which to serve our God, we make a great mistake and grossly
insult His name! We must have a very low idea of His infinite majesty if we
think that we can honor Him by doing His service half-heartedly, or in a
slovenly style. No, if you will, indeed, live "as to the Lord, and not unto
man," you must watch each motion of your heart and life, or you will fail in
your design.
3. Living as to the Lord means
living with a concentrated spirit and living with earnest care that our one
service may be the best of which we are capable when at our best estate.
Alas, how poor is that best when we
reach it! Truly, when we have done all, we are unprofitable servants, but
even then, that all is seldom reached.
4. Further, if from now on our
desire is to live "as to the Lord, and not unto men," then what we do
must be done with all our heart.
"In singleness of your heart," says the context. And again, in the sixth
verse, "As the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart."
Our work for Jesus must be the outgrowth of the soil of the heart.
Our service must not be performed as a matter of routine—there must be
vigor, power, freshness, reality, eagerness and warmth about it—or it will
be good for nothing. No fish ever came upon God’s altar because it could not
come there alive—the Lord needs none of your dead, heartless worship! You
know what is meant by putting all our heart into all that we do— explain it
by your lives! A work which is to be accepted of the Lord must be heart-work
throughout—not a few thoughts of Christ, occasionally, and a few chill words
and a few chance gifts and a little done by way of by-play—but as the heart
beats so must we serve God! It must be our very life!
We are not to treat our religion as
though it were a sort of weekend farm which we were willing to keep going
but not to make much of, our chief thoughts being engrossed with the home
farm of self and the world with its gains and pleasures. Our Lord will be
either ruler or nothing! My Master is a jealous Husband—He will not tolerate
a stray thought of love elsewhere and He thinks it scorn that they who call
themselves His beloved should love others better than Himself! Such
unchastity of heart can never be permitted—let us not dream of it! We may
not claim to be His if we give Him only lip service, brain service or hand
service—He must have the heart! Oh, our beloved Lord, You did not
spare Your heart from agony for us! The lance opened it with all its costly
double flood for our unworthy sakes! Therefore You cannot be content to
receive, in return, lifeless forms and cold pretences! You did live,
indeed—there was no sham about Your life. In all You did You were intense.
The zeal of Your Father’s house had eaten You up. You were clad with zeal as
with a cloak which covered You from head to foot. Let us live somewhat after
this glorious fashion, for a servant only truly lives when he lives as his
master. "He that is perfect shall be as His Master." If we are to live to
the Lord, the fountains of our soul must flow with boiling floods and our
life must be like a great Icelandic geyser casting up its columns of water
which seethe and boil as they rise. As great earthquakes shake the very
center, so must there be movements of life within us which stir our soul
with vehement longings for Jesus and with intense yearnings for His Glory.
All our light and life must turn to love and that love must be all on flame
for Jesus. If we truly live unto Christ it must be so!
5.
What else says the passage before us? If we say—from
now on I will do the will of God as to the Lord and not unto men, then
we must do it under subjection,
for note well the words, "doing the will of God." Some people’s religion
is only another way of doing their own will. They pick and choose
what precepts they will keep and what they will neglect. They choose what
doctrines they shall hold and what they shall refuse—their spirit is not
bowed into sacred servitude, but takes license to act according to its own
pleasure. The freedom of a Christian lies in what I will venture to call an
absolute slavery to Christ! And we never become truly free till every
thought is brought into subjection to the will of the Most High. Now, if
from now on I live to God, I have no longer any right to say, "I will do
this or that," but I must inquire, "My Master, what would You have me do?"
As the eyes of the maidens are to their mistress, so are our eyes up to You,
O Lord. Believer, your Master is to will for you from now on! It is idle to
say, "I shall live as to the Lord and not unto men," when all the while we
intend to live in our own fashion! Which is to be master, now, self
or Christ? On every point this question must be settled, for if on any
point we assume the personal mastery, the rule of Jesus is wholly
refused! To go or to stand still, to suffer or to be in pleasure, to be in
honor or to be in disgrace is no more to be our option, or if we have a
momentary choice it is to be cheerfully resigned before the Sovereignty of
Him whom we have now taken to be our All in All. There is no being a
Christian if Christ does not have the throne in the heart and life. It is
but the mockery of Christianity to call Jesus Master and Lord while we do
not do the things which He commands!
6. Again, we must do all this
under a sense of the Divine oversight.
Notice in verse 6 it is said of servants, "Not with eye
service, as men-pleasers." What a mean and beggarly thing it is for a man
only to do his work well when he is watched! Such oversight is for boys at
school and mere hirelings. You never think of watching noble-spirited men.
Here is a young apprentice set to copy a picture—his master stands over him
and looks over each line, for the young rascal will grow careless and spoil
his work, or take to his games if he is not well looked after. Did anybody
thus dream of supervising Raphael and Michelangelo to keep them to their
work? No, the master artist requires no eyes to urge him on. Popes and
emperors came to visit the great painters in their studios, but did they
paint better because these grandees gazed upon them? Certainly not! Perhaps
they did all the worse in the excitement or the worry of the visit. They had
regard to something better than the eyes of pompous people.
So the true Christian needs no eyes
of man to watch him. There may be pastors and preachers who are better off
for being looked after by bishops and presbyters, but fancy a bishop
overseeing the work of Martin Luther and trying to quicken his zeal! Or
imagine a presbyter looking after Calvin to keep him sound in the faith! Oh,
no! Gracious minds outgrow the governance and stimulus which comes of the
oversight of mortal man. God’s own Spirit dwells within us and we serve the
Lord from an inward principle which is not fed from without. There is about
a real Christian a prevailing sense that God sees him and he does not care
who else may set his eyes upon him—it is enough for him that God is there.
He has little respect for the eyes of man. He neither courts nor dreads
them! Let the good deed remain in the dark, for God sees it and that is
enough! Or let it be blazoned in the light of day to be pecked at by the
censorious, for it little matters who censures, since God approves! This is
to be a true servant of Christ—to escape from being an eye-servant to men by
becoming, in the most sublime sense, an eye-servant of God— always working
beneath the eyes of God. If we did but realize this, how well we should
live!
If now I remember, as I try to do,
that God hears each word I speak to you from this pulpit—that He reads my
soul as I address you in His name—how ought I to preach? And if you go to
your Sunday school class this afternoon and picture Jesus sitting among the
boys and girls and hearing how you teach them—how earnestly you will teach!
At home when you are about to scold a servant, or in the shop, when you
think to do a rather sharp thing, if you think your Master stands there and
sees it all, what a power it will have over you! Our lives should all be
spent under the spell of, "You see me, God," and we should each be able to
declare, "I have set the Lord always before me."
7.
One more thought, and it is this. If from now on we are
to serve the Lord, and not men, then we must
look to the Lord for our reward and not to men. "Knowing,"
says the eighth verse, "that whatever good thing any man does, the same
shall he receive of the Lord, whether he is bond or free." Wages! Is that
the motive of a Christian? Yes, in the highest sense, for the greatest of
the saints, such as Moses, have "had respect unto the recompense of the
reward." And it were like despising the reward which God promises to His
people if we had no respect whatever unto it. Respect unto the reward which
comes of God kills the selfishness which is always expecting a reward from
men. We can postpone our reward and we can be content, instead of
receiving present praise, to be misunderstood and misrepresented. We can
postpone our reward and we can endure, instead of it, to be disappointed in
our work and to labor on without success—for when the reward does
come how glorious it will be! An hour with Jesus will make up for a lifetime
of persecution! One smile from Him will repay us a thousand times over for
all disappointments and discouragements. Thus you see, Brothers and Sisters,
that if we do, in very deed, make this our rule and maxim—"As to the Lord,
and not to men"—our work will be shaped and fashioned most wonderfully. May
God grant that the influence of this motive may manifestly sway our whole
life from now on until we close it for this world and commence it anew where
we shall not need to shift our course, but shall continue eternally to live
to the Lord alone!
II. May the Holy Spirit guide us
while we reflect, secondly, that should this text become the inspiration of
our life IT WOULD GREATLY ELEVATE OUR SPIRITS.
What would it do for us?
1. First, it would lift us above
all complaining about the hardness of our lot, or the difficulty of our
service. "Alas," says one, "I am worn
out! I cannot keep on at this rate. My position is so terribly trying that I
cannot hold on much longer—it strains not only muscle and sinew, but nerve
and heart. Nobody could bear my burden long! My husband is cruel, my friends
are unkind, my children are ungrateful." Ah, poor heart, there are many
others who wear the weeping-willow as well as yourself! But be of good
courage and look at your case in another light. If the burden is to be borne
for Jesus’ sake, who loved you and gave Himself for you—by whose precious
blood you are redeemed from the pains of Hell—can you not bear it? Can you
not bear it? "That is quite another thing," you say. "I could not bear it
for a sneering master. I could not bear it for a passionate, obstinate
mistress. But I could do anything and I could bear anything for Jesus." This
makes all the difference—
"For Him I count as gain each loss,
Disgrace for Him, renown.
Well may I glory in His Cross,
While He prepares my crown!"
We are satisfied to bear any cross
so long as it is His Cross! What wonders men can do when they are
influenced by enthusiastic love for a leader! Alexander’s troops marched
thousands of miles on foot and they would have been utterly wearied had it
not been for their zeal for Alexander. He led them forth conquering and to
conquer. Alexander’s presence was the life of their valor, the glory of
their strength. If there was a very long day’s march over burning sands, one
thing they knew—that Alexander marched with them! If they were thirsty, they
knew that he thirsted, too, for when one brought a cup of water to the king,
he put it aside, thirsty as he was, and said, "Give it to a sick soldier."
Once it so happened that they were loaded with the spoil which they had
taken and each man had become rich with goodly garments and wedges of gold.
Then they began to travel very slowly with so much to carry and the king
feared that he should not overtake his foe. Having a large quantity of spoil
which fell to his own share, he burned it all before the eyes of his
soldiers and bade them do the same that they might pursue the enemy and win
even more! "Alexander’s portion lies beyond," he cried! And seeing the
king’s own spoils on fire, his warriors were content to give up their gains,
also, and share with their king.
He did, himself, what he commanded
others to do—in self-denial and hardship he was a full partaker with his
followers. After this fashion our Lord and Master acts towards us. He says,
"Renounce pleasure for the good of others. Deny yourself and take up your
cross. Suffer, though you might avoid it. Labor, though you might rest, when
God’s Glory demands suffering or labor of you. Have not I set you an
example?" "Who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that
we, through His poverty, might be rich." He stripped Himself of all things
that He might clothe us with His Glory! O, Brothers and Sisters, when we
heartily serve such a Leader as this, and are fired by His Spirit, then
murmuring, complaining, weariness and fainting of heart are altogether gone!
A Divine passion carries us beyond ourselves—
"I can do all things, or can bear
All suffering if my Lord is there."
2. Next, this lifts the Christian
above the spirit of laziness. I
believe great numbers of working men—I am not going to judge them for
it—always consider how little they can possibly do to earn their wages. The
question with them is not, "How much can we give for the wage?" That used to
be. But now, it is, "How little can we give? How little work can we do in
the day without being discharged for idleness?" Many men say, "We must not
do all the work today, for we shall need something to do tomorrow—our
masters will not give us more than they can help and, therefore, we will not
give them more than we are obliged to." This is the general spirit on both
sides and as a nation we are going to the dogs because that spirit is among
us—and we shall be more and more beaten by foreign competition if this
spirit is cultivated. Among Christians such a notion cannot be tolerated in
the service of our Lord Jesus. It never does for a minister to say, "If I
preach three times a week it is quite as much as anybody will expect of me,
therefore I shall do no more." It will never be right for you to say, "I am
a Sunday school teacher. As long as I get to class on time—some of you do
not do that—and as long as I teach until the class time is over, I need not
look after the boys and girls through the week. I cannot be bothered with
them—I will do just as much as I am bound to do, but no more."
In a certain country town it was
reported that the grocer’s wife cut a plum in two, for fear there should be
a grain more than weight in the parcel. The folks called her Mrs.
Split-Plum. Ah, there are many Split-Plums in religion! They do not want to
do more for Jesus than may be absolutely necessary. They would like to give
good weight, but they would be sorry to be convicted of doing too much. Ah,
when we get to feel we are doing service for our Lord Jesus Christ, we adopt
a far more liberal scale! Then we do not calculate how much ointment will
suffice for His feet, but we give Him all that our box contains. Is this
your talk, "Bring the scales, this ointment cost a great deal of money and
we must be economical. Watch every drachma, yes, every scruple and grain,
for the nard is costly"? If this is your cool manner of calculation, your
offering is not worth a fig! Not so spoke that daughter of love of whom we
read in the Gospels, for she broke the box and poured out all the
contents upon her Lord. "To what purpose is this waste?" cried Judas. It was
Judas who thus spoke and you know, therefore, the worth of that observation!
Christ’s servants delight to give so much as to be thought wasteful, for
they feel that when they have, in the judgment of others, done extravagantly
for Christ, they have but begun to show their hearts’ love for His dear
name. Thus the elevating power of the spirit of consecration lifts us up
above the wretched stinginess of mere formality.
3. Again, this raises us up above
all boasting of our work. "Is the
work good enough?" asked one of his servant. The man replied, "Sir, it is
good enough for the price and it is good enough for the man who is going to
have it." Just so, and when we "serve" men we may, perhaps, rightly
judge in that fashion. But when we come to serve Christ, is
anything good enough for Him? If our zeal knew no respite. If our
prayers knew no pause. If our efforts knew no relaxation. If we gave all we
have of time, wealth, talent and opportunity. If we should die a martyr’s
death a thousand times, wouldn’t He, the Best Beloved of our souls, deserve
far more? Ah, that He would! Therefore is self-congratulation banished
forever! When you have done all, you will feel that it is not worthy of the
matchless merit of Jesus and you will be humbled at the thought! Thus, while
doing all for Jesus stimulates zeal, it fosters humility—a happy blending of
useful effects.
4. The resolve to do all as unto the
Lord will elevate you above that craving for recognition which is a
disease with many. It is a sad
fault in many Christians that they cannot do anything unless all the world
is told of it. The hen in the farmyard has laid an egg and feels so proud of
the achievement that she must cackle about it—everybody must know of that
one poor egg till all the country round resounds with the news! It is so
with some professors—their work must be published or they can do no more!
"Here have I," said one, "been teaching in the school for years and nobody
ever thanked me for it! I believe that some of us who do the most are the
least noticed and what a shame it is." But if you have done your service
unto the Lord you would not talk so, or we shall suspect you of
having other aims! The servant of Jesus will say, "I do not need human
notice. I did it for my Master. He noticed me and I am content. I
tried to please Him and, by His Grace, I did please Him and, therefore, I
ask no more, for I have gained my end. I seek no praise of men, for I fear
lest the breath of human praise should tarnish the pure silver of my
service."
5. This would lift you above the
discouragement which sometimes comes of human censure.
If you seek the praise of men you will, in all
probability, fail in the present and certainly you will lose it in the
future, sooner or later. Many men are more ready to censure than to
commend—and to hope for their praise is to seek for sugar in a root of
wormwood. Man’s way of judging is unjust and seems fashioned on purpose to
blame all of us, one way or another. Here is a Brother who sings bass and
the critics say, "Oh yes, a very fine bass voice, but he could not
sing treble." Here is another who excels in treble and they say, "Yes, yes,
but we prefer a tenor." When they find a tenor they blame him because he
cannot sing bass. No one can be candidly praised, but all must be savagely
censured! What will the great Master say about it? Will He not judge thus—"I
have given this man a bass voice and he sings bass and that is what I meant
him to do. I gave that man a tenor voice and he sings tenor and that is what
I meant him to do. I gave that man a treble voice and he sings treble and so
takes the part I meant him to take. All the parts blended together make up
sweet music for My ears"? Wisdom is justified of her children, but Folly
blames them all round. How little we ought to care about the opinions and
criticisms of our fellow men when we remember that He who made us what we
are and helps us, by His Grace, to act our part, will not judge us after the
mode in which men carp or flatter, but will accept us according to the
sincerity of our hearts. If we feel, "I was not working for you; I
was working for God," we shall not be much wounded by our neighbors’
remarks. The nightingale charms the ear of night. A fool passes by and
declares that he hates such distracting noises! The nightingale sings on,
for it never entered the little minstrel’s head or heart that it was singing
for critics—it sings because He who created it gave it this sweet faculty!
So may we reply to those who condemn us—"We live not unto you, O men! We
live unto our Lord." Thus do we escape the discouragements which come of
ungenerous misapprehension and jealous censure.
6. This, too, will elevate you
above the disappointments of failures, yes, even of the saddest kind.
If those you seek to bless are not
saved, yet you have not altogether failed, for you did not teach or preach
having the winning of souls as the absolute ultimatum of your work—you did
it with the view of pleasing Jesus—and He is pleased with faithfulness even
where it is not accompanied with success. Sincere obedience is His
delight even if it leads to no apparent results. If the Lord should set His
servant to plow the sea or sow the sand, He would accept his service. If we
should have to witness for Christ’s name in the stocks and by stones—and if
our hearers should be even worse than blocks of marble and should turn and
tear us apart—we may still be filled with contentment, for we shall have
done our Lord’s will and what more do we need? To plod on under apparent
failure is one of the most acceptable of all works of faith and he who can
do it, year after year, is assuredly well-pleasing unto God.
7. This lifts us above
disappointment in the prospect of death.
We shall have to go away from our work soon, so men
tell us, and we are apt to fret about it. The truth is we shall go on with
our work forever if our service is pleasing to the Lord! We shall
please Him up yonder even better than we do here! And what if our enterprise
here should seem to end as far as man is concerned? We have done it unto the
Lord and our record is on high and, therefore, it is not lost. Nothing that
is done for Jesus will be destroyed—the flower may fade, but its essence
remains! The tree may fall, but its fruit is stored! The cluster may be
crushed, but the wine is preserved! The work and its place may pass away,
but the glory which it brought to Jesus shines as the stars forever and
ever!
8. Yes, and this lifts us above
the deadening influence of old age and the infirmities which come with
multiplied years. What little we can
do, we do it all the more thoroughly for Jesus as our experience ripens! If
we must contract the sphere, we condense and intensify the motive. If we are
living unto Christ, we love Him even when our heart grows cold to other
things. When the eyes grow dim earthwards, they brighten towards Heaven!
When the ears can hardly hear the voice of singing men and singing women, it
still knows the music of Jesus’ name! And when the hands can do little in
human business, they begin feeling for the strings of the celestial harp
that it may make melody for the Well-Beloved! I know of nothing which can
possibly elevate our spirit, as workers for Christ, like the sense of doing
all unto the Lord and not unto men! May the Spirit of God help us to rise
into this perfect consecration! I have not time to say more than just this
word. A due sense of serving the Lord would ennoble all our service beyond
conception.
9. Think of working for Him—for
HIM, the best of masters—before whom angels count it glory to bow!
Work done for Him is, in itself, the best
work that can be, for all that pleases Him must be pure and lovely, honest
and of good report. Work for the eternal Father and work for Jesus are works
which are good and only good! To live for Jesus is to be swayed by the
noblest of motives. To live for the Incarnate God is to blend the love of
God and the love of men in one passion. To live for the ever-living Christ
is elevating to the soul, for its results will be most enduring. When all
other work is dissolved this shall abide. Men spoke of painting for
eternity, but we, in very deed, serve for eternity. Soon shall all
worlds behold the nobility of the service of Christ, for it will bring with
it the most blessed of all rewards. When men look back on what they have
done for their fellows, how small is the recompense of a patriotic life! The
world soon forgets its benefactors. Many and many a man has been borne aloft
in youth amidst the applause of men and then, in his old age, he has been
left to starve into his grave. He who scattered gold at first, begs for
pennies at last —the world called him generous while he had something to
give, but when he had bestowed all, it blamed his imprudence! He who lives
for Jesus will never have ground of complaint concerning his Lord, for He
forsakes not His saints. No man has ever regretted what he did for Jesus,
except that he may regret that he has not done 10 times more! The Lord will
not leave His old servants. "O God, You have taught me from my youth and up
to now have I declared Your wondrous works. Now, also, when I am old and
gray-headed, O God, forsake me not." Such was the prayer of David and he was
confident of being heard. Such may be the confidence of every servant
of Christ. He may go down to his grave untroubled! He may rise and enter the
dread solemnities of the eternal world without a fear, for service for
Christ creates heroes to whom fear is unknown!
III. I close by saying that if we enter into the very
spirit of this discourse, or even go beyond it—if from now on we live only
for Jesus, so as never to know pleasure apart from Him, nor to have treasure
out of Him, nor honor but in His honor, nor success but in the progress of
His Kingdom—WE SHALL EVEN THEN HAVE DONE NO MORE THAN HE DESERVES AT OUR
HANDS.
For, first,
we are God’s creatures. For whom should a creature live
but for his Creator? Secondly, we are His new creatures, we are the
twice-born of Heaven—should we not live for Him by whom we have been
begotten for Glory? As many as have believed in Jesus are the produce of
that Divine power which raised the Son of God from the dead—shall they not
live in newness of life? God has taken this pains with us, that He has made
us twice over and He has made a new Heaven and a new earth for us to dwell
in—whom should we serve with all our mind but Him by whom we have been made
anew?
Then comes in
redemption. We are not our own, for we are bought with
a price. We dare not be selfish! We may not put self in opposition to God.
But I must go further—we may not allow self to be at all considered apart
from God. Even when it seems that self and God might both be served at the
same time, it must not be—self in any degree will spoil it all. We are never
to be masters, but always servants—and to serve ourselves is to make
ourselves masters. Turn your eyes, O my heart, to the Cross and see Him
bleeding there whom Heaven adored! He is the Light of Glory, the joy and
bliss of perfect spirits—and yet He dies there in pangs unutterable—dies for
me! O bleeding heart, my name was engraved upon You! O tortured brain, Your
thoughts were all of me! O Christ, you loved me and love me still! And that
I should serve You seems but natural! That I should pray to serve with
intense white-hot enthusiasm is an impulse of my life. Do you not confess it
so, my Brothers and Sisters?
Besides, remember
you are one with Christ. Whom
should the spouse serve but her Husband? Whom should the hand serve but the
Head? It scarcely is service. Christ is your alter ego, your other
self—no, your very self—should you not live for Him? You are bone of
His bone and flesh of His flesh and, therefore, you must love Him. Let a
Divine selfishness impel you to love your Lord. No hand, I think, counts it
hard to be serving his own head. Surely, it can be no hardness to do service
to Him with whom we are joined by bonds and bands of vital union! He is our
Head and we are His body and His fullness. Let us fill up His Glory! Let us
spread abroad the praises of His name! God help us to never finish this
sermon, but to begin it now and go on preaching it in our lives, world
without end! For Heaven shall be in this—"Not unto us, not unto us, but to
Your name be praise!" And the beginnings of Heaven are with us now—the
youth, the dawn of Glory, in proportion while we say from our very
souls—"Whether we live, we live unto the Lord. And whether we die, we die
unto the Lord. Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s." And
so shall it be from now on and forever!
As to those that know nothing of
this, seeing they know not Christ, may the Lord bring them to believe in
Jesus Christ this day, that they may, through His Grace, become His
servants. Amen and amen!
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