The Heavenly Wind

A Sermon Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, May 27th, 1877, by Charles Spurgeon

John 3:8 (KJV) The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

John 3:8 (NIV) The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

The Holy Spirit is to be admired, not only for the great truths which he teaches us in Holy Scripture, but also for the wonderful manner in which those truths are balanced. The Word of God never gives us too much of one thing, or too little of another: it never carries a doctrine to an extreme, but tempers it with its corresponding doctrine. Truth seems to run at least in two parallel lines, if not in three, and when the Holy Spirit sets before us one line, then he wisely points out to us the other.

The truth of divine sovereignty is qualified by human responsibility; and the teaching of abounding grace is seasoned by a remembrance of unflinching justice. Scripture gives us as it were the acid and the alkali; the rock and the oil which flows from it; the sword which cuts and the balm which heals. As our Lord sent forth his evangelists two by two so does he seem to send out his truths two by two, that each may help the other, for the blessing of those who hear them.

Now in this most notable third chapter of John, you have two truths taught as plainly as if they were written with a sunbeam, and taught side by side. The one is the necessity of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the fact that whoever believes in him is not condemned. This is a vital doctrine, but there is a possibility of preaching it so out of relation to the rest of God's Word, that men may be led into serious error.

Justification by faith is a most precious truth, it is the very pith and heart of the gospel, and yet you can dwell so exclusively upon it that you cause many to forget other important practical and experimental truths, and so do them serious mischief.

Salt is good, but it is not all that a man needs to live upon, and even if people are fed on the best of dry bread and nothing else, then they do not thrive; every part of divine teaching is of practical value and must not be neglected. Hence the Holy Spirit in this chapter lays equal stress upon the necessity of the New Birth or the work of the Holy Spirit, and he states it quite as plainly as the other grand truth. See how they blend, "You must be born again;" but "whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life;" "Except a man is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God;" but "he who believes on him is not condemned." Two great truths are written in letters of light over the gate of Heaven, as the requisites of all who enter there--Reconciliation by the blood of Jesus Christ; and Regeneration by the work of the Holy Spirit. We must not put one of these truths before the other, nor allow one to obliterate or hide the other: they are of equal importance, for they are revealed by the same divine Spirit, and are alike needful to eternal salvation. He who cares to preach either of these, ought also diligently to teach the other, lest he be found guilty of violating that beneficial precept, "What God has joined together, let no man put asunder."

Avoid all neglect of faith, and equally shun all undervaluing of the work of the Holy Spirit--so shall you find that narrow channel in which the way of truth does lie. You must rest in Christ that you may be accepted before God, but the work of the Holy Spirit within you is absolutely needful that you may be able to have communion with the pure and holy God. Faith gives us the rights of the children of God, but the new birth must be experienced that we may have the nature of children: of what use would rights be if we had not the capacity to exercise them?

Now it is of the work of the Spirit of God, and of the man in whom the Spirit of God has worked, that I shall speak this morning, according to the tenor of the text. The text may be read two ways:

First it may evidently refer to the Holy Spirit himself. Do you not expect the text to run thus, "The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound thereof, but can not tell whence it comes, and where it goes: so also is the Spirit of God"? Is not that the way in which you naturally expect the sentence to end? Yes, and I doubt not that such was really the Savior's meaning; but frequently according to the New Testament idiom, the truth is not stated as our English modes of speech would lead us to expect: for instance, "The kingdom of Heaven is like unto a man that sowed good seed in his ground." Now the kingdom is not like the man, but like the whole transaction of the parable in which the man is the principal actor. "The kingdom of Heaven is like unto a merchantman seeking goodly pearls," but the kingdom is not like the man, but the comparison runs into all that the man does.

So here the Lord Jesus lays hold of one grand sphere of the Spirit's operations and marks it down, intending, however, a wider sense. There are certain readings of our text which would make this more clear if we could think them allowable, as for instance that which does not render the Greek word by "wind" at all, but translates it "spirit," and makes it run, "The Spirit blows where he wills, and you hear the sound thereof." I do not adopt that reading, but there are several great authorities in its favor, and this tends to show that our first head is correct.

When we have spoken upon that, then we will take the language in its second sense, in reference to the regenerate man, and then we read, "The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence it comes, and where it goes: so is every man that is born of the Spirit": he himself, like the Spirit of which he is born, is free, and is mysterious in his ways, but discerned by the sound of his works and life.

 

I. Take the text in reference to THE HOLY SPIRIT HIMSELF. The figure is the wind, and, as most of you know, the Hebrew word for "wind" and for "spirit" is the same; and it is interesting to note that the same is true with the Greek word "pneuma," which signifies both "breath" and "spirit," so that the figure which the Savior used might very naturally grow out of the word which he employed.

The wind is air in motion, and is, of course, material; but air is apparently more spiritual than any of the other elements, except fire, since it is not to be grasped by the hand nor seen with the eye. It is certain that wind really exists, for we hear the sound thereof and observe its various effects, but it is not to be touched, handled, or gazed upon; men cannot traffic in it, or measure it in scales, or weigh it in balances. We may watch for hours as we will, the clouds as they hasten along like winged bird, but the wind which drives them is out of our sight. We observe the waves roused to fury in the tempest, but the breath which so excites them we cannot see.

Hence the word becomes all the more excellent a figure of that mighty power, the Holy Spirit, of whose existence no man ever doubts who has come under his influence, but who, nevertheless, is not to be tracked in his movements, nor to be seen as to his divine person; for he is mysterious, incomprehensible, and divine.

The metaphor of the wind cannot fully set forth the Holy Spirit, as you know; and, consequently, many other natural figures are employed, such as fire, dew, water, light, oil, and so on, in order to exhibit all the phases of his influence. But still the wind is a most instructive metaphor as far as it goes, and as we cannot draw forth all its teaching in one sermon, then let us be content to keep as closely as we can to the text.

First, the wind is a figure of the Holy Spirit in its sovereign freeness, "The wind blows where it wills." We speak of the wind as the very image of freedom: we claim to be "free as the winds which roam at their own will." No one can fetter the wind. Xerxes threw chains into the sea to bind it, but even he was not fool enough to talk of forging fetters for the winds. The breezes are not to be dictated to. Caesar may decree what he pleases, but the wind will blow in his face if he looks that way. The Pope may command the gale to change its course, but it will blow around the Vatican neither less nor more, for the holy father and the cardinals. A conference of plenipotentiaries from all the powers of Europe may sit for a week and resolve unanimously that the east wind shall not blow for the next six months, but it will take no heed of the arrangement, and will cast dust into the counselors' eyes, and whistle at their wisdom. No proclamation nor purpose under Heaven, will be able to affect the wind by so much as half a point of the compass. It will blow according to its own sweet will, where it pleases, when it pleases, how it pleases, and as it pleases, for "the wind blows where it wills."

So is it, only in a far higher and more emphatic sense, with the Holy Spirit, for he is most free and absolute. You know that the wind is in the hand of God, and that he ordains every zephyr and each tornado: winds arise and tempests blow by order from the supreme throne; but as for the Holy Spirit, he is God himself, and absolutely free, and works according to his own will and pleasure among men. One nation has been visited by the Holy Spirit and not another--who shall tell me why? Why lie yonder heathen lands in the dense darkness, while on Britain the light is concentrated? Why has the Reformation taken root in England and among the northern nations of Europe, while in Spain and Italy it has left scarcely a trace? Why does the Holy Spirit blow here, and not there? Is it not that he does as he wills? "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion" is the declaration of divine sovereignty, and the Spirit of God in his movements confirms it. Among the nations where the Spirit of God is at work, how is it that he blesses one man and not another? How is it that of two men hearing the same sermon, and subject to the same influences at home, one is taken and the other left? Two children nursed at the same bosom, and trained by the same parents, grow up to different ends. He who perishes in sin has no one to blame but himself, but he who is saved ascribes it all to grace--why did that grace come to him? We never dare to lay the fault of man's not repenting and believing upon God--that rests with the evil will which refused to obey the gospel; but we dare not ascribe the saving difference in the case of the one who believes, to any natural goodness in himself, but we attribute it all to the grace of God, and believe that the Holy Spirit works in such to will and to do according to his own good pleasure.

But why does the Holy Spirit work in any of the chosen? Ah, why? "The wind blows where it wills."

So, too, is it with the blessing which rests upon ministries. One man wins souls to God, and as a joyous reaper returns with full sheaves, but another who goes forth with strong desires, and seems at least to be as earnest as his fellow, comes home with a scanty handful of ears, which he has painfully gleaned. Why is one man's net full of fish, and another's utterly empty? One servant of the Lord seems, whenever he stands up to preach the gospel, to attract men to Jesus as though he had golden chains in his mouth which he cast about men's hearts to draw them in joyful captivity to his Lord; while another cries in bitterness of soul, "Who has believed our report?" Truly, "the wind blows where it wills." Yes, and these changes happen to each man severally: one day the preacher shall be all alive, his spirit shall be stirred within him, and he shall speak evidently with the Holy Spirit sent down from Heaven. But tomorrow he shall find himself dull and heavy, even to his own consciousness, and even more so to his people's experience, for the power rests not upon him. One day he speaks like the voice of God, and another day he is but as a reed shaken of the wind. His fat cows of years gone by, are devoured by the lean cattle of the present. He has his famine as well as his plenty. You shall see him come forth today with the unction of the Lord upon him, and his face shining with the glory of fellowship with the Most High; and tomorrow he shall say, "Look not upon me, for I am black," for the glory shall have departed.

We know what it is to come forth like Samson when his locks were shorn; and to shake ourselves as at other times and discover that the Lord is not with us. Why all this? Is it not because "the wind blows where it wills"? The Holy Spirit, for his own wise reasons, puts not forth an equal power upon any man at all times. We cannot control nor command the Spirit of the living God: he is in the highest sense a free agent. "Your free Spirit" is a name which David gave him, and a most appropriate name it is.

Yet, beloved, do not fall into a misapprehension. The Holy Spirit is absolutely free in his operations, but he is not arbitrary; he does as he wills, but his will is infallible wisdom. The wind, though we have no control over it, has a law of its own, and the Holy Spirit is a law unto himself; he does as he wills, but he wills to do evermore that which is for the best.

Moreover, we know with regard to the wind that there are certain places where you will almost always find a breeze: not here, in the teeming city, nor down in the valley shut in by the mountains, nor on yonder steaming marsh; but lift up your eyes to the hills, and mark how the breeze courses along the downs, and sweeps the summits of the mountain ranges. In the morning and the evening, when the inland air is hot as an oven, gentle winds come to and from the sea and fan the fisherman's cheek: you may find places where the air seems always stagnant and men's hearts grow heavy amid the feverish calm, but there are elevated hillsides where life is easy, for the air exhilarates by its perpetual freshness. Brethren, among lively saints, in the use of the means of grace, in private prayer, in communion with the Lord--you will find the wind that blows where it wills always in motion.

The wind too has at least in some lands its times and seasons. We know that at certain times of the year we may expect winds, and if they come not to a day or two, yet, as a rule, the month is stormy; and there are also trade winds, monsoons which blow with remarkable regularity and are counted upon by mariners.

And so with the Spirit of God. We know that at certain times he visits the churches, and under certain conditions puts forth his power. If, for instance, there is mighty prayer, you may be sure the Spirit of God is at work; if the people of God meet together and besiege the throne of grace with cries and tears, the spiritual barometer indicates that the blessed wind is rising.

Besides, the Holy Spirit has graciously connected himself with two things, truth and prayer. Preach the truth, publish the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it is the habit of the Holy Spirit to make the Word living and powerful to the hearts of men. If we falsify His Word, if we keep back part of the truth, if we become unfaithful, then we cannot expect the Holy Spirit to bless us; but if our teaching is Christ crucified, lovingly set forth, and if the grace of God in its fullness is really, then the Holy Spirit will attend the truth and make it the great power of God. I will not say that it is always, and without exception so, but I think exceptions must be rare; almost invariably the Spirit bears witness with the truth in the conversion of men.

So too with prayer, the Holy Spirit is pleased to connect himself with that also, if it be believing prayer. Here the connection is exceedingly intimate, because it is the Spirit of God who himself gives the believing prayer, and it is not only true that the Spirit will be given in answer to prayer, but the Spirit is already given, or the believing prayer would never have been offered. The heart of prayerfulness, the heart of concern for the conversion of men--is one of the surest indications that the Holy Spirit is already at work in the minds of his people.

Coming back, however, to the great fact that we cannot command the Holy Spirit, what influence ought that truth to have upon us? Should it not be just this? It should lead us to be very tender and jealous in our conduct towards the Holy Spirit, so that we do not grieve him and cause him to depart from us. Vex not the Spirit. When you enjoy his gracious operations, then be devoutly grateful, and walk humbly before God, that you may retain them; and when he is at work, then let not negligence on your part cause you to receive the grace of God in vain.

The wind blew, but the sailor was asleep; it was a favorable breeze, but he had cast anchor and his barque moved not. If he had but known it, then all through the night he would have spread his sail and have made good headway towards his port; but he slumbered, and the blessed wind whistled through the cordage and the ship lay idle at its moorings.

Let it not be so with us. Never let the Spirit of God to be with us and find us regardless of his presence. In the olden times, when country people depended more than they do now on the use of the windmill to grind their corn, some parishes would be half-starved, when week after week there had been no wind. The miller would look up anxiously, and everybody in the parish would become a watchman for his sails, hoping that they would soon be set in motion. If the breeze stirred at the dead of night, and the miller was sound asleep, then somebody or other would run and wake him up. "The wind is blowing, the wind is blowing, grind our corn."

So it ought to be whenever the Spirit of God is vigorously working in his church, we should eagerly avail ourselves of his power. We should be so anxious for his divine operations, that all should be on the watch, so that if some did not discover it, then others would, and observant ones would cry, "The Holy Spirit is working with us; let us arise and labor more abundantly." Hoist sail, when the wind favors; you cannot command it, therefore carefully value it.

But we must pass on. The Holy Spirit is described as being like the wind as to his manifestations. "You hear," says Jesus, "the sound thereof." It has been suggested, and some have enlarged upon it, that there are many other manifestations of the presence of wind: you can feel it, you can see its results upon the trees and the waves, and sometimes you can be sure that the wind has been at work, by the devastation which it has caused: but in this place our Savior was not so much alluding to a great wind, as to the gentler breezes.

The Greek word "pneuma" is translated "breath," and can hardly be made to mean a tempest. It was a gentle wind like a zephyr, of which the Lord was here speaking. The great winds, as I have already said, can be somewhat calculated upon, but if you sit in the garden in the cool of the evening, then it is utterly impossible for you to tell whence the zephyrs come and where they go; they are so volatile in their movements and untrackable in their course; here, there, everywhere the soft breezes of evening steal among the flowers.

Our Lord tells us that such gentle zephyrs are heard: Nicodemus in the stillness of the night could hear them. "You hear the sound thereof." The leaves rustle, and that is all; you hear a gentle movement of branch and stem, and as it were the tinkling of flower-bells, and so you discover that the wind is flitting among the flower beds and borders.

Now, beloved, this shows us that the hearing ear is intended by God to be the discerner of the Spirit to men, to the most of men the only discerner that they have. "You hear the sound thereof." What a wonderful dignity the Lord has been pleased to put upon this little organ, the ear. The Romish church gives the preference always to the eye; her priests are always for astonishing men into grace with their wonderful religious performances; but God's way is "Faith comes by hearing," and the first detector of the Holy Spirit is the ear. To some men this is the only revealer of his mysterious presence, as I have already said: they hear the sound thereof, that is to say, they hear the gospel preached, they hear the Word of God read.

Truth when it is couched in words is the rustling of the holy wind, it is the footstep of the Eternal Spirit as mysteriously he passes along a congregation. Oh, what grief it is that some never get any further than this, but abide where Nicodemus was at the first: they hear the sound thereof, and nothing more. Some of you are now daily hearing truth which has saved thousands, but it does not save you; you are hearing the very truth which peoples Heaven, but yet it leaves you without hope of eternal life; yet be you sure of this, the kingdom of God has come near unto you. "You hear the sound thereof," and that wind whose whispers you hear, is not far off your own cheek. When you hear the rustling among the boughs of the trees, then the breezes are not far to seek, nor is the Spirit of God far away when his sound is heard.

Some hearers, however, go further, for they hear the sound of the Spirit in their consciences and it disturbs them; they would sleep as do others, but as the wind sometimes comes whistling through the keyhole, or howls down the chimney and wakes the sluggard, or if the man is lying in a garden asleep the breezes play around his ears and face and startle him--so is it with many unconverted people; they cannot be quiet, for they hear the sound of the Holy Spirit in their consciences, and are troubled and perplexed.

There is a revival and they are not saved, but they are startled and alarmed by it. Their sister is converted, they are not, but still it comes very near them, and they feel as if an arrow had gone whizzing by their own ear. It is hard living in a careless state, in the midst of revival. "You hear the sound thereof." But some of you in your conscience are hearing the sound now in your family circle, from the fact that one after another of your relatives have been brought to know the Lord; you cannot avoid feeling that there is something powerful abroad, though it has not yet exerted its regenerating power upon you.

As for the man who is saved, he hears the Holy Spirit in the most emphatic sense, and with what variety that sound comes to him. At first he heard it as a threatening wind, which bowed him in sadness and seemed to sweep all his hopes to the ground, as the sere leaves of the forest are carried in the autumn's wind.

When the Spirit's voice sounded in my ears at the first it was as a wail of woe, as a wind among the tombs, as a sigh among faded lilies. It seemed as if all my hopes were puffed away like smoke, or as the night mists in the morning breeze; nothing was left to me but to mourn my nothingness. Then I heard a sound as of the hot sirocco of the East, as if it issued from a burning oven. You know the text, "The grass withers and the flower fades away, because the Spirit of the Lord blows upon it: surely the people are grass." In my soul, there had bloomed a fair meadow of golden kingcups and fair flowers of many dainty colors, but the Spirit of God blew thereon and withered it all, and left it as a dry, brown, rusty plain, whereon was neither life nor loveliness.

So far the sacred wind destroys that which is evil, but it ends not there, for we thank God we have heard the sound of the Spirit as a quickening wind. The prophet cried, "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain that they may live"; the wind came and the dead arose as an exceeding great army. The like miracle has been wrought on us. The sere bones of our own death have crept together, bone unto his bone, and flesh has come upon them, and now because of the divine breath, we have begun to live.

Now, also, when the Holy Spirit visits us, he renews our life and energy, and we have life more abundantly. The Holy Spirit has since then been to us full often a melting wind, "He causes his wind to blow and the waters flow." Locked up in the chains of ice all through the winter, the waters are still as a stone, but the spring-winds come, the brooklets find liberty and leap away to the rivers, and the rivers flow in all their free force to add their volume to the sea.

In the same way, has the Spirit of God oftentimes broken up our frost, and given our spirits joyous liberty. He melts the rocky heart and dissolves the iron spirit, at the sound of his goings men are moved to feeling.

We know the sound of this wind also as a diffusive breath, drawing forth and diffusing our slumbering graces. "Awake, O north wind; and come, you south wind; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out." Oh, what a sweet unloosing of holy gratitude, and love, and hope, and joy has there been in our heart, when the Spirit of God has visited us. As sweet fragrances lie hidden in the flowers, and come not forth until the loving wind does entice them to fly abroad--so do sweet graces lie within renewed spirits until the Holy Spirit comes and speaks to them, and they know his voice and come forth to meet him, and so sweet fragrances are shed abroad.

Yes, my brethren, all this we know, and we have heard the sound of the Holy Spirit in another sense, namely, as going forth with us to the battle of the Lord. We have heard that sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees which David heard, and we have bestirred ourselves, and victory has been ours. If we have not heard that rushing mighty wind, which came at Pentecost--yet have we felt its divine effect, which ceases not, but still brings life, power, energy, and all that is wanted for the conversion of the sons of men to us who are bidden to go forth and preach the gospel among the nations. In all these respects the Holy Spirit has manifested himself, as wind does, by his sound. "You hear the sound thereof." "Their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world."

A third likeness of the Spirit to the wind is set before us in the point of mystery. "You can not tell whence it comes, nor where it goes." Of the wind we may tell that it comes from such and such a quarter or point, but you cannot put your finger on the map and say, "The north wind began in this region," or "here the west wind was born." Indeed, we know very little about the winds, their origin, or their laws. One of the best and most accurate observers of the wind during thirty years recorded every wind in his region, until at the end of the term he abandoned the few rules which he had laid down during the first two or three years, for he found that no rule held good. No man can say whence the wind leaps forth. The heathen dreamed of a certain cave wherein the winds were enclosed as in a prison, and allowed to go abroad one by one: it was but a fable; we know not where the winds first spread their wings, or where they sleep when all is still.

So is it with the Holy Spirit in the mind of man, his first movements are hidden in mystery. You know that you are converted, my dear friend, and you know somewhere about the time, and probably you remember somewhat as to the means which the Lord used for your salvation. Those outward circumstances you do know, but how the Holy Spirit operated upon you, you do not and cannot tell any more than you can tell how swells the life within the seed until it springs up and becomes the full corn in the ear, or how the sap in the trees first descends in the winter and afterwards climbs again in the spring. There are secrets which nature does not reveal, and the work of the Spirit is even more a secret, and assuredly no man can explain it to his fellow or to himself.

Why is it, my friend, that you obtained a blessing under one sermon, but not under another, and yet when you spoke to your sister she had been more blessed under the second than the first? The power does not come from the preacher, then, it is clear, and "you can not tell whence it comes." There are times in which you feel not only that you can pray, but that you must pray; how do you come to be in that state?

I know what it is to feel in a very ecstacy of delight in the Lord, for which I can scarcely account, for at another time when I have been engaged in the same work, and I think with the same earnestness, I have not been conscious of any such exceeding delight in God.

At one time the heart will be full of penitence as if it would break for sin, and at another season it will overflow with such delight in Christ that the sin seems almost forgotten in the pardoning sacrifice. Why these diverse operations? We know what it is at times, to feel such a sense of death upon us as to be earnestly preparing for our last hours; and at another time to be altogether forgetful of death, and to be living, as it were, the immortal life already, raised up together and made to sit together with Christ. But how these various modes and forms and workings of the Spirit come, who among us shall tell? Go trace the dewdrops, if you can, to the womb of the morning, and discover which way went the lightning's flash, or how the thunder rolled along the mountain tops--but you cannot tell nor can you guess whence comes the Spirit of God into your souls.

Nor can we tell where the Spirit goes. Here, again, is another mystery. Oh, it charms me to think that when we let loose the truth in the power of the Spirit, that we never know where it will fly. A child takes a seed, one of those little downy seeds which has its own parachute to bear it through the air; the little one blows it into the air, but who knows where that downy seed shall settle, and in whose garden it shall grow? Such is truth, even from the mouths of babes and sucklings. Whole continents have been covered with strange flowers simply by the wind wafting foreign seeds thither, and mariners have discovered sunny islets out there in the Southern Sea, where foot of man has never trodden, covered with abundance of vegetation which the wind has by degrees wafted thither.

Scatter the truth on all sides, for you cannot tell where the Spirit will carry it. Fling it to the winds, and you shall find it after many days. Scatter the living seed with both hands, send it north, south, east, and west--and God will give it wings.

I had a letter but the other day, when I was sore sick: it was written by a sister in Christ in the very heart of Brazil. She said that she had met with a copy of my "Morning Readings," and had found thereby the way of peace, and, therefore, she wrote me such a loving, touching letter, that, as I read it, it brought tears to my eyes. There was something more affecting yet, for at the end was written in another hand, some words to the effect that his dear wife who had written the above letter had died soon after finishing it, and with a bleeding heart, the lone husband sent it on to me, rejoicing that ever the word came to his wife's soul in the far-off land. Brethren, you do not know where the word will go and the Spirit with it.

In Bohemia the papists thought they had stamped out the gospel, and with cruel edicts they kept down all thought of Protestantism, but just lately, since the toleration, the gospel has been preached in that country, and to the surprise of everybody there have come forward men and women from lone cottages in the woods and from different corners of the great cities of Bohemia, bringing with them ancient copies of the Word of God, themselves being eager to know the precious truth for which they remember that their fathers died. A truth will go adown the centuries: like the river, it sings, "Men may come and men may go, but I go on forever."

"You can not tell where it goes," it will travel on until the end of the world. Send that saying abroad, that the truth cannot die. The persecutor cannot kill it, it is immortal, like the God who sent it forth; the persecutor cannot even stay its course, it is divine. Popery will always be in danger so long as there is one leaf of the Bible upon earth, or one man living who knows the Savior. Antichrist cannot triumph; the Holy Spirit wars against it with the sword of the Word, and you can not tell how far into the heart of error any truth may be driven. To the overthrow of falsehood and the death of sin, the Spirit speeds on, but you know not how.

"You can not tell where it goes" either in any one heart. If you have received the Holy Spirit into your heart, you cannot tell where he will carry you. I am sure that William Carey, when he gave his young heart to Christ, never thought the Spirit of God would carry him to Serampore to preach the gospel to the Hindus; and when George Whitefield first drank of the life-giving spirit it never occurred to him that the pot-boy at the Bell Inn at Gloucester, would thunder the gospel over two continents and turn thousands to Christ. No! You know not to what blessed end this wind will waft you. Commit yourselves to it: be not disobedient to the heavenly vision; be ready to be borne along as the Spirit of God shall help you, even as the dust in the summer's breeze.

And O child of God, you do not yourself know to what heights of holiness and degrees of knowledge and ecstasies of enjoyment, the Spirit of God will bear you. "Eye has not seen nor ear heard the things which God has prepared for those who love him," and though he has revealed them by his Spirit (for the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God)--yet even to the best taught child of God, it is not yet known to the full where the Spirit of God goes. "Trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah there is everlasting strength," and he will bear you onward and upward, even to perfection itself, and you shall be with Jesus, where he is, and behold his glory.

 

II. I have but a few minutes left for my second head, but I do not need many, since I do not wish to say much upon it. The text relates to THOSE WHO ARE BORN OF THE SPIRIT. "The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound thereof, but can not tell whence it comes, and where it goes: so is every one who is born of the Spirit." The birth partakes of the nature of the parent. Those who are born of the Spirit, are like unto the Spirit of which they are born, even as that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and is similar to the flesh by which it is begotten. The twice-born man is like the Holy Spirit who produced him, and he is like him in each of the points which we have already dwelt upon.

As to freedom, you may say of him, "He blows where he wills." The Spirit of God makes the believer a free man, bestows on him the freedom of his will, which he never had before, and gives him a delightful consciousness of liberty. "If the Son make you free--then you shall be free indeed." I do not affirm that every spiritual man does as he desires, because, alas, I see another law in our members warring against the law of our mind, and bringing us into captivity to the law of sin and death: but still, "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."

Now you can pray, which you could not do before; now you can praise, though you could not extract a note of praise from your ungrateful heart before; now you can cry, "Abba, Father!" now you can draw near to God. You are no longer under man's control, you blow where you desire; you are not now ruled by priestcraft, nor domineered over by the opinion of your fellow-man. The Lord has set you free, and you desire to go where God's Word bids you to go, and you find the utmost liberty in going that way. Oh, brethren, I cannot tell you the change which is felt by a regenerate man in the matter of spiritual liberty. When you were under the bondage of the law, of custom and of sin, and of fear of death and dread of Hell, then you were like a man shut up in one of those cells in Venice which lie below the level of the water mark, where the air is foul, and the poor prisoner can only stir half-a-dozen feet and then walk back again in the darkness. But when the Spirit of God comes he brings the soul from darkness into light, from clammy damp into the open air; he sets before you an open door, he helps you to run in the ways of God's commands; and as if that were not enough, he even lends you wings, and bids you mount as the eagle, for he has set you free.

Again, the man who is born of the Spirit is somewhat manifested; and is known by his sound. "You hear the sound thereof." The most ungodly man if he lives near a Christian will hear the sound of him. The secret life within will speak; words there will be, for Christians are not mute, but actions will speak more loudly still; and even apart from actions the very spirit and tone of the man who is really regenerated will speak, and the ungodly man will be compelled to hear it. "You hear the sound thereof."

And now notice the mystery there is about a Christian. You know nothing, if you are unregenerate, about the life the believer leads--for his life is hid with Christ in God. You know not whence he comes forth in the morning; those beds of spices which have made his garments fragrant, you have not seen; that weeping in prayer or that rejoicing in fellowship with which he opened the morning you know nothing of, and you can not know until you yourself are born of the Spirit.

Neither can you tell where the spiritual man goes. In the midst of his trouble you see him calm; do you know where he went to win that rare quietude? In the hour of death you see him triumphant; do you know where he has been to learn to die so joyously? No, the unregenerate man knows not where the believer goes. There is a secret place of the Most High, and they shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty, who have once learned to enter there; but carnal men come not into this secret chamber. The Christian life is a mystery all through, from its beginning to its end: to the worldling it is all a mystery, and to the Christian himself it is a puzzle. He cannot read his own riddle, nor understand himself. This one thing he knows, "Whereas I was once blind, now I see!" This also he knows, "O Lord, I am your servant, you have loosed my bonds!" This also he knows, that when his Lord shall be revealed, then will he also shine forth as the sun.

The life within him in its coming and going, is all a mystery to him, but he blesses God that he has fellowship therein. He goes on his way feeling that though men know not whence he is, nor where he is going--yet the Lord knows him, and he himself is sure that he is going to his Father and his God. O that every one of you had so delightful a hope. The Lord grant it to you, for Jesus' sake.

PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON--John 2:23–25; 3:1–23.

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 27, 2025. Very good.

A Business-like Account

A Sermon Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, June 3rd, 1877, by Charles Spurgeon

 

Philippians 3:7-9 (KJV) But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

Philippians 3:7-9 (NIV) But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.

Our Savior's advice to those who wished to be his disciples was "Count the cost." He did not wish to entice any man to enlist in his army, by keeping him in ignorance as to the requirements of his service. Again and again he tested professed converts himself, and he frequently exhorted men to examine themselves, lest they should begin a profession and be unable to maintain it. True religion is a matter of enthusiasm, but at the same time its truths and precepts can endure the severest examination. The exercise of our judgments upon the gospel is invited, yes required.

It is true that many people are brought to Christ in earnest assemblies, where they are addressed in fervent language; but yet a man may sit down in his study or his counting house with his pen in his hand, and in the coolest possible manner he may calculate, and, if under the Holy Spirit's guidance he shall be led to calculate truthfully, then he will come to the conclusion that the cause of the Lord Jesus is worthiest and best. Do not imagine, as some do, that religion consists in a wild fanaticism which never considers, calculates, judges, estimates, or ponders; for such an imagination will be the reverse of truth. Ardor, fervor, enthusiasm, these are desirable, and we cannot well have too much of them; but at the same time, as I have already said, we can justify our attachment to Christ by the calmest logic, by the most patient consideration. We may make a lengthy and deliberate estimate, taking both things temporal and things eternal into review, and yet we may challenge all gainsayers while we declare that it is the wisest and the best thing in all the world to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

In our text the apostle gives us the word "count" three times over. He was skilled in spiritual arithmetic, and very careful in his reckoning. He cast up his accounts with caution, and observed with a diligent eye his losses and his gains. In his reckoning he does not ignore any losses that may be supposed to be sustained, or really may be sustained; and he does not, on the other hand, for a moment forget that blessed gain for which he counts it worth while to suffer surprising loss.

Paul here seems to be in a mercantile frame of mind, adding and subtracting, counting and balancing, with much quiet and decision of mind. I commend the text to business men; I invite them to follow the apostle's example, to use their best judgments upon eternal things, to sit down, take out their pen and figure as he did, and make out estimates and calculations as to themselves and Christ, their own works and the righteousness of faith.

The subject this morning will be:

first, the apostle's calculations;

and secondly, our own calculations: the object being in the second part to put questions to ourselves as to whether we estimate things after the apostolic fashion.

 

I. First, then, let us consider THE APOSTLE'S CALCULATIONS. Looking at the text, you will notice that he made three distinct countings; they all came to much the same thing, with this difference, that each one as it succeeded its fellow was more emphatic in its result: the result was the same, but it was more and more forcibly expressed.

First, we have his counting at the OUTSET of his Christian life. When he became a believer, he says of himself, "what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ." That is to say, at the first and earliest period when, from being Saul, the Rabbi, the intense Pharisee, he became Paul, the convert, and the preacher of the faith which once he destroyed, those things which to himself had seemed very splendid gains, all dissolved into one great loss. At that time he says he made a calculation and formed a deliberate opinion that what had appeared to him to be most advantageous was really, so far as Christ was concerned, a positive disadvantage and hindrance to him--the gains were a loss.

Now, you will notice that in this first calculation, he dwelt upon the separate items, noting each with great distinctness. The list of the things whereof he might glory in the flesh reads like a catalogue. Philippians 3:4-7, "If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But whatever was to my profit, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ."

These are the things which were gains to him, and the list is very comprehensive, beginning at his birth and circumcision and running right on to the date of his conversion. He dwells with a high degree of interest upon the items of his Jewish advantages: they had been as precious pearls to him once, and while he freely renounces them, he yet remembers that they were once as dear as the apple of his eye. They had been his pride, his patent of nobility, and his daily boast. He felt himself to be in these respects, far in advance of the most of mankind, and second to none, even of his favored race, for even now, he says, "If any other man thinks that he has whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more."

"Circumcised the eighth day"--the rite which introduced him to the outward covenant of Abraham had been performed exactly when ordained by the law. He was not one who had been circumcised as proselytes were, late in life, nor at an irregular season on account of ill health, traveling, or parental neglect; but to the moment as the Mosaic ritual required, he had as a babe been received into the congregation of Israel.

Next, he was of "the stock of Israel," he was not one who had been converted to the Israelitish faith, nor a descendant of Gibeonites or of proselyted parents, but he was of the pure stock of Israel, descended by a clear line, which probably he was able genealogically to trace, from that Israel who was a prevailing prince with God. He was proud of this descent, and well he might be, for every Jew is of noble lineage. Speak of ancient families--who can match the seed of Israel! Theirs is the best blood in the universe, if one blood is better than another.

Paul also boasted that he was "of the tribe of Benjamin": the tribe which Moses called the beloved of the Lord, the tribe within whose canton the temple stood: the tribe which was descended from the beloved wife of Jacob, even Rachel, and not from the sons of either of the bondwomen. The tribe of Benjamin was that from which the first king of Israel was chosen, and he bore the same name as that by which Paul had been known among his Jewish brethren. Paul was, therefore, of the very choicest branch of that vine which the Lord himself brought out of Egypt.

He next adds that he was a "Hebrew of the Hebrews"; he was the cream of the cream, the very pick and choice out of the choice nation and the elect people. If there was any benefit to be had by being of the seed of Abraham, the Hebrew, he had all that benefit in the highest possible degree.

Then he had appended to all the advantages of birthright and of nationality that of entering into a peculiar sect, the most orthodox, the most devout--for "as touching the law he was a Pharisee," and belonged to the sect which attached importance to the minutest details of the law, and tithed its mint and its anise, and its cummin. What more could he be? He was a Jesuit among the Catholics, one who went to the extreme among extremists, one of those initiated into the innermost secrets of the faith.

Then, as to personal character, he felt that here in his natural state he had something which was gain, for he was so full of zeal that those who appeared to speak against the law of Moses by declaring the gospel, were counted as his enemies, whom he hunted down with all his might, "concerning zeal, persecuting the church." This he had done in all honesty of purpose as the result of his thorough self-righteousness.

He finishes by saying that he himself was as to every detail of the law, every little point of ritual, and every particular rubric, altogether blameless. This was no small thing to say, but he spoke no more than the truth. These things all put together are what he counted gains (for the Greek word is in the plural), and I think he dwells somewhat lingeringly upon each separate point, as very well he might, for they had been very dear to him in former days, and these privileges were in themselves things of no little worth.

But now, what was to be set on the other side? Here is a long list on one side, what is to be placed on the other? He says, "Whatever things were gain to me--those I counted loss for Christ." What! What! Nothing on the other side but one item! One? One only? And yet there were so many privileges on the other side! There was but one name, one person in that scale, while in the other there were so many advantages! Why, one begins to think that the calculation will soon come to an end in favor of Saul's Israelitish descent, and the rest of it: but not so, the one outweighed the many.

Here I want you to notice that Paul does not say that those things he counted loss--for Christianity, or for the church, or for the orthodox faith. There would have been truth in such a statement, but the center of the truth lies here--he counted these things loss for Christ, that is for the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He thought of that divine one, blessed be his name, that brother of our souls who was born at Bethlehem, the Kinsman, Redeemer of his people: Christ, the living, loving, bleeding, dying, buried, risen, ascended, glorified Christ; this was the glorious person whom he placed on the other side of the balance-sheet.

And now see the result. He says, "Whatever things were gain to me, those I counted loss." A singular result. Not only that after putting the one under the other, and making a subtraction, he found that all his carnal advantages were less than Christ; but, far more than this, he found those gains actually transformed into a loss. They were not a plus on that side to stand in proportion to the plus on this side; but they were turned into a minus of actual deficit. He felt that his fleshly advantages, when he came to look at them in regard to Christ, were disadvantages; and what he had reckoned to be gains, operated rather against him than for him when he began to know Christ.

My brethren, he does not mean that to be a "Hebrew of the Hebrews" was in itself a loss; nor that to be of the stock of Israel was a loss, for there was a natural advantage about all this. "What advantage then has the Jew?" he says in another place, and he replies, "Much every way:" but he meant that with respect to Christ, those things which were naturally an advantage became a disadvantage, because their tendency had been to keep him from trusting Christ, and their tendency still was to tempt him away from simple faith in Jesus.

"Alas!" he seemed to say to himself, "it was because I boasted that I was of the stock of Israel that I rejected the Christ of God; it was because I boasted that as touching the law I was blameless, that therefore I refused to accept the glorious righteousness of Jesus Christ by faith. These advantages were scales upon my eyes, to keep me from seeing the beauty of my Lord; these privileges were stumbling-blocks in my way to prevent my coming as a poor, humble, needy sinner and laying hold on the sin-atoning sacrifice of Jesus."

My brethren, it is a grand thing to have led a virtuous life: it is a matter for which to praise God to have been kept in the very center of the paths of morality: but this blessing may by our own folly become a curse to us, if we place our moral excellencies in opposition to the righteousness of our Lord Jesus, and begin to dream that we have no need of a Savior. If our character is in our own esteem so good that it makes a passable garment for us, and therefore we reject the robe of Christ's righteousness, then it would have been better for us if our character had been by our own confession a mass of rags; for then we would have been willing to be clothed with the vesture which divine charity has prepared. Yes, better, so far as this matter is concerned, to be like the open sinner, who will not readily be tempted that way, because he is too foul, too bankrupt to pretend to be righteous before God.

I say again, he does not say that these things are not advantages, but that for Christ; and when he comes to look at them in the light of Christ, he regards them as being a loss rather than a gain. If I had this day a righteousness of my own--yet I would fling it to the winds to lay hold of the righteousness of Christ, fearing all the while lest so much as the smell of it should cling to my hand. Had I never sinned in one solitary open sin, and if but one secret transgression of my heart had ever been committed--yet I would loathe my righteousness as filthy rags, and only tremble lest my proud spirit should be so foolish as to cling to such a useless thing.

Adam fell through one sin, and lost Paradise, and lost us all; so that one sin suffices to curdle the purest righteousness into utter sourness. Away, then, with the very shadow of self and legal righteousness.

But let us now proceed to notice that Paul gives us his second calculation, which is his estimate for the time then PRESENT. "Yes doubtless," says he, "and I count" not "I counted," as he said before, but "I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." We are always anxious to hear what a man has to say about a thing after he has tried it. It is all very well to begin with eagerness, but how does the venture answer after a trial?

After twenty years or more of experience, Paul had an opportunity of revising his balance-sheet, and looking again at his estimates, and seeing whether or not his counting was correct. What was the outcome of his latest search? How do matters stand at his last stock-taking? He exclaims with very special emphasis, "Yes doubtless, I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." The two words, "yes doubtless," are a very strong affirmation. He is speaking very positively as to his present confirmed assurance and established judgment. Look at him then, again, making his estimate today, after he has been for some time in the divine life, and has been made to suffer as the result of his earnest service. You perceive that he has not forgotten the things that were gains, for, as we have already seen, he has given us a detailed list of them. On this second occasion, he does not repeat the catalogue, partly because there was no need for it, and partly because he cares less for each item, and mainly because for fear anything should have been omitted he succinctly sums up the whole by saying, "all things." He as good as says: yes doubtless, and I count as loss all the advantages of birth, nationality, and self-righteousness, which once I reckoned to be gains. If I have left out anything whereof as an Israelite I might have gloried, then I beg you to insert it in the list, for I mean that all should be included when I say that I count all things but loss for Christ's sake.

So you see he has not altered the original summary, he has even made it more comprehensive, but he stands to the same estimate as ever: the gain is still "but loss"; only we perceive that now he dwells longer and evidently with greater delight of expression upon the other side, for now he uses not barely the word "Christ," but the fuller expression, "for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord."

Now he has come to know the Christ in whom before he trusted. He spoke of him before as one for whom he counted gain as loss; but now he perceives so great an excellency in him, that even to know him he reckons to be a super-eminent blessing. Our divine Lord is better loved, as he is better known. The closer our inspection, the greater is the manifest excellency of his character.

The words used by the apostle show us the points upon which he had the fullest knowledge. He knew the Lord as Christ, or as the Messiah, sent and anointed by the Father. He understood more fully than at the first--the fullness, power, and exceeding efficacy of the anointing of our Lord which he had received above his fellows. He saw him to be the woman's promised seed, the coming one, the promised light of Israel, the ordained Prince and Savior of men, and he saw all his qualifications for this wonderful character. He perceived his anointing as prophet, priest, and King. He delighted to see the Spirit of the Lord resting upon him, and descending from him to his people, as the sacred oil from the head of Aaron, distilled to the skirts of his garments. He saw great excellency in the knowledge of the Lord's anointed, whose garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia; but this was not all, for he proceeds to call him Jesus, Christ Jesus. "You shall call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins." Paul knew him as the anointed Savior, yes, as the actual Savior who had saved him: saved him from the madness of his blasphemy and persecution, saved him from all his past guilt, saved him and made him to be an instrument of the salvation of others. He delights in the title of Savior, as we all do who know the savor of it. How sweetly musical is the name of Jesus; how fragrant is it even as ointment poured forth. Excellent indeed is the knowledge of our Lord in this character.

How delicious is the apostle's next word, "my Lord;" not merely the Lord, but "my Lord." His knowledge was an appropriating knowledge. He knew the Redeemer as anointed for him, as saving him, as Lord over all for him, and now as Lord to him. The honey of the sentence lies in that word "my." I do not know how it seems to your hearts, but to me it is one of the sweetest words that can possibly be used by mortal lip, "the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." Whether he is your Lord or not--yet he is surely mine, whether he be accepted as Lord by the sons of men or not--yet he is joyfully owned as Lord to me and master of my spirit, sole monarch of my whole nature, "Christ Jesus my Lord." You see, then, how truly, fully, practically, and personally he knew the Lord Jesus.

The text implies that he knew Jesus by faith. He had seen him after the flesh, but in that he did not glory, for he had now come to value only the things of faith, desiring mainly that the righteousness which is of God by faith, might be imputed unto him. He believed, and hence he knew. There is no knowledge so gracious as the knowledge of faith, for a man may know a great deal in a natural way and yet perish, but that which comes by faith is saving. If a man only knows Christ in the head, but does not trust him with the heart, then what is the good of his knowledge? It will rather ruin than save him. So to know the Lord Jesus Christ as to lean your soul's full weight upon him, so to know him as to experience peace because you trust in him, so to know him as to feel that you can rest in him more and more, from day to day, because he is all your salvation and all your desire--this is to know him indeed!

But Paul also knew the Lord by experience, for he speaks of knowing him and "the power of his resurrection." This is excellent knowledge indeed, when the power of a fact is realized within and shown in the life. When we are raised from the death of our sin, and feel that we are so, then is our knowledge of the risen Christ excellent indeed. When we feel a new life within us, quickening us unto spiritual things, and know that this springs from the resurrection of our Lord, and is wrought in us according to the mighty power which raised Jesus Christ from the dead, then indeed can we rejoice in the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord.

More than that, Paul knew something of Christ, and was aiming to know more, by a growing likeness to him: "that I may know him, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death." He had entered, in some measure, into his Master's sufferings, he had been persecuted and despised by men, and for much the same reason as his Master. He had, in a degree, felt Christ's motives, Christ's love for man, Christ's zeal for God, Christ's self-sacrifice, Christ's readiness to die on behalf of the truth. This is an excellent knowledge indeed, and Paul might well esteem it as far more precious than all legal privileges. He spoke of it as super-eminent knowledge, for such is his meaning, and he reckoned it to be beyond all price.

Beloved, there is no knowledge in the world which can be compared with such a knowledge of Christ Jesus as I have tried to describe just now, for it is a knowledge which concerns the highest conceivable object--even the Son of God. To know the science of nature, to be familiar with rocks, to read the stars, to comprehend all other things--is a comparative trifle when we consider what it is to know God in the person of the Lord Jesus. He in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, is most worthy to be known, and angels and principalities unite with all the saints in thinking so.

One truth about Christ is more precious than the total of all other knowledge! This is a knowledge which no man has, except it is given him by the Holy Spirit--and hence its excellence. We may say to all, who know Christ, "Flesh and blood has not revealed this unto you." Divinely taught he must be, who has learned Christ. This science cannot be acquired in the schools, nor imparted by learned professors, nor even gathered by years of diligent research. To the heart, renewed by the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus must be revealed by the Spirit himself, for no man can say that Jesus Christ is Lord but by the Holy Spirit. That must needs be a superlative knowledge, which requires in each case to be communicated by God himself.

If you would see the excellency of this knowledge, then look at its effects. Some knowledge puffs up, but this knowledge makes us humble, and the more we have of it the less we are in our own esteem. This knowledge sanctifies, purges, and delivers from the love of sin. It saves the soul--saves it from present sin and from eternal woe. This knowledge elevates the motives, sweetens the feelings, and gives nobility to the entire life: for the man who knows Christ lives after a loftier order of life, than those who are ignorant of him. This knowledge indeed, beloved, is excellent, because it never can be lost. It is a knowledge which will continue to progress, even in eternity. The most of the subjects which mortals study here, will be forgotten in the world to come; the profoundest of them will be too trifling to be pursued amid angelic thrones. The honors of classical and mathematical attainments will be as darkness, amidst the glories of Heaven, but the knowledge of Christ Jesus will still be priceless, and it will cause those who possess it to shine as the sun. He who knows Christ shall go on to sit at his feet and still to learn, and as he learns he will tell to principalities and powers the manifold wisdom of God in the person of Jesus Christ.

See then, beloved, that the apostle for the sake of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord, still counted all the things that he had once gloried in to be but loss. This was his calculation when he was writing. It was not merely the estimate of his younger days, but it was his present renewed and confirmed judgment. My friends, is it ours?

The great apostle gives us a third counting, which may be regarded as his life estimate; not of the past only, nor of the present merely, but of the past and present inclusively. Here it is, "For whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but rubbish, that I may win Christ, and be found in him." Here, beloved, you see that his estimate sets out with actual test and practical proof. He is sitting down, I suppose, in the guard room of the Praetorium at Rome, where he was a prisoner; the chains are on his wrist, and if he likes, he needs no blotting paper, but may powder his writing with the rust of his fetters. He has nothing in all the world; he has lost all his old friends; his relations disown him, his countrymen abhor him, and even his Christian brethren often distress him. No name made the Jew gnash his teeth more maliciously, than did the name of Saul of Tarsus, who was adjudged to be the vilest of renegades. He has lost caste, and lost all ground of glorying, he has no longer a righteousness of his own wherein to boast, but he is stripped of every rag of legal hope: Christ is his all, and Paul has nothing else. He has no worldly property, he has no provision for his commonest needs, and most true are his words as he writes, "For whom I have suffered the loss of all things." Let us enter the prison and put a personal question to the good man.

"Paul, your faith has brought you to absolute poverty and friendlessness: what is your estimate of it now? Theory is one thing, but does practice bear it out? The sea looks smooth as glass, but seafaring is pleasanter to talk of than to practice. The embarking was a fine spectacle, but what do you think of a sea voyage when the storm rages? How now, Paul?"

"Well," says he, "I confess I have suffered the loss of all things."

And do you deeply regret it, Paul? "Regret it," says he, "regret the loss of my Phariseeism, my circumcision, my Israelitish dignity? Regret it! No," he says, "I am glad that all these are gone, for I count it to be a deliverance to be rid of them."

In his first and second countings, he called his former gains loss, but now he sets them down as "rubbish." He could not use a stronger word: he calls all his boastings in the flesh mere offal--something to get rid of, and no loss when it is gone, but rather a subject for congratulation that it is removed from him. The word signifies that which is worthless, and is used to express the lees and dregs of wine, the settlement which a man finds in his cup, and drains out upon the ground when he has drank his liquor, the refuse of fruit, the dross of metals, and the chaff and stubble of wheat. In fact, the root of the word signifies things cast to dogs--dog's food, bones from the plates, crumbs and stale pieces brushed from the table, and such things as one is anxious to be rid of.

The apostle puts down the whole of the fine things which he had enumerated as no better than rubbish! "Of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews," he shakes out the whole lot for the dogs, and is glad to be rid of it all for Christ's sake.

It reminds me of a ship in a storm. When the captain leaves the harbor, then he has a cargo on board of which he takes great care, but when a tremendous wind is blowing and the ship labors, being too heavily laden, and there is great fear that she will not outride the storm, see how eagerly the sailors lighten the ship. They bring up from the hold with all diligence, the very things which before they prized, and they seem rejoiced to heave them into the sea. Never men more eager to get, than these are to throw away. There go the casks of flour, the bars of iron, the manufactured goods: overboard go valuable bales of merchandise; nothing seems to be worth keeping. How is this? Are not these things good? Yes, but not good to a sinking ship. Anything must go to save life, anything to outride the storm.

In the same way, the apostle says that in order to win Christ and to be found in him he flung the whole cargo of his beloved confidences overboard, and was as glad to get rid of them as if they were only so much rubbish.

This he did to win Christ, and that fact suggests another picture: an English war ship of the olden times is cruising the ocean, and she spies a Spanish galleon in the distance laden with gold from the Indies. Captain and men are determined to overtake and capture her, for they have a relish for prize-money; but their vessel sails heavily. What then? If she will not move because of her load, then they fling into the sea everything they can lay their hands on, knowing that if they can capture the Spanish vessel, then the booty will make amends for all they lose and vastly more. Do you wonder at their eagerness to lose the little, to gain the great? Sailor, why do you cast those useful things overboard?

"Oh," says he, "they are nothing compared with that prize over yonder. If we can but get side by side and board her, then we will soon make up for all that we now throw into the sea."

In the same way it is with the man who is in earnest to win Christ and to be found in him. Overboard go circumcision and Phariseeism, and the blamelessness touching the law, and all that, for he knows that he will find a better righteousness in Christ than any which he foregoes--yes, find everything in Christ which he now for his Lord's sake counts but as the slag of the furnace.

Now, beloved, notice how much nearer Paul had got to Christ than he was before, for in his second estimate he spoke of knowing him, but now he speaks of winning him for his own. The word meant and should have been translated "gain," "that I may gain Christ," for the apostle keeps to the mercantile figure all the way through, and means that I may gain Christ, and know him as my own, that I may have him and hold him, and sing with the spouse "My Beloved is mine!" For this cause we may wisely count all things but rubbish, that we may have the Lord Jesus in everlasting possession.

Then Paul adds "and be found in him." He longs to be hidden in Jesus, and to abide in him as a bird in the air, or a fish in the sea; he pants to be one with Christ, and so to be in him as a member is in the body. He desires to get into Christ, as a fugitive shelters himself in his hiding place; he aspires to be so in Christ, as never to come out of him; so that whenever any one looks for him he may find him in Jesus, and that when the Great Judge of all calls for him at the last great day, then he may find him in Christ. It would be ill to be found where Adam was, shivering under the trees of the garden with his fig-leaves on; but to be found beneath the tree of life, wearing the robe of God's righteousness, this will be bliss indeed. We are lost out of Christ, but we are found in him. Once met with by the Great Shepherd, we are found by him, but when safely folded in his love, we are found in him.

Do notice how Paul sticks to what he began with, namely, the unrobing himself of his boastings in the flesh, and his arraying himself with Christ. He desires to be found in Christ, but he adds, "not having my own righteousness, which is of the law." No, he will have nothing to do with that; he has already despised it as loss, and thrown it overboard as dross, and now he will not have it or call it his own at all. It is strange for a man to say "not having my own," but he does say so: he disowns his own righteousness as eagerly as other men disown their sins, and he highly esteems the righteousness which Christ has wrought out for us, which becomes ours by faith. He calls it "the righteousness which is of God by faith," and he sets great store by it. Yes, it is all he desires!

My brethren, this is the thing we ought to be seeking after, to be more and more conscious that we have Christ, to abide in him more continually, to be more like him, even in his sufferings and in his death, and to feel the full power of his resurrection-life within ourselves. May God grant us grace to do this, and the more we do it, then the more we shall coincide with the apostle in his slight esteem for all other things. This matter is like a balance--if one scale goes down, then the other must go up. The weightier is Christ influence with us, then the lighter will be the world and self-righteousness. When Christ is all in all, then the world and self will be nothing at all.

 

II. I shall not weary you, I hope, by taking a few minutes for the last head, which is OUR OWN CALCULATIONS.

First, do we join in Paul's earliest estimate? At the outset of his spiritual life, he saw all his own natural advantages and excellencies, and he counted them loss for Christ. Every true Christian here remembers the time when he also counted all wherein he had formerly trusted, to be of no value whatever, and betook himself to Jesus. But perhaps I speak to some who have never done so. You are at this time, my friend, still confident that you never did anybody any harm; that your life has been amiable and upright; that you have been just, charitable, and kind; and that all this certainly qualifies you for Heaven. You count your natural virtues to be great gains.

I spoke but three days ago to an old man, more than eighty, and when he told me of his great age I said, "I hope that when you die, then you will go to Heaven." "Ah sir," says he, "I never did anything why I should go anywhere else." There are multitudes who believe that creed, they do not speak it out quite so plainly as the aged peasant did, but they mean it all the same. Ah, dear friends, you must be brought out of that delusion, and all these moral excellencies and virtues must be loss to you--that Christ's righteousness may be your only gain. May the Holy Spirit teach you this distasteful truth. I wish your heart would sing--

"No more, my God, I boast no more

Of all the duties I have done;

I leave the hopes I held before,

To trust the merits of your Son.

"Yes, and I must and will esteem

All things but loss for Jesus' sake:

O may my soul be found in him,

And of his righteousness partake."

You will never be saved until you lose all your legal hopes.

Now, secondly, after years of profession which many of you have made, do you still continue in the same mind and make the same estimate? I have known, I am sorry to say, some professors who have by degrees settled down upon something other than Christ. Beloved, are you resting now upon your years of manifest improvement since conversion? Are you beginning to depend upon the regularity of your attendance at the means of grace, upon your private prayer, upon what you have given, or upon your preaching, or anything else? Ah, it will not do. We must continue to stand, where we stood at first, saying, "Yes doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." Come now, Christian, if you could go back, would you begin at the cross? If you could retrace your steps, would you begin again by resting upon Christ and by taking him to be your all in all? I will tell you my answer--I have no other foundation upon which I could begin, I must rest on my Lord. "To whom or where should I go, if I should turn from you?"

Lone refuge of my spirit, sole port of my poor laboring barque, to you I fly today, if never I did so before; or if before, to you I fly anew.

Now, again, you cannot join Paul in the third calculation and say, "For whom I have suffered the loss of all things"; but still I must put it to you--do you think you could have suffered the loss of all things if it had been required of you for Christ's sake? If it had come to this, that you must be banished or renounce your Savior, would you go into banishment? If the alternative were the confiscation of your goods, would you let all go rather than renounce your Lord? Your forefathers did so, and what the Spirit wrought in them I doubt not he would have wrought in you, had the times been of a severer character.

But I will put a more practical question to you: Since you have not had to suffer the loss of all things, do you hold all things at God's disposal? Are you ready to part with comfort and honor for him? Can you take up the social cross and join with the most despised sect for the truth's sake? Can you lose the respectability which attaches to popular creeds, and can you cast in your lot with the despised Redeemer, when religion no more walks in her silver slippers, but travels barefooted through the mire? Can you be content to share with the "despised and rejected of men"? If you can, then you could also suffer the loss of all things; but see to it that it is indeed so.

Let me ask another practical question: You have not suffered the loss of all things, but seeing God has left your worldly comforts to you, have you used all things for his sake? Have you given to his cause all that cause might fairly ask? I hope you can say, "Yes, I hope I have, and, as the world judges, vastly more, for I have said in my soul,

'And if I must make some reserve,

And duty did not call,

I love my God with zeal so great

That I would give him all.' 

Well, then, you also may make your estimate as the apostle did: though you have not had practically to endure the loss of all things--yet you do count them but rubbish for Christ's sake.

But one thing more. Beloved, if Christ is so to you that all things else in comparison to him are dross and rubbish, do you not want him for your children? Do you not desire him for your friends? Do you not wish all your kinsfolk to have him? Whatever a man values for himself, he values for others. You want your boy to follow your trade, if you believe it to be a very good one. You desire to see your children well placed in life, but what position in life can be equal to being found in Christ? And what winnings under Heaven can be compared with winning Christ. You may judge your own sincerity by the measure of your desire for the salvation of others, and I earnestly entreat you to not be backward to tell to others the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus your Lord, and be not slow to impress upon them the absolute necessity of being found in him.

Loathe the idea of having a righteousness of your own, but grasp with all your faith the righteousness of Jesus Christ. I commend to you Christians that you give your whole selves to Christ, that from this day forward you serve him, spirit, soul and body, for after all there is nothing worth living for, nothing worth even giving a single tear; for if you lose it, nor worth a smile if you gain it, save only that which comes from Christ, and can be used for Christ, and is found in Christ. Christ is all. May he be so to you. Amen.

Portion of scripture read before sermon--Philippians 3.

 

 

August 28, 2025. Very good!

All the People at Work for Jesus

A Sermon Delivered on Wednesday Morning, May 9th, 1877, by Charles Spurgeon, at Christ Church, Westminster Bridge Road, on behalf of the London Missionary Society.

I have taken two texts from two successive chapters of the book of Joshua: the first is from Joshua the seventh chapter, at the third verse. The spies who were sent to Ai returned to Joshua and said to him, "Let not all the people go up; but let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai." This policy led to a disastrous defeat; and our other text gives us the Lord's command concerning the new attack. You will find it in the eighth chapter of Joshua and the first verse: "The Lord said unto Joshua, Fear not, neither be you dismayed: take all the people of war with you, and arise, go up to Ai: see, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land."

The two texts may be condensed into:

first, the advice of the spies, to employ only a part of the people in the assault upon Ai, "Let not all the people go up";

secondly, the command of God, to let every fighting man go forth to the war, "Take all the people of war with you."

Brethren, like Israel, we are called to war, and we have a greater than Joshua at our head, in whose name we conquer. There is an inheritance which as yet has been held by the adversary, and in the name of God we have to drive him out. We are likely to experience difficulties very similar to those which were met with by the tribes; and I doubt not that their history (is it not written for our learning?) will prove exceedingly interesting to us, if we have a mind to consider it. We shall meet with the same defeats as they did, if we fall into the same sins. In the same way, we shall win like victories, if we are obedient to the commands which God has given us, which are very similar to those addressed to Israel of old.

As in a looking-glass we see ourselves in the twelve tribes, from the first day even until now, and in the texts before us there is a lesson for us, which may God, by his grace; enable us to learn. I pray the Holy Spirit to illuminate our minds while we read in the book of the wars of the Lord, and as soldiers of Christ learn from warriors of old time.

 

I. Let us consider THE ADVICE OF THE SPIES which led to such a shameful defeat.

And here we shall have to deal with the error of supposing that a part only of the church will be sufficient to perform the work of the whole--that a large proportion may be idle, and that the rest will be quite enough to fight the Lord's battles. I feel it to be an error which, though not perhaps theoretically held by any of us, is practically to be seen abroad in our churches, and needs to be met and put to an end.

In Joshua's day this error sprang up among the Israelites because, on account of their sins, God was displeased with them. The commencement of the chapter tells us that the Lord God was angry because the children of Israel had committed a sin in the accursed thing: for the sin of Achan the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people. That was the real reason of their defeat before Ai; but out of that secret cause, grew the more manifest source of defeat--which was, that because God was displeased with them, then they were left to themselves, and hence they adopted a fatal policy.

When God is in the midst of a church he guides its counsels, and directs the hearts of men to go about his work in the wisest manner. Is it not an old saying that "Whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad"? And is not the heathen proverb, the shadow of the fact that men become foolish when they have broken the commands of God, and thus they are chastened for one fault by being permitted to fall into another! Even upon the Lord's own people, a measure of judicial blindness may come. You may depend upon it, that when it becomes a doctrine that only special classes of men are to be expected to work in the church, there is some great wrong in the background. In that church which most of all has fallen into this fallacy, and has drawn the sharpest line between those called the clergy and the poor unfortunate laymen outside, who perhaps may do something for God, but who cannot be expected, or indeed allowed to do anything in particular: in that church, I say, the deadliest errors have found a home.

We, too, may take it for granted that when we begin to leave Christian work to be performed by a minister, or the visitation of the poor to be solely done by a paid missionary, then we have some Achan in the camp, with a goodly Babylonish garment hidden in his tent. There must be an accursed thing somewhere or other which has caused us to be left to so gross a folly: either worldliness, or lukewarmness, or love of ease, or deep declension of heart must lie at the root of this slovenly and sluggish policy. It is not God's mind that it should be so; and he has evidently left us to ourselves when this fatal method is adopted.

When the Holy Spirit rests upon the church, then this folly is practically avoided, nay, it is not even thought of. May God grant to the churches represented here today that they may walk in such soundness of doctrine and have such spirituality of life, that they may be full of the divine presence, and never dream for a moment of sending a portion only of their members out to war, and leave the rest to sit still! We cannot leave the battles of our Lord to be fought by mercenary troops; the whole army of men made willing in the day of the Lord's power must go out under the command of our divine Joshua to meet the foe.

Furthermore, this evil policy arose out of presumption engendered by success. But a little while ago all Israel had marched around Jericho for seven days, and on the seventh day, when they shouted, the city walls fell flat to the ground. Perhaps they began to say, "Did those massive walls fall when we compassed them about? O Israel, you are a great nation! And did they fall with nothing but a shout? Then the Hittite and the Hivite, and every other enemy, shall flee before us like chaff before the wind! What need can there be to carry all our baggage up the hill to Ai? What need to march so many men? Two or three thousand will be quite sufficient to carry that small city by storm. We can do wonders, and therefore we need not put forth all our strength!"

Brethren, many dangers surround success; it is not much of it that any of us can bear. The full sail needs much ballast lest the boat be overset. When in this or any other part of the world, the church sees many converts as the fruit of her labors, when there are great gatherings, and a good deal of shouting, great interest excited, and multitudinous conversions, then it is very natural to calculate that the work has been easily done, and needs no very severe or general effort. The idea is fostered that there is no need now for continued house-to-house visitation, no need for more missionaries, no need for regular plodding service in school and cottage-meetings, no need to set our young men and women to work for Christ! The drill and organization of the regular army is in danger of being lightly esteemed. Blow the trumpet, and the walls will come down easily enough. Jericho has fallen with shouting and marching, let us gather ourselves together and show that we are a mighty people, who no longer need to go up unanimously and laboriously in rank and order to the fight, as our fathers did.

Ah, brethren, this evil spirit must be exorcized, for it comes from the devil. God will not bless us if we tolerate this spirit. Why, some of us are too great, for our Lord Jesus to use in his work. Like Saul's armor, we are unfit for our David to put on if Goliath is to be slain. We must be more sensible of weakness, more mindful that the conversion of souls is the work of omnipotence, or we shall see but little done. We must ourselves believe more fully in the need of earnest work for God, and put forth all our strength, and strain every sinew for him, knowing that it is his power that works in us mightily when we strive with all our hearts. We must learn that our great Leader means us not only to shout and blow rams' horns, but to employ all the strength of every man in our ranks in his glorious cause. May we be delivered from the presumption which leads to the foolish course which Israel pursued.

Let us not forget that these children of Israel were forgetting their commission and violating the command of God. It is a terrible truth that the tribes had been brought out of Egypt that they might be the executioners of divine vengeance upon races which had committed capital crimes, for which the Lord had condemned them to be rooted out. The reward of the ministers of justice was to be the land which the infamous ones had polluted. They were charged to make no alliances with them, nor to intermarry with them, but to execute them for their crimes; and the commission was not given to some of the Israelites, but to all of them, for all were to be rewarded by a portion of the land. The charge was not given to Joshua and to the elders only, but to all the tribes. As they all expected to have a dwelling-place in Canaan, so they were all expected to conquer the territory by their own exertions. They were all an enlisted host for God, and he never ordained that a part only, should go forth in his great controversy with the condemned Canaanites.

In the same way, if we ever neglect to render universal service as a church in the cause of Christ we shall depart from our trust and call, for the Lord has sent all his disciples to testify of him and contend against sin. He has sent us all to make known everywhere, according to our ability, the glad tidings of his salvation; and he has not given this command to this or that man, or to this or that body of men, but to all his chosen people. Every member of the body has its own office, and no part of it can be allowed to lie dormant. To none has he said, "Go your way, eat the fat and drink the sweet, and find fault with those who do the work;" but to all his saints our Lord Jesus says, "As my Father has sent me, even so I send you." Every Christian man is described in Scripture as being a light, a light not to be hidden, but seen by men. Every child of God is described as forming a part of that "city set on a hill which cannot be hidden." It is not only the ministers who are the salt of the earth and the light of the world; but "you are the salt of the earth"; "you are the light of the world"; all of you without exception. Each one in his own proportion and in his own place, must be used as a vessel in the great house of the Lord: and we shall get away from our true position and our high calling, if we excuse ourselves or our brethren from personal service, and then go and take part in public meetings and thank God for what other people have done on our behalf.

These Israelites, in the new fashion which they were trying to set up, were departing from their own model. That model was, doubtless, the siege of Jericho. In that siege there was much dependence upon God, but there was no neglect of instrumentality; and, though all they did was to go around the city and shout--yet in so doing they were literally fulfilling orders, and doing all that was commanded. Yes, if this would bring down the walls they did it thoroughly--they marched as bidden, and shouted as desired. They all went round Jericho; they did not some of them sit in their tents and look on while the others paraded, but they all filed out in order. It might seem to be a perfectly needless procession, but it was commanded by God, and they all united in it. In martial array, they all compassed the city, and all gave the shout, and down came the walls, and there and then every man went up to the prey, leaping over the ruined walls to strike his foe in the name of the Lord! That was their precedent and pattern, and they were departing from it very sadly when they said, "Let not all the people labor thither."

What, then, is our model as a church? Is it not Pentecost? Is it not those earliest days, that dawn of Christianity, that golden era to which we always look back as the heroic age of our holy faith? In that day did they not break bread from house to house, all of them? Did they not sell their lands and lay the price of them at the apostles' feet? Was there not a burning enthusiasm throughout the entire company of disciples? We know it was so; and if we are to see again the triumphs of those primitive times, then we must go back to primitive practice, and every man and woman and child in the church must be consecrated to the divine service.

"Child," did I say? Yes, truly, for "out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, you have perfected praise." I suppose there is not one person present who heard that famous sermon by Matthew Wilks upon the universal service rendered by idolaters to their false gods, from the text, "The children gathered wood, and the fathers kindled the fire, and the women kneaded their dough to make cakes to the queen of Heaven." The preacher's argument on that occasion was that which I would now press upon you, that all should take part in the work of the Lord. Distinct offices but united aims; diverse operations but the same spirit; many and yet one--so let it be. Would to God that the church would recognize this more fully, and so come back to the great precedents of her warfare.

Again, this error which we are carefully to avoid, was no doubt the dictate of carnal wisdom. Spies were never of much use to Israel--two only of the first twelve were faithful--what did Israel want with spies? Better far had it been to walk by faith. To Ai they must need send spies, instead of going up at once in the confidence of faith: evil came of it, for these spies counseled that only part of the people need labor up the hill.

In the same way brethren, the best ministers of Christ, worthy of all honor, would be the cause of great mischief if once their carnal wisdom should make them think that they can supersede primitive plans with wiser inventions.

I dare say the men-at-arms would have said that Israel's numbers were a hindrance to efficient fighting, and that the common sort were in the way of trained warriors and encumbered the battle.

I know that some able brethren are of this mind. Have they not said in acts if not in words, "That young man is preaching--we wish he would be quiet; he makes such blunders in the Queen's English! He has a great deal of zeal, but there is no little danger in it. And those good sisters--we know they do a good deal of work which was never done before, but, "--and they shake their heads at them. That is often the main contribution of the more prudent sort, to the service of God! They generously lavish upon the younger folks their grave looks and their shakes of the head at innovation and zeal. There is the Sunday-school; well, that is a proper thing, because it is a recognized agency, but if it were started today for the first time, then many would shake their heads at that also. City mission work, again, is a tried and proved mode of operation; but in days gone by there was thought to be peril in lay agency, especially as the men were not college trained. Well, my brethren, there are many more holy agencies yet to be invented, and though they will none of them be perfect, our wet blankets will not improve them. Better far will it be to help the good, and as for the little mischief which may come of imperfect agencies, let the wise men supply the antidote and rectify the blunders. Anything is better than lethargy and death. Thank God that our people have a mind to do good, and if their zeal is inclined to wildfire, let us not quench it, but try to use it for holy purposes; for, after all, fire, wild or otherwise, is what we need. If we have the fire from Heaven in the form of zeal for God's glory, it can easily be regulated, but the most terrible calamity is to have no fire at all.

"But," says one, "may not the ignorant and indiscreet advocacy of truth by unqualified people, do a great deal of harm to the cause we love?" It may; but is the truth you believe so weak as to be in any serious danger from such an accident? Is not truth invincible, and fully able to take care of herself? All she has to fear is the cramping and imprisoning agency of excessive prudence. With weakness for her guardian, and folly for her defender, she is yet safe! The God who protects her from her foes, can assuredly save her from her friends. The danger lies in our carnal wisdom, which would cover the light with a bushel basket to prevent its being blown out, and wrap the talent in a napkin because it is only one.

We very frequently hear it said that there is no need for so much excitement and exertion: and this, too, has come from our prudent men--we ought to take it coolly, the thing went rightly enough in our grandfather's days, the great men of the past did very well without all this stir! Well, we have observed that wet blankets are still on sale, and may be had at wholesale prices!

Now, brethren, I do not know what you think about it, but I for one feel that there is much work to be done, and very little time to do it in. If I plunge into the work with all my might, then I shall do none too much; but, at any rate, all my little might is demanded by such a cause. There is a blessed leisure of the heart which sits at Jesus' feet; but I am sure that it is not inconsistent with that violence which the kingdom of Heaven suffers, "and the violent take it by force." There were people who complained, in the days of Wesley and Whitefield, because their zeal caused a great deal of fanaticism; but, thank God, the blessed fanaticism spread throughout the land; and it is not extinct even now, nor shall it be by God's grace, but it shall go on increasing until Christ shall come! Let us bring up our men, the whole of the tribes, weak though they are, and though their weapons be no better than the axes and coulters with which Israel fought the Philistines! Let us spring upon our foe as one man, even as in the days of old. Let us all go up to Ai; and as surely as God was with his people then, so surely will he be with our united hosts today, and the world shall learn again that there is a God in Israel!

Only once more upon this point: these children of Israel, in sending to the war only part of the men, were breaking in upon the divine design. The Lord never intended to have two peoples, but one; and so we read that the Reubenites and the Gadites came over Jordan to the war, although their portion was already conquered. It was the divine intent that they should be one army of the living God, each separate son of the seed of Abraham belonging to that army and fighting in it; he meant, that not some only, but all should see the mighty works of his hand, working with them to overthrow their adversaries. When Jericho fell, all saw it; and if Ai should fall before the divine power, they must all be there to see with their own eyes the glory of the Lord.

I am sure it is so with the church of God today. Our Lord means to keep all his chosen ones as one army, and to instruct them all as one band. And when are we most manifestly one? When we get to work. If you come to declamation upon your own peculiar points, I shall wish you good morning; but if you are going to work for Jesus, then allow me to go with you. I have marked the history of organizations formed for no practical purpose, and they have invariably come to an end, and I do not know that we need weep over the fact; but work to be done for Jesus is a mighty bond of union. Our God does not mean that his ministers should alone see all the death-beds, and be the sole spectators of the dying triumphs of his people. No, our brothers and sisters must visit too, and have their faith strengthened and their prospects brightened. He does not wish that preachers alone should see all the converts and encourage all the desponding ones. No, his wisdom perceives that it is good for all his servants to behold the trophies of his grace, and know how to use the encouragements of his promises. The Lord does not ordain that one or two should mourn over the evil of the hearts of men, and do battle with sinners alone. No; he means all his servants in their measure to learn the lessons which holy warfare would teach them. Not to deal practically with souls, is perilous to ourselves. Men who spend their time providing us with marvelous essays and papers in the reviews, are most of them unsound in the faith; but if they went out into the world of real life, to save men, if they had to battle personally with hard hearts and evil passions in actual conversion work, then they would find that their finespun theories are of no use; they would learn that the Puritan faith of our forefathers is the sturdiest of all weapons, and the best adapted for the world as it is, and that the old truth is the sword with which alone you can pierce the hearts of men.

Work for Jesus is an education for a Christian. What an education it would be for the philanthropist to see what the agricultural laborer eats, or rather does not eat! What a lesson for the sanitary reformer to see with his own eyes where the people lodge! What an education for a man of wealth to spend a night or two in the crowded chambers where our London workmen dwell! And in the same way, holy service is a training for us. In order really to know man's fall and the way of redemption, then we must go among the people and labor for their conversion. Hence our Lord will not excuse any of us from service in this war, because it would be to our great damage to be away from it; and it is for our encouragement and growth, that we should take our share in it.

I will finish this part of my subject with a parable. In the days of chivalry a certain band of knights had never known defeat. In all battles their name was terrible to the foe. On their banners was emblazoned a long list of victories; but in an evil hour the leader of the knights summoned them together, and he said: "My brethren, we cause ourselves too much toil. We have a band of skilled warriors versed in all the arts of battle, these are quite sufficient for ordinary conflicts, and it will be wise for the many if they tarry in the camp and rest, or furbish their weapons for extraordinary occasions. Let the champions go alone. Yonder knight with his sword, can cleave a man in two at a single stroke, and his comrade can break a bar of iron with his axe; others among us are equally powerful, each one being an army in himself. With the terror of our name behind them, the chosen champions can carry on the war, while the rest divide the spoil." The saying pleased the warriors well, but from that hour the knell of their fame was rung, and defeat defiled their standard. When they came together, they complained of the champions because they had not sustained the honor of the order, and they bade them exert themselves more heroically. They did so, but with small success. Louder and louder were the notes of discontent and the demands for new champions. Then one of the oldest of the knights said: "Brethren, why do you blame us? The mistake lies here. In the old time, when the enemy assailed us, a thousand men were up in arms, and we who led the van knew that a gallant army followed at our heels. But now you have made us solitary champions, and the adversary takes heart to defy us, finding us unsustained. Come all with us to the fray as aforetime, and none shall stand against us." Brethren, you need not that a man interpret this unto you.

 

II. In the second place, my text contains THE COMMAND THAT ALL ISRAEL SHOULD GO FORTH TO THE FIGHT. "Take all the men of war with you."

I will mainly address myself to my brethren in Christ; and what I have to say to them I say humbly, speaking mainly to myself. Brethren, we must have all our church members go to the war. I know this is our theory; but in practice we do not accomplish it. The baggage of our army is too heavy. We need to turn out the drones, and we need an increase of true working bees. How is it to be done? We must be ourselves deeply impressed with the evil brought upon idle Christians by their idleness, and the evil which they bring upon the rest of the church.

Only suppose a Christian--I will treat it as a mere supposition--living an idle life; give him nothing to do and he will become morbid with introspection; or he will grow quarrelsome, contending with all who hold opinions contrary to his own; or he will dishonor the name of Christ by sin. You know when it was that David fell with regard to Bathsheba; it was at the time when kings go forth to battle and he tarried still at Jerusalem. He would have not fallen into that sin, if he had not played the sluggard at home. Where was his duty as commander-in-chief? Was it not in the camp? Indolence is temptation. Certain of our churches are suffering from unsound teaching, but they are suffering as much from lack of work. The moss is growing upon them, the rust is eating them up; the gold becomes dim, the silver is losing its brightness, and all for lack of use.

Oh, brethren, if we stand at the foot of a barren tree in the vineyard of Christ, then we know what must happen. As we look upon it and see no fruit our emotions ought to be those of bitterest sorrow; for the axe is prepared for those that bear no fruit. Alas, that we should have church members, not inconsistent in moral character, but excellent in many ways, and yet cumberers of the ground! There is a great deal of charity about, of an evil sort, because it does not face the truth in honest desire for men's good. Let us be too truly charitable to indulge in such fatal charity. Let us sigh and cry when we think of our useless church members as branches of the vine that bear no fruit, of whom the Master has said that they shall be taken away, "For every branch in me that bears not fruit, he takes away"; and "men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." What sorrow will fill our hearts if we reflect upon this! If we regard fruitless professors in this light, it will go further than anything else to make us successful in exciting all our brethren to active service.

We need to be impressed with the mischief which idlers cause to others. One sickly sheep, infects the flock; one member who does nothing, lowers the tone of the whole body. The indolence of prominent professors is not merely the waste of their own labor, but of that of scores of others. Leading people are looked upon as a sort of model for the rest; and if So-and-so is content merely to fill his place in the pew and subscribe so much (or, rather, so little) per year--then others will say, "We shall be up to the standard if we do the same."

Every man in an army who is not efficient and really serviceable is on the enemy's side. What can the enemy more desire than that the opposite army may be encumbered with the sick? What can be better news for them, than to hear that the hospitals are crowded, for then they know that a large number of men are occupied with the sick and detained from the fight. The enemy claps his hands and cries, "These sick men are worth many a gun to us." Oh, useless professor, you cannot serve the devil better than by joining a church and then doing nothing.

I want my brethren to feel all this most keenly. I doubt not they do feel it, but I want to feel it more vividly myself; for when we get into a truly sensitive condition--when we who are ministers are alive upon this point--we shall stir up the people of God, all of them, and we shall see greater things than these.

Moreover, brethren, we must hunt out the sin which leads to the evil against which we contend, and I believe it is lack of vital godliness in many cases. I do not know how my friend Mr. Newman Hall finds it--I suppose he does not suffer much from it; but I know pastors who say they have very respectable members, but nothing can be done with them. In some cases prayer-meetings are given up because the rich members come home from the City, and dine at the hour which is usually selected for the prayer-meeting, and so they cannot attend. Dining is a most important business: it would seem to be more important than praying. Business men are so fatigued. It is true that we find carpenters and bricklayers and other workmen delighting in our prayer-meetings. Is this because they do not work so hard as your City men? In some quarters it is found impossible to carry on church work effectively, because the very people who should be workers and officers are resolved that their liberal subscriptions and Sabbath worship shall be the whole of their assistance to the cause of Christ. As to laying themselves out for holy work, they look in your face with wonder, as if they thought you had lost your senses when you propose any very arduous service to them.

Now, this shirking of prayer and service is to be exposed and denounced in all faithfulness. It is often the sin which grows out of too much ease, self-indulgence, and luxurious living. It seems as if the more God gives a man, then the less return he is inclined to offer.

Whatever the secret sin of the church may be, let us try to discover it, and then by the aid of the Holy Spirit endeavor to educate all our members to work for the Lord. There must be a continual insisting upon the personal obligations of Christians. We who are known as Baptists are of opinion that baptism, as the personal act of a believer, is a good lesson to our people as to their personal responsibilities; but I will not for a moment suppose that my Pædobaptist brethren are less earnest in enforcing the same truth. You also believe firmly in personal religion, you teach the need of personal faith and consecration. Then we are agreed upon the great benefit of urging upon each man the duty of personal work for Christ. "What are you doing for Jesus?" is a question to be asked of all. We must make every believer feel that he is not his own, but bought with a price; that no amount of giving can compensate for personal labor for his Lord; that even he who by sickness and infirmity cannot actually work should render his contribution to the general effort by continual prayer. No one must appear before the Lord empty, but either by active or passive service, each must prove his gratitude to God.

And then, while each is responsible, neglect by one is injurious to the common service of the whole. I saw a cart standing this morning on the roadside with one wheel chained; there was no fear of its moving with that one wheel chained. Sometimes one chained wheel in a church will hinder all. We are all parts of a great machine, and the stopping of one part does not simply mean the one stoppage, but the hindering of the whole organization. If a piece of bone in the body becomes dead, it is not simply useless, but it becomes the focus of harm, and the cause of pain. It begins to decay, disease forms, and serious evil comes of it to the entire frame. A dead professor who is content to enjoy the doctrines, without fulfilling the precepts of the gospel, becomes a source of serious danger in the church of Jesus Christ, and we know it to be indeed so.

My brethren, dwell upon the importance of the enterprise in which we are engaged; and so act as to make others feel its importance. Why take all that trouble about arguing a doubtful point of divinity, which is of no earthly use when the argument is finished? Why all that Sunday morning spent in discussing far-fetched points of belief? What is this, but sheer trifling? Some are greatly given to what they call "thinking" "dreaming" is the truer word. Better by half, to plunge the old gospel sword at once into men's hearts and slay their sins in the name of the Lord--than stand quibbling about certain trifles. One sermon about nothing, will do more harm than all your speculations will do good. Men come to forget that the gospel is meant to save souls, and look upon it as a mass of interesting subjects. Certain sermons are said to be "intellectual treats," I think that is what I have heard them called. Our religion does not mean that, it means fighting with sin; it is, if anything at all, one of real downright practical work for Jesus Christ; and we must show that it is so. Our teaching in elaborate language will make our people think that practical godliness is a small matter, and that intellect is better than piety. We must make men feel that to save a soul is better than to possess all knowledge, or even to gain the whole world! While others are making a new gospel, then let us labor to save souls by the old one. May God enable us to preach in awful earnest, and by this means, God the Holy Spirit quickening us, we shall get all our people to march forward to the battle of their God!

Above all, let us pray for more grace. We must never read the story of old times and say, "What a splendid denomination ours has been, can we not rest on our laurels?" Impossible! You must win fresh ones. Napoleon used to say, "Conquest has made me what I am, and conquest must maintain me"; and it is so with Christians. You must advance; you must outdo the exploits of the past, and eclipse the deeds of your sires--or you will show yourselves unworthy of them. The battle thickens, and how shall we meet the growing demands upon us, except by seeking for sevenfold grace? Our spiritual stamina needs to be increased. If we were to collect a number of men, all wheezing and coughing, and only fit for the Hospital, and set them to work upon a railway, we might commend them for their diligence, but they would never accomplish much. On the other hand, gather together a company of burly, brawny men, and they will say, "Who are you, O strong mountain?" and, before it can answer, it will be turned to a plain! See how they use the pick and the shovel! Vital strength is their motive force. O God, strengthen us! We are willing, some of us, but our strokes are feeble! Grant us, we beseech you, more of your Holy Spirit--and we shall accomplish great things. Strength delights in work, feebleness is afraid of it. Spiritual strength, will produce universal spiritual service for the Lord Jesus Christ.

I am done when I have looked into the future for a moment. If it should ever come to pass that the minister and all his people went forth to the war for King Jesus, then what would happen? I seem to be in paradise when I think of it! If all, without exception, who name the name of Jesus, went earnestly into his vineyard, then what life there would be, and what unity in all the churches! There would be no longer a name to live, but real living! There would be no divisions if all were alike zealous for the glory of the common Master. You would not hear of church meetings which are scenes of disturbance, and churches where pastors are unhappy--such things would be regarded as extinct animals of the ages gone by.

Then we would hear no complaints of our not being strong enough to do the work of our great cities and scattered hamlets. The very feeblest church, if everyone did his share, would be strong enough for its position. Moreover, there would be no lack of funds for any holy enterprise. Ah, if God's treasure received from all, as it receives from some, then we would almost have to tell the people to stay their hands, because we should scarcely know how to use all their gifts. But the wealth which belongs to Christ and the service kept back from him, canker in men's coffers, and the amount of which the Lord is robbed is almost beyond computation. The missionary societies, very well sustained on the whole, do not receive more than a tenth or a hundredth part of what God's people ought to give to so divine a work. If the merchant prince who contributes what is thought to be a handsome sum to Christ, only gave in the same proportion as many a pious girl who has to earn her living at so many stitches for a penny, and if all gave as the few are giving, then we would soon supply all nations with missionaries.

And if this, were the case, what enterprises would be undertaken? What overflowings of Christian zeal would we perceive? We would be sending out messengers to discover every region which remained unsubdued, and we would at once be up and doing. Then the mission field would be strong with men of noblest fitness. I do not know how you think about it, but it does seem strange to me that we here in this little island are so close packed together, and yet a few scores or hundreds only go into the mission field.

"Some of us have large spheres here, and we cannot be expected to go, can we?" I answer, the ablest preacher that ever lived is not too good for missionary work; the most useful man at home, is probably the fittest for the foreign field. Let us each question his own heart, as to the claims of the heathen: for my own part, I dare not sleep until I have honestly considered whether I ought to go or not. We tell our young men in the College t,hat they must prove that they have not to go, or else their duty is clear. If some of the men of Israel had said to Joshua, "We cannot go to Ai," Joshua would have replied, "You must prove that you cannot go, or you may not be excused."

All other things being equal, ministers should take it for granted that it is their duty to invade new territory unless they can prove to the contrary. When I think of the number of young men who are well educated, and can read a capital paper at the Mechanics' Institution, and profess to be regenerated by the Holy Spirit, it grieves me to see their talents dedicated so largely to baser ends. Oh, bleeding Lamb, it does seem strange that we have a greater passion for literature, than for you! more care for fleeting trifles, than for enduring things!

France is needing the gospel. See what one beloved brother in Paris has been able to do--are there none who can do the like for other cities in that neighbor country? Here and there a good man can say, "I have made a competency" why not live and employ it where you can lay it out personally for the spread of the Redeemer's kingdom? Such a thing is being done by a few, it is not therefore impossible, and you who follow the grand example shall have your reward.

See what Pastor Harris did in the village of Hermansburg, how he stirred up all the people until they gave themselves and their property to the Lord, and built a ship for the mission and went forth in it to Africa, company after company, to evangelize. Should it not be the ambition of a minister to feel that if he stays at home he will at least, by the Holy Spirit's help, produce missionaries by scores in the village where he labors. I know the day comes that he will be thought most happy, who suffered and labored most for Christ. When this great fight is over, then he who is most scarred will be most honored, and he who dwelt at home at ease will think himself but sparsely blessed, because he put not in for his share of the war. Let us be all at work for Christ and his redeemed church! All at work, at all times, and in all ways for Christ! It is for that I plead; and then we will take another motto and say--the world for Christ, and Christ for every nation under Heaven! This will be accomplished when the Spirit has aroused us all. O blessed Spirit, convert the church--and it will convert the world!