You find two parables (Matt. 25) that treat this quite in a different way—the Virgins and the Talents; one, the state of affections; the other, the activities of service. Anyone can understand this. The Lord gives us Himself the character that He looks for and likes. We are to be watching. He says, you must be all alive! you must have your loins girded! you must be watching while I am away, and when I do come, then I will have things my own way. I will make those watching servants sit down to meat, and I will serve them. The Lord has made Himself a servant forever. When a mother is nursing her sick son, her delight will be to do all sorts of unpleasant, disagreeable things for him sooner than let anyone else do them, because it is love that makes her.
When He made Himself a servant, He came down to do it. Well, His coming down was glory. But we should have all said-naturally, when He was going away, Well, there is an end of service now; He is going to glory. No! when He is going out of the world He says, as it were, Do you think I am going to leave off serving you? Not at all I am not going to give you up, if I cannot stay down here to have a part with you. You must have a part with me where I am going, and so I must wash your feet.
This was not blood; this was water. A soul, though really regenerate, wants to be kept clean by the way. When He goes away into glory He becomes the Advocate, as it is expressed. A soul sins, and He sets about to restore it. We do want our feet washed with water. “Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.” Peter has learned his own weakness, and the Lord has prayed for him. That is what he was going to do in heaven.
He says, when I have things in my way I shall not expect you to serve me any longer; I shall come out and serve you then. And that is what was meant figuratively, when in Ex. 20 He said, “I love my wife and I love my children; I will not go out free.” He had served perfectly down here, and then He says, I love them right on to the end; He girds Himself and becomes a servant forever. It is His glory really, but it is put as a figure in that way. He is Himself the loving, blessed minister of all the happiness that is in heaven. What hearts we have, compared to the love that Christ has to us! The consciousness of our wretchedness makes it hard for us to believe that it can be Christ’s delight to serve us forever! But, as I have often said, love delights to serve, selfishness to be served. Christ delights to show us that God is love. If I want to know what the Father is, the answer is, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” It is the Son coming and bringing perfect, blessed, divine love to our hearts, that we may be done with ourselves and know God! It is a great thing when the heart can say, “We have known God, or, rather, are known of him.” As I have often said to infidels, Though I am a poor creature, yet I know God. I have met Him, and have found Him all love, and I know Him a great deal better than I know myself. I am never sure of myself, such a poor creature as this. Though I love your souls today, tomorrow I may not care a bit about them. Who put it into God’s heart to love the world? There are two kinds of affection in the world, love up, and love down. Of course God’s love is love down. If I love a noble thing it is a noble affection; if I love God, so far as it goes, it is a perfect affection. I learn what is good in loving Him.
It is His delight and joy to minister to your necessities. I will take a very common illustration known to you all, in Luke 15. Who was happy in finding the sheep? Was it the sheep or the shepherd? Of course it was a good thing for the sheep. And who was happy that the piece of money was found? Was it the piece of money or the woman who found it? And when the prodigal son came back to his father, who was the happy one—the Father or the prodigal? Of course it was a good thing for the prodigal to have the calf instead of the husks, but the happiness is described as being the Father’s.
Peter says to Him, “Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all?” I have had a man watching, and now I find a man serving, giving a portion of meat in due season. The one has the affections going out to Him; the other is serving; it may be the apostle, or it may be the smallest work of any Christian now; it may be even the giving of a cup of cold water. It is to be “holy, without blame before him in love,” always before God; that is what Christ was. Oh! you say, He was God! Well, and you? You are in Him. Now I am an heir—I am a child in the house, and if I am a son, I am an heir. Of course the greatest blessing is to be an heir, and in heaven it will be all positive enjoyment. If I have a right Christian heart, what will be my next joy to seeing Himself? It will be to see you all like Him. My next joy to seeing Christ Himself will be the seeing that He has the travail of His soul and is satisfied; not His own personal glory that He had before the foundation of the world, but the seeing every one of us—what a thing! —not one single saint but will satisfy the heart of Christ!
Now, beloved friends, let me ask, does all this awaken desires in your hearts? or are you still under the power of the world, and saying, My Lord delays His coming? I do not doubt a moment that that coming is hastening on. What a comfort it is to have one single object before you; to have your eyes looking right on, and your eyelids straight before you! There is this kingdom that cannot be moved, and there is the promise that everything shall be shaken. I find that word, “Yet once more,” because the things that are shaken are what cannot stand God’s presence. Now, have you what cannot be moved? Has Christ such hold on your heart that you can say, Let everything else go, I have got Christ? Have you first, simple, full, distinct, clear persuasion by faith that the first coming of Christ has wrought perfect, full salvation for you? and when that is settled I must know if I care enough for Him to wish for His coming again? If I were to hear that a great Russian prince was coming to R—, do you think I would trouble myself about it? But supposing I knew that my mother was coming—why, I would go down to the pier at once to meet her.
The heart must be set upon Christ Himself, and then the longing of the Spirit and of the Bride says, Come. What kind of a bride would that be who did not look for the Bridegroom’s coming? If your heart is not properly fixed, looking for the Bridegroom, your heart is not right with Christ. It is not merely a feeling: it is the Spirit who is down here; it is “the Spirit and the Bride say, Come; and let him that heareth say, Come; and let him that is athirst come: and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” Christ is the first object; then the saints who have the desire awakened; and then it goes out to all the world.
Now, can your hearts say, Come? Of course there are true reasons for delay; but may our hearts be so set upon Him, that we may be amongst those to whom the Lord, when He comes, will bring the blessing, promised to those who are found “watching.”
(Concluded from p. 40).