IT is sadly possible for such a question as that with which I have headed these remarks virtually to have a place in the mind. We may be so occupied, I may say, so selfishly occupied, with Christ, as to have little concern for His many members. It is, in fact, what we all of us have known, more or less, and legitimately known, while the question was as to personal security from the wrath to come. The soul under a sense of sin can have no thought hardly but for itself; but when once Christ has been revealed by the Holy Ghost as all our salvation, and that some of the trials connected with the confession of His name are experienced, especially such trials as spring from our fellow Christians, as Paul says, “Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches” (2 Cor. 11:2828Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. (2 Corinthians 11:28)), we are tempted to shut ourselves up, to leave all this in the very fretfulness of our hearts, to take its chance, to be indifferent to the sorrows and perplexities of our brethren, and be so selfishly occupied with Christ, as though we were not members one of another. This, I am sure, is wrong. Whatever interests Christ ought to interest us, and if we have received from God any truth that has been overlooked, we should seek to walk in it, at every cost. We have been gathered out of the world to Christ. He is the mold into which everything that will stand must fit. To Him we are called to be subject as Son over His own house, whose house are we. His word contains everything we want for direction as to the way in which we are to behave ourselves in His house; and nothing should be allowed by us which either practically denies that the Church is “one body,” or, that it is the place where the Holy Ghost claims free action to suggest, control, and direct. Our calling is a heavenly one; our place of worship is in heaven, into which we have liberty of access, at all times, by the blood of Jesus. (Heb. 10) The way is a narrow one, and, in one sense, becomes narrower day by day; but as light from God shines thereon, and in the power of the Holy Ghost we walk by faith in that path which has been cast up for us in Christ, we prove that it is a wealthy place and a pleasant way. Sin has been rolled off the conscience, and the peace of God rules in the heart, for Jesus is there; and our allegiance to Him demands from us a laying aside of every weight, and a jealous guard over His name. Downright heresy is often more easy to deal with, and less dangerous, than liberalism in things concerning the Christ of God, and the walk of faith in the house of God.
But is it not possible to be jealously watchful over the integrity of the truth, and the holiness of the Church, while Christ Himself is really excluded, for the time being, from the mind? May not these things be paramount, and CHRIST HIMSELF have the second place in our esteem? yea, be depreciated in one of His members who loves Him, and walks with Him; while the creature, the mere flesh in another, is exalted, and drawn to our bosom, because his light and zeal lead him in the same path with ourselves, while little savor of Christ sweetens our intercourse. Oh! my brethren, can we be so deluded, so ignorant of our hearts, as to suppose that such things could not be? Too easily, indeed, do we know that the mind of a Christian may be so taken up with the things concerning the Church of God, and with the discipline of His house, as practically to forget and deny His lordship on whose shoulder the government is. If we find anything, however good in its place, taking us away from Christ, it must be the devil’s doing, working on our self-important, legal hearts. The mind may get so filled with the responsibility of the Christian as to forget, yea, even to deny the responsibility of the Church’s Head; we may be so scrupulously, self-righteously careful about our walk, as to get away from Christ. It is therefore important to have it kept uppermost in our minds―and the Holy Ghost alone can do it―that it is by grace we are saved from first to last; that if we are now blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, it is according as we were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world; that if we are now the adopted children of God, we were predestinated thereto (Eph. 1:8-6); that if we are called to keep ourselves in the love of God, it is God alone who can keep us from falling (Jude 21, 2421Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. (Jude 21)
24Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, (Jude 24)); that if we have the will to serve Him, it is He who works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure (Ph. 2); that if we prove the genes of our faith by good works (James 2:1717Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. (James 2:17)), we are created in Christ unto good works, “which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:1010For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)); and that, in fast, from first to last, our salvation and all connected with it, is grounded on the electing love of God, the finished work of Christ in behalf of those who were given Him by the Father (John 17), and the sovereign energy of the Holy Ghost revealing Christ in them by the word, and then enabling those who have thus received Him by faith, to walk in Him (Col. 2:66As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: (Colossians 2:6)); “from whom the whole body fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.” (Eph. 4:1616From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. (Ephesians 4:16).) “Of Him, through Him, and to Him, are all things” (Rom. 11:3636For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen. (Romans 11:36)), “who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus, before the world began.” (2 Tim. 1:99Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, (2 Timothy 1:9).)
We must not in the fretfulness of the flesh quarrel with the truth of God, because of the trials which the confession thereof necessarily brings with it; but we need to be warned, and to tell our own hearts, that there may be a miserable, barren orthodoxy, and a self-righteous hardness of heart in those who most scrupulously regulate their conduct by the precepts of the word; because self, in some deceptive form, occupies the conscience instead of Christ; while man’s energy, and not the power of the Holy Ghost, is at work. And since all Christian fellowship is, in the reality of it, the fellowship of life through the Holy Ghost in one and the other of the members of Christ, it follows, that there may be, and often is, more real, happy, soul-elevating fellowship with those who may not be of one mind with ourselves on many important points, but who are really and experimentally occupied with Christ, instead of their religious system; while those whose church position is more religiously true, are often barren and unsavory in their conversation, because their minds are more occupied with their church position, responsibility, obedience, or testimony, than their hearts are with the living Christ Himself.
It is possible also to get so taken up with theories of prophetic interpretation, and mere biblical knowledge, as to make it too manifest that the cross of Christ is not the neighborhood in which we live, and then we may well suspect that all is not right. If the matter of justification is settled; if we are reconciled to God through the blood of the cross, reconciled in the conscience, I mean, and that the peace of God rules in the heart, then let us with girded loins hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1:1818Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; (1 Peter 1:18).) Let us, by God’s grace, and by all means, forget the things which are behind, and reach forth unto those things which are before (Phil. 3:1313Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, (Philippians 3:13)); but it is only in the light of the cross that we can appreciate the glory; it is only as we die daily with Christ that the hope of the glory will have any sanctifying effect on our walk. May we walk in Christ, then there will be a savor of Christ which will make it more manifest that we know Him, and that our profession is a reality, than all our lofty pretensions, spiritual aspirations, and exact attention to precepts can do. Yet let it not be thought that we would disregard a tender, conscientious respect unto all that is written. Departure from the word has always been the fruitful source of divisions and heresies. If we really do love the Lord, we shall not turn a deaf ear to any of His words, or to the words of His apostles, which, in fact, are also His words.
Brethren, the days are dark, and the heart is deceitful, and our adversary is busy. Let us seek righteousness, seek meekness. Let us consider Jesus Christ, who hath loved us and given Himself for us; and we must love Him. Let us cleave to Him and hearken to His voice, and then we shall love His brethren 4nd our brethren without compromising the truth; for to walk in Christ is to walk in truth as well as in love.