CO 11:2-4{Is it not seasonable, dear fellow-believer, ill these days in which our lot is cast, to warn one another to keep our minds in-corrupt in the simplicity that is in Christ.
In the preparation-season, to which the present age is analogous, Eve was getting ready, under the forming hand of God, for Adam, and for Adam only. Adam slept for Eve, and Eve was made for Adam. So with Christ and the church. lie slept in death for us, and we are preparing, under the Holy Ghost, for Him. " I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." (2 Cor. 2:22For if I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me glad, but the same which is made sorry by me? (2 Corinthians 2:2).) As he says also in Gal. 4:1919My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, (Galatians 4:19), " My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you ": Christ, and Christ only, Christ in His precious sufficiency for a sinner, in answer to the Hagar or Galatian thought of " days, and months, and times and years," that other gospel which yet is not another.
But this is assailed. The Gospel in its claim on the sinner to give his undivided confidence to Christ, has been abroad on the lips of many witnesses, to the gladdening of thousands of souls. The enemy has watched and hated this. Working in the scene in which he goes " to and fro " and walks " up and down " (job 1:77And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. (Job 1:7)), he is busy to seduce the heart from this Gospel. And is not his success far beyond the measure of the fears of any of us? The religion of fleshly confidences or of ordinances is to this hour among us. It admits of worldliness; and worldliness is, at this same hour, flourishing in company with it,. There is the erection of temples for worship, and of palaces for the worshippers; stricter care to observe, in its season, due attendance in the sanctuary, together with unparalleled skill and energy and enterprise in advancing the indulgence and elegance of human life, so as to make the world a desirable and safe place to live in-a place where religion may now be seen to be observed and honored.
This is seductive from the principle of faith-this is corruption of the mind from the simplicity that is in Christ. The Gospel addresses itself to man, not only as a guilty but as a religious creature. It finds him under the power of superstition or religiousness, as well as of sin. It is as natural for man to refuse to go " into the judgment-hall lest he should be defiled," as it is, in very enmity of heart to God, to cry out, " Crucify Him, crucify Him." (John 18:28; 19:628Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the passover. (John 18:28)
6When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him: for I find no fault in him. (John 19:6).) And the Gospel gets as stern a refusal from the religious man as from the lustful man. As the Divine Teacher tells us, the harlot goes into the kingdom before the Pharisee.
Religious vanities are deeply playing their part in our day, and fascinating many souls. What answer, fellow-believer, do you and I give them? Is JESUS so precious that no allurement has power? Is the virgin of the new mind still kept? and as chaste ones are we still betrothed to Christ only? Like the newly-formed Eve, are we in our place of earliest, freshest presentation to our Lord? or have we, apart from His side, opened our ear to the serpent?
The kingdom of heaven is as a supper, a royal, joyous feast got ready for sinners, that they might taste and see that the Lord is good, and that blessed is the man that trusteth in Him. It does not put God in the place of a receiver, for man to bring Him His due; but it puts Him in the place of a Giver, and man is called to value His blessing. But the question is, Who listens, with desirous heart, to the bidding Who wears " the wedding garment?" Who prizes Christ? Who triumphs in His salvation? Who longs for the day of His espousals? John had this garment on him, knowing, as he did, the joy of being the Bridegroom's friend (John 3:2929He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled. (John 3:29)). It was flowing at liberty on Mary's shoulders, as she " sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word " (Luke 10:3939And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word. (Luke 10:39)). Paul tucked it tight about him when he said, " God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord, Jesus Christ (Gal. 4:1414And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. (Galatians 4:14)). The eunuch had just put it on as " he went on his way rejoicing " in the faith of the name of JESUS (Acts 8:3939And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing. (Acts 8:39)). Every sinner adorns himself with it the moment his heart values Christ. And what joy is it thus to know that when we put on Christ it is not "sackcloth " we put on, nor is it " the spirit of heaviness" we enter into; but " a wedding garment " has clothed us, and with " the spirit of praise " we array our spirits!
Have we thus learned "the kingdom of heaven "? Have we, in spirit, entered it as a banqueting-hall over which waves the love of JESUS as a banner, where both magnificence and joy welcome us? Are we, consciously, guests at the marriage of a King's Son? Have we learned the mysteries of the faith? Have we meditated upon these things"? (1 Tim. 4:1515Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. (1 Timothy 4:15).) Has the musing over them kindled a fire in the heart to burn up the chair of worldly rudiments? Paul had this element in his soul as he traveled through Greece. And how did the glow of these mysteries address itself to '' the princes of this world " there? It consumed them all. " Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? 'Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?" (1 Cor. 1) Precious ardor of the Spirit! What a pile was thus fired in the famed cities of the learned and the wise! and how were all the thoughts of men thrown as rubbish into it!
And how did he treat the rudiments of the religious world? He bore the same fervent sense of Christ with him into their regions, to test what chaff and dross were there. In Galatia he found much of it; but he spared none of it. Though an angel from heaven gather such rubbish; though Peter himself help in the work; though the Galatians, who once would have plucked out their own eyes for him, be enticed, nothing could stand before the heat of the Spirit that bore him onward. "O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you?.... Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you."
Could he do less? Could he carry JESUS in his heart, and calmly stand and measure his light with the lights of Greece, or God's great Ordinance with man's traditions?
It is to make much of Christ we want beloved fellow-believer—much of HIMSELF, and His glorious achievements for sinners.
We want simplicity now in that sense of the word—the breathings of a soul content with HIM, and the peace of a conscience forever at rest in the sufficiency of His work.
" WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST?"