THE apostle here speaks of the manner of the love of Christ. He can in another place tell of His love as an individual thing to himself, and each of us can well say with him " He loved me, and gave himself for me,"
Now, it is important for us to see how far we have entered into this love. No doubt the love is there, but when we enter into it is only when we in some measure enter into His own sphere -there where there is nothing to hinder our acquaintance with Him. But we find that we are often occupied with a great deal that is connected with Christ and connected with ourselves, and yet that is not Christ. Of course, we are all at first occupied with the service, but it is a greater thing to be occupied with the One who did the service. The woman who touched the hem of His garment had an immense idea of Christ: she wanted to touch One who had not only such power for perfect blessing, but who also so delighted to communicate the blessing. " If I may but touch his garment, I shall be made whole." She had an immense idea of what He was-of what God in His nature was; as it says, " He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."—" If I may but touch his garment."
But more than this. She has not got to His love yet, though she has got to His service. But she has to do more than that; the Lord will not let her stop 'there. Perhaps no one in this room has ever had a greater idea of the Lord Jesus Christ, ready to serve. the suffering and the helpless, than she had; but she has not reached the knowledge of His heart. Do you mean to tell me that there are not people on earth who have touched His garment for healing to their souls, and yet who have never known His heart? I hope to show you that there is a very different result when we have reached His love. I propose to bring before you cases of persons in different states of soul with regard to this, so that each may have an opportunity of seeing to which class he belongs, and that we may thus be shown how the difficulty is met, and the soul brought into conscious relation with the heart of Christ. The knowledge of Christ's love culminates in heaven. If I want to know the Father's love, the Son teaches me, If I would know Christ's love, in heaven it passes knowledge. The first Scripture I call your attention to is Gen. 1. (Read verses 15-21.)
Now this passage alludes primarily to the restoration of Israel to Christ in the day when He shall be made known to them, and they will be made sensible of what His love is. But it also brings before us a class of souls that has not yet reached the knowledge of the love of Christ, though they have of the service of Christ. This knowledge does not come at the moment of reaching His service. When the children of Israel put the blood on the door-post, did they enter into the fact that the lamb, had to be roasted with fire? No; it was afterward. And Paul, did he know at first the work of Christ, and why- he was not consumed in the glory? No; it was in those three days during which he was " without sight, and neither did eat nor drink." It was then he was made to enter into all the judgment of the law-into what Christ went through for sin; it was then he learned how God could bring one like him into His own presence.
In this passage in Genesis we have a beautiful figure of the gospel. Jacob sends Joseph to see how his brethren fare, and they first cast him into a pit and then sell him to the Ishmaelites, who carry him down, into Egypt, where he is first a slave and then a prisoner before being raised to the throne. With the famine there come the tidings of relief, and the brothers go down to Egypt, and find there is food to be got from Joseph only. He receives them, and they live upon his bounty for seventeen years; but they never knew his heart all this time, though they enjoyed his service. And do you not think souls go on in the state of not knowing what Christ is? If these brethren had been asked what they thought of Joseph, they would have said, there never was such a brother. Had they ever got at his heart? Never. This does not come until the father dies -until death supervenes; and then they are brought into the terrible light. They never had a disclosure of his heart until now; both things come out together: " We did unto thee evil," and " Joseph wept when they spake unto him." And he says, " As for you, ye -thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Now therefore fear ye not." And then it adds, " I will nourish you, and your little ones "-I will now let you into the depths of love that are in my heart. 'And " he comforted them, and spake to their hearts."
There is an entirely new sense, a new link as to Christ, that the brethren have got into here. They have reached his heart, the spring of all, and they can say, All my interests are His. Just as the Lord says to Zaccheus, " Come down, for to-day I must abide at thy house; " we are going to God's house, but until we get there He will come to ours. He says, " I will nourish you, and your little ones;" weak things that you cannot look after, I will. Practically,-it is what the soul knows when it receives the Holy Ghost " The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."
There are only three classes, however, which I wish to bring before you this evening; and in the first of these I see my guilt. There was a time, whatever you may be now, when you did not like to hear the name of Christ spoken of;. there was a time when you did not relish it; there was a time when, though you would not say anything offensive to the one who did so, for you were too well brought up for that, yet you could not tolerate him-and what was that but hatred 2-" He that hateth his brother is a murderer."
The real loss in souls is that they have, never got to Christ. They have never come to close quarters. As the woman: when she saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and fell down before Him, and " He said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace." I see it continually in people, and I say you never have been close to Him yet; there is a screen between you and Him For that very reason I think God sometimes brings people almost to death, that they may know what it is to be outside everything with Christ alone. It is, He says, that you have not touched my heart, and it is with many a soul as with the bride in the Canticles, " I sleep, but my heart waketh; " and the Lord will not let them stay in such a state. A sense of depression often comes over the soul from the fear that sin is not gone. As in the case of the widow of Sarepta: she may have been saying, What a blessed woman I am, to have had a prophet in my house all these three hundred and sixty-five days; but the moment her child dies, she says, " What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son? " This after he had shown such continual interest in her! But death has to come in to teach her the resurrection and the life.
Well, this is the first class I alluded to: the soul must get the sense of the guilt of its nature. It is not a question of what you have done, but it is yourself; and you cannot get the sense of what that is until you get the know` ledge that it is all gone in the death of Christ; and then you say, What a wretch I am to have to do with this blessed One; but I have learned what His heart is. Just as Peter, when he had lost all self-respect, went out and wept bitterly.
I next turn to Luke 5, where I get another class, a class which is brought out in Peter leaves all to follow Him-the practical effect of learning what the love of Christ is.
The third class I. bring before you is where the heart deepens in His love. John 11:3333When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, (John 11:33). It is very important to understand that I never know what the love -of Christ is till I learn it where every human stay is gone I first see it when I am criminal, as did Joseph's brethren; next in all that is good, like Peter. But now death comes in; and who is to bear me up?
My impression is that Mary had some doubt of His love, for she cheered up at once when she heard He was come, And had called for here. Martha had doubts of His power. It is a terrible thing in sorrow to have doubts, misgivings of His love. What is, here set forth is how the Lord makes known His heart at such a time: it is always in the breakdown of man, for it is man that is always in the way; so-5 as is said, " Man's extremity is God's opportunity." The case is hopeless. Who, will come in to comfort the heart? I will, says the Lord; and " Jesus wept." When He saw Mary weeping He sympathized with her. With Martha He does not sympathize, because she is not subject to His word. So He talks to Martha, but He walks with Mary; He does not neglect any. He does not say a word of His power; it is only His love. And He does not say, as most likely should have done, Dry up your tears, for I am going to raise him in a few minutes. No; " he groaned in his spirit; He said, I know more deeply than you do what a terrible thing it is that is here. I see the most beautiful, the most wonderful thing that I ever made, gone down into death before my eyes. So it is the Son of God that is glorified here, whereas in the next chapter it is the Son of man, for He goes down into death Himself. He says here, You have lost the human heart, the arm of flesh that Was your comfort; but I will teach you what a perfect eternal heart is; I will each you how I can enter into all the depths of your sorrow; I will show you that there is One who can be even nearer to you than Lazarus was; and you shall be able yet to go through the wilderness, saying to Lazarus, I have learned how I can do without you, for He was sufficient for me when you were gone; and now I have got you too. The Lord loves to make His people perfectly happy.
In the next chapter we find the- most wonderful scene of conviviality that I suppose there ever was upon this earth. Mary is the only one who comes in with a discordant note. She says, I will speak of death; I will anoint Him for His burying; and as He is going down into death, there is nothing precious to me upon earth that I will not cast into His grave. The alabaster box in Luke is for a living Christ; that in John is for a dead one. All goes in the tomb with Him. Like. Ruth, she can say, " Where thou diest will I—die, and 'there will I be buried."
I need not give- any more examples; if you take these three classes and exercise your soul upon them, you will come to the simple conclusion that it all consists in getting near to Him, the great effect in every one of the cases is that man is out, and that Christ becomes the great and only joy-the one singular object of the heart. You say, I- know what a desperate thing my nature is-how criminal, how unsuitable, and how desolate. Talk of not being criminal! I know I am. Talk of not being desolate! I know I am. Talk of not being unsuitable! I know I am. But He has been known in His' love in each breakdown of myself. I now just pass on to the climax, which we find in Eph. 3 The apostle's. prayer here is not prior to the believer being in heaven, but on his reaching this wonderful standing in consequence of Christ being there-; and the result is the desire that he may supersede everything. It is exactly like Jacob having come to Bethel-he was not confirmed in the name of Israel until he got there; so until you come to heaven you will not be able to enter into the wondrous fact of what Christ is to you. He prays " that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height." It is not like the first chapter, that you "may know what is the hope of his calling," but that you. may be able to enter into the fullness of that scene into which wisdom has brought you, and " know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, and be filled into all the fullness of God." Christ is that. He asks that you may get deeper sense of what Christ is to you.
Very few read the Canticles without being pleased with them; but really we ought to be a great way beyond the Canticles. The bride there longs to know more of Him, and is only happy in His company; and, I would ask, is the believer now only happy in His company?
The difference between the Canticles and the present moment is that I have now what is not to be found in them; I have union to Christ by the Holy Ghost; and what is the use to me of that if I have not His company 2 If I cannot be in concert with Him now, I prefer to be Mary Magdalene, who said, I cannot live with but Him. You may say she was very "ignorant-did not know resurrection; but I do. ask, is the company of the Lord Jesus as necessary to you as it was to her? If not, I tell you you may have more intelligence but you have less heart, and I would sooner have heart any day than intelligence. Always go upon your heart rather than your intelligence; for John had more intelligence than Mary, but the Lord communicated His mind at first to Mary, and not to John. It is to the one who has most heart that you always make communications about yourself, for you can reckon upon his love. And what shall I discover in His company? Why, all His love-that love which passeth knowledge.
I allude briefly to one passage more, as showing what a relief the soul has in leaning on this love as it goes through the world. It is Rom. 8:3535Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? (Romans 8:35). " Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword? As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors; through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
The Lord lead us, beloved friends, every one of us, to know more of the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, for His name's sake. Amen.
(J. B. S.)