No. 3030
A Sermon Published on Thursday, March 7th, 1907,
Delivered By C.H. Spurgeon,
At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington,
During the Year 1864
“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.” — Colossians 2:6.
THOUGH the shepherd cares for the lambs, and carries them in his arms, he doth not cease his care when they become sheep; but, so long as they shall need to be tended, so long will he watch over them. Hence it is that our apostle, though always quick of eye after newborn souls, and abundantly anxious to bring sinners to a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, is equally in a conflict of soul for the spiritual healthfulness of those who have been born again. Our text contains one of those loving-admonitions. It is addressed, not to the ungodly, not to those who are strangers to our Lord and Master, but to those who have “received Christ Jesus the Lord.” Longing for their spiritual good, and anxious that they shall be stablished in the faith, he admonishes them thus, “As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.”
In endeavoring, by God’s help, to speak upon this subject, we all have three points. There is here, first, a fact stated concerning believers: they have “received Christ Jesus the Lord.” Then there is an exhortation, or a counsel, offered to such: “walk ye in him.” Besides which we have a model held up for our imitation. How are we to walk in him? Why, just in the same way as we at first received him. Let our first coming to Christ be to us the mirror of how we shall walk in him all our days.
I. All true Christians are here described in the text as HAVING RECEIVED CHRIST JESUS THE LORD.
The first point to which I would particularly direct, your attention is the personality of this reception. Believers have, it is true, received Christ’s words; they prize every precept, they value every doctrine; but this is not all. They have received Christ himself. While they have received Christ’s ordinances, and are not slow be walk in obedience to the things which he hath commanded, they do not stay here. They have received Christ himself — his person, his Godhead, and his humanity. They have “received Christ Jesus the Lord.” And, mark you, there is a very great distinction here, and a great mystery also. A great distinction, I say; for there are some who do, I think, even wholly believe the doctrines which Christ has taught, and am profoundly orthodox, add are full of an earnest controversial spirit for the faith once delivered to the saints; and yet, for all that, they do not seem to have received him, the very Christ of God; and, truly, there are many who have received both baptism and the Lord’s supper, yet, despite what any may say, we believe that they have not received Christ, but are still as great strangers to him as though they had only passed through the rites common to mankind, or the rites in which heathens indulge. There is a vast difference between the outward reception of the doctrine, or the ordinance, and the inward reception of Christ. We said also, that herein is a mystery, — such a mystery that only he who has received Christ can understand it. The preacher cannot tell you what it is to receive Christ. Human language is not adapted to convoy to the mind this deep enigma, this matchless secret. We know what it is, for “truly our followship is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ.” We can describe it in such a measure that our friends, who have also received Christ, will know that we understand the mystery; but to the carnal mind it will ever remain a puzzle how Christ can be “in us the hope of glory,” — how we can eat his flesh and drink his blood. They run away to some carnal interpretation, and suppose that the broil is turned into flesh at the Eucharist or that the wine is transformed into blood. That is carnal talk, and this they talk because they know not what is the mystery of this receiving Christ, and this walking in Christ.
This much, however, we may affirm. The believer has received Christ into his knowledge. He knows him to be God and to be Man. He knows him to be set forth of the Father as the Redeemer, but, he knows him also by a personal acquaintance. His eyes have not seen him, and yet he has looked to him, and has, by faith, seen the King in his beauty. His hands have not handled him, and yet, there has been a secret touch, by which the virtue has come out of Christ, and has flowed into him. He, has never sat down at a communion table when Christ has been physically present, and yet full often he could say, “He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.” He has talked with me as a man talketh with his friend; and the strongest sense that can be attached to that sweet word “communion” is tame in reference to the believer’s connection with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ; and in that sense of knowing him, intimately knowing him, the believer has received Christ.
Not only has he received Christ into his cognizance, but into his understanding. He understands, with all saints, the love of Jesus in its height, and depth, and length, and breadth. He has so seen Christ as to understand of him that he was before all time as the Ancient of Days, and then had his delights with the sons of men in the great covenant decree of electing love. He understands how he became made flesh with us, — married to us, when he came on earth, the Son of Mary, “bone of our bone, and flesh, of our flesh.” He knows by experience what is the meaning of the atonement. He can understand how justice is satisfied and grace, magnified. Without confounding or making mistakes, he knows how God was ever gracious and full of love and yet how Christ Jesus came, that the love of God might be shed abroad in our hearts, and we reconciled unto God by his death. Hence the Christian does not read of Christ as though he were a mere historical personage, nor of his work as a great mystery which he cannot comprehend; but he has received Christ into his understanding. Ah, beloved! this is a very poor and shallow sense compared with the next. I have received but one ounce of Christ into my understanding, but, bless his name, I have received the whole of him into my affections. Good Rutherford used to pray for a larger heart, that he might hold more of Christ; and perhaps you recollect that strange extravaganza of prayer in which he says, “Oh, that I had a heart as deep, and wide, and high as heaven, that I might hold Christ in it!” And then said he, “Since the heaven of heavens cannot contain him, oh, that I had a heart as vast as seven heavens, that I might get the whole of Christ into me, and hold him in my arms!” And truly, Christian, in one sense, you have taken all of Christ into your soul, have you not? Do you not love him, — not a part of him, but
the whole of him? I hope you can truly say to Christ, —
“Hast thou a lamb in all thy flock
I would disdain to feed?
Hast thou a foe, before whose face
I fear thy cause to plead?
“Thou know’st I love thee, dearest Lord
But oh, I long to soar
Far from the sphere of mortal joys,
And learn to love thee more.”
We must not leave this part of the subject without adding that the believer has received Christ into his trust, and this he did at his spiritual birth. He received Christ into the arms of his faith. He took Jesus Christ to be, henceforth, the unbuttressed pillar of his confidence, the one rock of his salvation, his strong castle and high tower. And, in this sense, every soul that is saved has “received Christ Jesus the Lord.”
Our text seems to point to a threefold character in which we have received Christ. We have received him as the Christ. My soul, hast thou ever seen him, as the Father’s anointed One, — as the chosen and sent One, ordained of old, — as One that is mighty, upon whom help should be laid? Hast thou seen him as God’s great High Priest, ordained as was Aaron, chosen of God from among men? Hast thou looked upon him as David did, as One chosen out of the people? We must accept Christ as the anointed One, and the right way thus to receive him is to receive him as the garments of Aaron received the oil that flowed from his head. Christ is the anointed One, and then you and I become anointed ones through the Holy Spirit which distils from him to us, and so we receive him as Christ.
And then he is called “Jesus”; and we must receive him as the Savior. “Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.” Justification is receiving Christ as Jesus; so is sanctification; only I think I must say justification and pardon receive Christ as Jesus, and sanctification receives him as Christ Jesus, both as the anointed One and the Savior. May you and I be daily delivered from sin, — the guilt and power of it, and so receive him as Jesus!
There is a peculiar emphasis about the next expression. The article is emphatic here, “Christ Jesus the Lord.” To me, if I receive Christ, he must be Lord, — not one of the lords that may have dominion over me, but the Lord, peculiarly and specially; and though hitherto other lords have had dominion over me, now I am to obey him, and him only. What sayest thou, professor? Hast thou received Christ, Jesus the Lord? Is thy will subject to his will! Dost thou desire only to act according to his bidding? Are his commands thy desire? Is his will thy will? Is he thy Lord? For, mark you, you can never truly receive him as Christ, or as Jesus, unless you receive him as the Lord. Thus, then, another sense in which we receive him is by subjecting ourselves entirely to him, sitting at his feet, wearing his yoke, taking up his cross, and bearing his reproach.
You will note that there is also, in this description of a Christian, the thought of his entire dependence. The apostle does not, say, “As ye have therefore fought for and won or earned Christ Jesus,” but, “as ye have therefore received him.” It is a stripping word, which divests the creature of everything like boasting. What is there to glory in if I be a receiver? The apostle in another place says, “If thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” The vessel that is filled under the flowing stream cannot boast, though it be never so full; for it was naturally empty, and owes its fullness to the stream. The beggar in the street, let him receive gold, yet cannot boast of the gold, because he is a receiver. He who gave must have the honor of the benefaction, — not the person who received. So let thy faith be never so strong, let thy confidence in Christ be never so glorious, thou hast nothing to boast of in it, for thou hast “received Christ Jesus.” Beloved, here is a test for us: is our religion a receiving religion, or is it a working and an earning religion? An earning religion sends souls to hell. It is only a receiving religion that will take you to heaven. You may tug, and toil, and do your best, and make yourselves, as you think, as holy as the best of the apostles; but when you have done your utmost, you have done nothing whatever. You have built a card-house, which shall soon fall down. But when you come, as an empty-handed sinner, having nothing of your own, and receive Christ Jesus, then you have bowed your will to God’s will; or rather, grace has bowed it, and you are saved, according to the Lord’s own word, “He that believeth on me is not condemned.” Thus you have dependence connected with the personality of the Christian’s faith.
We have also here certainty: “As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord.” Oh, how many Christians — I hope they are Christians — talk as if they really thought it was impossible to attain to any assurance of faith whatever! It is the fashion with some Christians to say, “Well, I hope,” and “I trust” and they have a notion that this is being very humble-minded; but to say, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him,” is thought, to be pride, The declaration of Job, “I knew that my Redeemer liveth,” or of the spouse in the Canticles, “My beloved is mine, and I am his; he feedeth among the lilies;” is thought to be vain presumption and boasting; but indeed, beloved, it is no such thing. Doubting is pride, but believing is humility. Let me prove it.
I think I used this illustration among you some little time ago. There are two children of one parent, and the father says to the two children, “On such a day, I intend to give you both a toy, which has been the object of your ambition for many a day.” Well, the older boy of the two sits down, and calculates that the present will be expensive, and he begins to doubt whether his father can afford to purchase it. He remembers many times in which he has offended his parent, or broken his parent’s commands, and, therefore, he doubts whether he shall ever have it. For he feels that he is unworthy; hence, he goes about the house without any joy, without any confidence. If anybody asks him whether his father will give hint this present or not, he says, “Well, I — I hope so. I trust so.” Now, there is his little brother, and the moment he heard that he was to have this present, he clapped his hands, and ran out to his companions, and said, “I am to have such-and-such a thing given me.” His brother checked him, “You are too presumptuous to say that.” “No,” said the little one, “for father said he would give these toys to us.” “Oh, but,” said the other, “remember that you and I have often broken his commands!” But he said he would.”
“Oh, but the thing is expensive!” “Ah but father said he would; and unless you can prove that my father tells lies, I shall go and rejoice in the bright hope that he will keep his promise.” Now, I think that the younger of the two is less presumptuous than his brother, for certainly it is a high presumption for a child to doubt the veracity of his parent. No matter how excellent your reasoning may seem to be, and how clear it may be to the eye of the flesh, it is always pride to doubt God; and to believe God, though to the carnal mind, which never can understand the bravery of faith, it may look like presumption, is always a badge of the truest, and most reverent humility. Beloved, you must know whether you are Christ’s or not. I exhort you not to give sleep to your eyes till you do know it. What! can you rest when you do not know whether you are saved or not? O sirs, can you sit down at your tables, and feast, — can you go about your daily business with this thought in your mind, “If I should drop down dead, I do not know whether I should be found in heaven or in hell?” I tell you nothing but, certainties will suit my soul. I hope I never shall rest comfortable while under a doubt of my interest in Christ. Doubts may come, these we can understand; but to be comfortable under doubts, we hope we never shall comprehend. No, nothing but to —
“Read my title clear
To mansions in the skies,” —
and give me joy and peace through believing. “Ye have received Christ the Lord.” Just pass the question round the gallery there, and ask yourselves down below, “Have I received Christ Jesus the Lord?” Say “Yes,” or “No,” and God help you to give the answer solemnly as in his sight!
II. As briefly as possible we turn to notice THE COUNSEL GIVEN: “As ye have therefore received Christ. Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.” There are three things suggested by the word “walk “ — continuance, progress, activity.
To walk in a certain way means continuing in it. Now, Christian, you took Christ to be your All-in-all, did you not? Well, then, continue to take him as your All-in-all. The true way for a Christian to live is to live entirely upon Christ. Living by frames and feelings is a dying form of life. “He lived by a feeling experience,” said one; said a poor method of living, too! Christians have experiences, and they have feelings; but, if they are wise, they Rover feed upon these things, but upon Christ himself. You took Christ to be your All-in-all at first. You did not then mix up your frames stud feedings with him; you looked entirely out of self to him. Well, near, continue in the same frame of mind. You sat down at the foot of the cross, and you said, —
“Now free from sin, I’ll walk at large
My Savior’s blood’s my full discharge;
At his dear feet myself I lay, —
A sinner saved, and homage pay.”
Well, then; keep there! Keep there! Never get an inch beyond that position. When you get sanctified, still look to Christ as if you were unsanctified. When you are on the verge of being glorified, look to him as if you were just newly come out of the hole of the pit. Hang upon Christ, you who are the best, just as though you were the worst. The same faith which saved Mary Magdalene, which saved Saul of Tarsus, must save you in the moment, when you shall be the nearest to the perfect image of Christ Jesus. It is “none but Jesus” now to your soul; let it be “none but Jesus, — none but Jesus,” as long as you live.
In walking, there is not only continuance, but also progress. After a man becomes a Christian, he has not to lay again the foundation, but he has to go on, and to advance in the divine life. Still, wherever he shall advance, he is always to say, “None but Christ! Christ is all.” Depend upon it, every inch of progress that you make beyond a simple reliance upon Lord Jesus Christ, will entail the painful necessity of your going back. If you begin to patch Christ’s robe of righteousness with the very best rags of your own, no matter how cleanly you may have washed them, every rag will have to be unravelled, and every stitch will have to be cut. There is the rock Christ Jesus. Some Christians begin building their own stages on the rock. How carefully they tie the timbers together, how neatly they plane and smooth them; and then riley get high up upon these stages that they have built, and they feel so happy, — they have such frames! Such feelings! such graces! such fullness! and they are inclined to look down upon those poor souls who are crying, “None but Jesus!” By-and-by, there comes a storm, and the edifice they have built begins to creak, and crack, and rock to and fro, and they begin to cry, “Ah! where are we now? Now we shall perish! Now Christ’s love begins to dry up! New he will fail us!” Nay, — no such thing! It is not Christ who is failing you; it is not the rock that is shaking, but what you have built upon the rock. Come down from the stage which you have built, and, as Job says, “embrace the rock for want of a shelter.” I believe those souls have the most safety and comfort who trust simply to Christ. Was it not Irving who said that he believed his good works had done him more harm than his bad works had done him, for his bad ones drove him to Christ, but his good ones led him to rely upon them? And, after all, are not our good works bad works, for is there not something in all of them to make us fly to the fountain of the Savior’s blood for cleansing?
“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him,” also implies activity. Christians are not to be lie-a-beds, nor for ever to sit still. There is an activity in religion, without which it is of little worth. Feed the hungry; clothe the naked; help the poor; teach the ignorant; comfort the miserable; but take care that, when you do all this, you do it in Christ, and for Christ, and let no thought of merit stain the act; let no reflection of getting salvation for yourself come in to mar it all, but in Christ Jesus walk day by day. Ah, brethren! if a thunderstorm were to come on just now while we are sitting here, and if the lightning should come flashing in at these windows, and run with its blue flame down these columns, you and I might begin to feel some alarm; and if one were struck dead in our presence in what kind of state would you and I like to he amidst such confusion and alarm? If I were to choose the words which I would like to say at such a moment, they would be these, —
“Nothing in my hand I bring;
Simply to thy cross I cling.”
You are on board ship in a steam just now; there goes a mast into the water; the beats have all drifted away; the ship is pretty sure to be dashed on yonder rock; pallor is on every cheek, and turmoil every side. What is your prayer as you kneel down? What are your thoughts? Do you think now about your sermons, about your visitings of the sick, about your prayers and your experiences? No! I tell you that they will seem to you to be nothing better than dross and dung when you are in suck a state of apprehension; but you will cling to Christ’s cross and be conveyed to heaven, let the stormy winds blow as they will. And if everything-were silent to night, could we hear nothing but the ticking of the watch, were we ourselves reclining on our death-pillow, while loving friends wiped the clammy sweat from our brow, surely we should each one wish to say —
“My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesu’s blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame;
But wholly lean on Jesu’s name:
On Christ, the solid reek, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.”
Well, walk ye in him just as ye would walk in the valley of the shadow of death, but walk on the mountain-tops of life’s activities.
II. Let us now say a few words on our third point, — THE MODEL WHICH IS PRESENTED TO US HERE. We are to walk in him as we received him.
And how did we receive him? Let us remember. You will not have to strain your memories much, for, methinks, though other days have mingled with their fellows, and, like coins worn in the circulation, have lost their impress, yet the day when you first received Christ will be as fresh as though it were newly minted in time. Oh, that first day!
“Dost mind the place, the spot of ground
Where Jesus did thee meet?”
Some of us can never forget either that place or that time. Well, how did we receive Christ?’
We received him very gratefully, having no claim whatever to his grace. We felt that we had done everything to deserve God’s wrath. We confessed that there was no merit in us, but we perceived that there was mercy in him.
“We saw One hanging on a tree
In agonies and blood,” —
and as he told us to look at him, and assured us that there was life in a look, we did look, and we were lightened, and we found life in him. Surely we had shaken our hands of all merit, as Paul shook off the viper into the fire at Melita. We had no confidence then in any resolution of our own, in any performances yet to come, much less in anything past. Well, then, we are to come now as empty-handed as we came them; our song is to be, —
“Nothing in my hand I bring;
Simply to thy cross I cling.”
How did we receive Christ? Well, we received him very humbly. Whatever pride may be in our heart, — and there is much of it, and I suppose, we shall never get, rid of it till we are wrapped in our winding-sheets, — there was as little that day as we ever had at any time. Oh, how humbly did we creep to the foot of the cross! We were then broken in heart and contrite in spirit. Ah, Christian! can you remember what humble views you had of yourself, — what a sink of depravity you felt your heart to be? Do you not recollect Augustine’s expression when he compares himself to a walking dunghill, and did you not feel yourself to be something of that kind, — so base, so loathsome, that you could only stand afar off, and cry, “God be merciful to me a sinner?” And you cried to Christ just as Peter did, “Lord, save me;” and just as the sea seemed about to swallow you up, you laid hold upon his outstretched hand, and you were saved. Now, to-night, do the same. Your danger is as great as ever out of Christ. Your sin is as great as ever out of him. Come then, casting away all the pride which your experiences and graces may have wrought in you; come to him, and take him for your All-in-all!
How did we receive Christ? If I recollect rightly, — and I think I do, — we received him very joyfully. Oh, what joy my soul had when first I knew the Lord! It was holyday in my soul that day. Perhaps we have never had such joyous days since then, and the reason has been, most likely, because we have been thinking about other things, and have not thought so much about Christ, Jesus the Lord. Come, let us again take him! The wine is as sweet; let us drink as deeply as ever. Christ, the bread of heaven, is as nourishing; come, let us eat as heartily as ever. Fill your omers, O ye poor and weak ones! Gather much, for ye shall have nothing over. This manna is very sweet; it tastes like wafers made of honey. Come to my Master as ye came at first and he will give you to drink of the living waters once again!
How did we receive Christ? I am sure we received him very graciously. He stood at, the door, and knocked, and we said, “Come in.” Your Savior, my dear friends, was long a stranger to your hearts. “Come in,” we said. We knew that he meant to take the best seat at the table; we understood that he came as Master and Lord; but we said, “Come in.” We did not quite know all that the cross might mean; but whatever it might mean, we meant to take it up. Surely that day, when he asked us, “Can ye drink of my cup, and can ye be baptized with my baptism?” our soul said, “We are able;” and though we have been unfaithful to him, yet I hope to-night we can take Christ as unreservedly as ever. Had I dreamed, when first I preached his gospel, that the way of the ministry would be so rough and thorny, my flesh would have shunned it; but, despite all, let it be what it is, and ten thousand times worse, come in, my Master; come and take thy servant; let me lie like a consecrated bullock upon the altar, to be wholly burned, and not an atom left! Brethen, do you not feel the same? On this platform I have sometimes prayed that, if the crushing of us might lift Christ one inch the higher, it might be so; and if the dragging of our names through mire and dirt could make Christ’s Church more pure we have prayed that it might be so. We have prayed that, if any shame, if any dishonor, if any pain might put one more jewel in his crown than could be there in any other way, we might have the honor of suffering and being made ashamed for his sake. And I think, brethren, though the flesh struggleth, we, may pray tonight, “Lord, bind the sacrifice with cords, even with cords to the horns of the altar.” We have received Christ, and in that same way, — unreservedly, we desire to walk in him.
“Have ye counted the cost?
Have ye counted the cost,
Ye followers of the cross?
And are ye prepared, for your Master’s sake,
To suffer all worldly loss?
“And can ye endure with that virgin band,
The lowly and pure in heart,
Who, whithersoever the Lamb doth lead,
From his footsteps ne’er depart?
“Do ye answer, ‘We can’? Do ye answer, ‘We can,
Through his love’s constraining power’?
But do ye remember the flesh is weak,
And will shrink in the trial-hour?
“Yet yield to his love who around you now
The bands of a man would cast,
The cords of his love who was given for you
To his altar binding you fast.
“Ye may count the cost, ye may count the cost,
Of all Egypt’s treasure;
But the riches of Christ ye never can count;
His love ye never can measure.”
“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.”
But, oh! some of you have never received him, so my last word is to them. Do you ask, “What is the way of salvation?” It is by receiving Christ. Oh, them, come and receive him! May the Holy Spirit’s power lead sinners to Christ! You need not bring anything to him. You need not bring a soft heart to him; you need not bring tears of repentance to him; but just come and take Christ. Remember, it is not what you are, but if is what Christ is that saves you. Never look at yourself, but look at the wounds of Jesus. There is life there. God help you to look, — to look to-night! And if ye shall find him, our prayer shall be that, from this day forth, ye shall walk in him; and he shall have the glory.