Sermon 374 | The Interest Of Christ And His People In Each Other

The Church says concerning her Lord, "My Beloved is mine, and I am His." No "ifs," no "buts." The two sentences are solemn assertions. Not, "I hope, I trust, I think." But, "my Beloved is mine, andI am His." "Yes," but you will say, "the Church must then have been gazing upon her husband's face. It must have been a season of peculiar enjoyment with Him, when she could speak thus." No, Brothers and Sisters, no! The Church, when she thus spoke, was in darkness, for in the very next verse she cries—"Until the day breaks, and the shadows flee away, turn, my Beloved, and be You like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether." I say, Brothers and Sisters, this solemn certainty, this double assertion of her interest in Christ, and Christ's interest in her, is the utterance of the Church even in her darkness, in the cheerless season of His absence! So then, you and I, if we believe in Christ, ought, even when we do not see His face, still to cultivate full assurance of faith, and never be satisfied unless we can say, "My Beloved is mine, and I am His." When you cannot say this, my Hearer, give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids. Be not happy; take no solace find no comfort as long as there is any doubt about your union with the Beloved—His possession of you and your possession of Him! We will now, having thus prefaced the text, come at once to it. There are two members, you perceive, to the sentence, "My Beloved is mine, and I am His." These two things come in a strange order, you will say, "Surely we are first Christ's, before Christ is ours." A right thought of yours. We shall take the text, then, this evening two ways. We shall first speak of it as it would be in the order of time. "I am my Beloved's, and my Beloved is mine." We shall afterwards speak in the order of the text, which is the order of experience. The words as Solomon penned them, are not the order of fact as far as God is concerned, but the order in which we find out God's great doings! You know God's first things are our second things, and our second things are God's first things. "Make your calling and election sure." Calling is your first thing—election is the second. But election is God's first thing, and calling is the next! You are not elected because you are called; and yet, at the same time, you shall never know your election until first you have made your calling and election sure! The order of the text is the order of experience. We shall take the members of the sentence as they would be if they spoke in the order of fact. I. To begin, then. I AM MY BELOVED's, AND MY BELOVED IS THEREFORE MINE. 1. "I am my Beloved's." Glorious assertion! I am His by His Father's gift Long before suns and moons were made, and stars twinkled in the midnight darkness, God the eternal Father had given the chosen to Christ, to be His heritage and marriage dowry. If God, then, has given my soul to Christ, I am my Beloved's. Who shall dispute the right of God to give, or who shall take from Christ that which His Father has given to be His heritage? Fiends of Hell! Legions of the Pit! When God gives, can you take back the gift? If He puts the souls of the chosen into the hands of Christ, can you pluck them from Him? If He makes them Christ's sheep, can you pluck them out of His fold, and make them your own? God forbid we should indulge the blasphemous thought, that any can dispute the ownership which Christ has in His people, derived from His Father's gift! But I am my Beloved's, if I am a Believer, because of Jesus Christ's purchase of me. We were bought not with corruptible things, as with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. Christ has an absolute right to all that He bought with His blood. I do not believe in that dreamy atonement, by which Christ redeems, and purchases, and yet the purchase is a fiction, and the redemption a metaphor! All that Christ bought with blood He will have. If a man buys with gold and silver of an honest man, he gets his own, nor will he be content until he does; but when Christ ransoms with His blood and buys of God Himself, and redeems His own people, it is not possible that He should be frustrated of His purpose or denied the objective of His death! I am my Beloved's then, because He has paid the full price for me, counted down the purple drops, and positively and surely has as much bought me with His money as ever Abraham of old bought flocks of sheep and oxen, or as ever of old Jacob served for Rachel and for Leah. No title deeds ever made estate more tru- ly the property of the purchaser, than did the Resurrection guarantee the rights of Christ in the "purchased possession." "I am my Beloved's," by a double tie—by the Father's gift, and by the Son's Divine purchase. These two things are not easily reconcilable to some minds. But let it be carried in your hearts as a matter of fact, that there is as much Grace in the Father's giving the elect to Christ as if no price were paid, and secondly, that there was as full and true a price paid to the Father as though the Father had been Justice only and not Love. The Grace of God and His justice are, both of them, full-orbed, they are never eclipsed; they are never made to you with divided luster; He is as gracious as though He were not just; He is as awfully severe as though there were no Grace in His Nature. But more than this, "I am my Beloved's," for I am His by conquest. He fought for me, and He won me, let Him possess me. He went alone to that great battle. He defied all the hosts which had made me their prey, encountered first my sins, and slew them with His blood, He encountered Satan himself next, and bruised the serpent's head, encountered Death, and slew him by "destroying him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." O Christ! You deserved to have those for whom You did wrestle and agonize even unto blood, and who by Your strong hand, You brought out of the land of their captivity! Never could a conqueror claim a subject so justly as Christ claims His people; they were not only His, eternally His, by the purchase of His blood, but they are His because He has taken them by overwhelming might, having delivered them out of the hand of him who was stronger than they! That word which He gird upon His thigh, is both the right by which He claims, and the might by which He keeps His ransomed. Besides this, every true Believer can add, "I am my Beloved's," by a gracious surrender. "With full consent I give myself to You." This is your language, Brothers and Sisters. It is mine. "I am my Beloved's." If I were never His before, I do desire to give myself up to Him now. His love shall be the fetters in which I, a happy captive, will walk at His triumphant chariot wheels. His Grace shall bind me with its golden chains so that I will be free, and yet His bondman forever. The mercies of each hour shall be fresh links, and the benefits of each day and night shall be new rivets to the chain. No Christian would like to be his own; to be one's own is to be lost; but to be Christ's is to be saved! To be one's own is to be a wandering sheep; to be Christ's is to return to the great Bishop and Shepherd of our souls. Do you not remember, many of you, the night when you first surrendered to Christ? He stood at the door and knocked—the door was overgrown with brambles; the hinges had rusted from long disuse; the key was lost; the keyhole of the lock was welded together with filth and rust. Yes, from within the door was bolted fast! He knocked—at first a gentle knock, enough to let you know who it was. You laughed. He knocked again. You heeded not; you heard His voice as he cried, "Open to Me, open to Me. My hair is wet with dew, and My locks with the drops of the night." But you had a thousand frivolous excuses, and you would not open to Him! Oh, do you remember when at last He put in his hand by the hole of the lock, and your heart was moved for Him? "Jesus! Savior! I yield, I yield! I can hold out no longer, my heart melts. My cruel soul relents. Come in! Come in! Please pardon me that I have kept You out so long; resisted so long the wooings of Your heavenly love." Well, you will say tonight, and set your solemn hand and seal to it, that you are Christ's because you do once again, voluntarily and freely, surrender yourself to Him! I think tonight would be a very proper occasion for each of us to renew our dedication vows. We are, many of us, Believers; let us go to our chamber and say thus—"O God! You have heard our prayers as a Church. We have entered into Your house; we have seen it filled to the full. By this, the answer which You have given to our prayers, we rededicate ourselves to You, desiring to say with the spouse more fully than heretofore, 'I am my Beloved's.'"

Let us pause here an instant. We have seen how we came to be our Beloved's, let us enquire in what sense we are so now.

We are His, first of all, by a near affinity that never can be broken. Christ is the Head; we are His members. There is nothing which my Head possesses so truly as my hands, and my heart. Your head could not say that its helmet and plume are so truly its own as the neck, the sinews, the veins, which are joined thereunto. The head manifestly has a distinct and peculiar property in every member. "I am my Beloved's," then, even as my hands and feet are mine. "I am my Beloved's"—if He loses me, I will be mutilated. "I am my Beloved's," if I am cut away, or even wounded, He will feel the pain. The Head must suffer, when the members are tempted and tried. There is nothing so true and real, in the sense of property, as this! I would that you who doubt the perseverance of the saints would take these few words to heart. If once Christ should lose His people, He would be a Head without a body. That would be a ghastly sight! No, if He lost one of His people, He would be the Head of a mutilated body—that would not be a glorious sight. If you imagine the loss of one mystical member of Christ, you must suppose an imperfect Christ—one whose fullness is not full, whose glory is not glorious, whose completeness is not complete! Now I am sure you would reject that idea. And it will be joy for you to say, "as the members belong to the Head, so am I my Beloved's."

Further than this—we are our Beloved's by a most affectionate relationship. He is the Husband, Believers are the spouse. There is nothing that a man has that is so much his property as his own wife, except it be his very life. A man's wealth may melt by losses; a man's estate may be sold to pay his debts; But a man's wife, as long as she lives, is his absolute property. She can say, "He is mine." He can say, "She is mine." Now Christ says of all His people, "You are mine, I am married to you; I have taken you unto Myself, and betrothed you unto Me in faithfulness." What do you say? Will you deny the celestial marriage bond? God forbid! Will you not say to your Lord tonight, "Yes, I am my Beloved's"? Ah, there is no divorce court in Heaven; there is no division; no separation bill possible, for He "hates divorce." If chosen, He will not reject; if once embraced, He will never cast out; His she is, and His she shall be forevermore. In this sense, then, "I am my Beloved's."

Yet once more—"I am my Beloved's" by an indissoluble connection, just as a child is the property of his father. The father calls his child his own. Who denies it? What law is so inhuman as to allow another to tear away the offspring of his heart from the parent? There is no such law among civilized men! Among the aboriginal savages of the Southern States of America, such a thing may exist; but among civilized men there can never be any dispute but that the father's right to his child is supreme, and that no master, and no owner can override the rights of the parents to his children. Come, then— even so are we His! "He shall see His seed." "He shall see of the travail of His soul." If He could lose His Glories, if He could be driven from His Kingdom, it He could be despoiled of His crown, if His Throne could totter, if all His might could melt away as the snow wreath melts before the summer's sun—yet at least His seed would be His own! No law, human or Divine, could unchild the believing child, or unfather Christ, the Everlasting Father. So then, it is a great joy to know that each Believer may say, in the highest sense—"I am my Beloved's. I am His child, and He is my Parent." I half wish that instead of my preaching now, we could stand up, each of us who feel the force of this sweet sentiment, and say, "'Tis true, great God; by eternal donation, by complete purchase, by a full surrender, by a mighty conquest, I am my Beloved's. He is my Head, my Husband, my Father, and my All."

The second sentence in order of time is, "My Beloved is mine." Ah, you very poor men and women, you who could not call one foot of land your own, and probably never will till you get the space where you lie down to sleep the sleep of death! If you can say, "My Beloved is mine," you have greater wealth than Croesus ever knew, or than a miser ever dreamed! If my soul can claim Christ, the eternal God and the perfect Man, as being my own personal property, then my soul is rich to all the intents of bliss—even if the body walks in rags, or should the lips know hunger, or the mouth be parched with thirst!

But how is my Beloved mine? He is mine, because He gave Himself to me of old. Long before I knew it, or had a being, He covenanted to bestow Himself on me—on all His chosen. When He said, "Lo, I come; in the volume of the Book it is written of Me, I delight to do Your will, O God," He did in fact become My Substitute, giving Himself to do my work, and bear my sorrow! Mine He is because that Covenant has been fulfilled i n the actual gift. For me (I speak in the first person, because I want you each to speak in the first person, too), for you, my Soul, He laid aside His robes of Glory to become a Man; for you He was swaddled in the weakness of Infancy and lay in the poverty of the manger; for you, my Soul, He bore the infant body, the childish form, and the human flesh and blood; for you the poverty which made Him cry, "Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but I, the Son of Man, have not where to lay My head." For you, my Soul, for you that shame and spitting, that agony and bloody sweat, that Cross, that crown of thorns, those expiring agonies, that dying groan! "My Beloved," in all this, "is mine." Yes, yours the burial; yours the Resurrection and its mystic meaning; yours the Ascension and its triumphant shouts; yours the session at the right hand of God; yes, and by holy daring we avow it, He who sits today, "God over all, blessed forever," is ours in the splendor of His majesty, in the invincibility of His might, in the Omnipresence of His power, in all the Glory of His future Advent! Our Beloved is ours, because He has given Himself to us, just as He is.

But besides that, our Beloved is not only ours by His own gift, which is the reality of it all, but He is ours by a graciously completed union. What a wonderful thing is the Doctrine of Union with Christ. "We are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church." Christ and His Church are one—one as the stones are one with the foundation; one, as the branches are one with the vine; as the wife is one with the husband; one, as the members are one with the Head—as the soul is one with the body—no, if there can be conceived a union closer, and there is but one, we are one with Christ, even as Christ is one with His Father! "I in them, and You in Me;" for thus the union stands. Now, as soon as ever we are one with Christ, you see at once that Christ must be ours. There is a common property between Christ and His people. All theirs belongs to Him—His belongs to them. They have not two stocks, they have but one. He has cast in His wealth, they have cast in their poverty—from that day they have common funds. They have but one purse—they have all things in common. All He is and all He has is theirs, and all they are or can be belong to Him.

I might add, but this is a high point, and needs to be experienced, rather than preached upon, Christ is ours by His indwelling. Ignatius used to call himself the God-bearer and when some wondered at the title, he said—"I carry God about within me; our bodies are the Temples of the Holy Spirit." That is an amazing text, amazing in the splendor of its meaning! Does the Holy Spirit dwell in a man? Yes, that He does! Not in this temple, "not in tabernacles made with hands." That is to say, of man's building, but within this soul, and in your soul, and in the souls of all His called ones, He dwells. "Abide in Me," He said, "and I in you." Christ must be in you, the hope of Glory; Christ must be formed in you, as He was in Mary, or you have not come yet to know to the fullest, the Divine meaning of the spouse, when she said— "My Beloved is mine, and I am His."

Now, tonight, I wish that we could get practical good, to our comfort, out of the thought that Christ is ours, if we are Believers. Hear me, then, a moment or two, while I dilate upon that thought. Christ is surelyyours. It is not a questionable property, a matter to be put into dispute with Heaven's chancery; beyond question Christ is the property—the rightful heritage—of every elect and called one!

Again—Christ is ours personally. We sometimes speak of severally and jointly. Well then, Christ is ours jointly; but, blessed be His name, He is ours severally, too! Christ is as much yours tonight, however mean you may be, as though He did not belong to another man living. The whole of Christ is yours! He is not part mine, and part yours, and part another man's. He is all mine, all yours—personallymine, personally yours! Oh that we could realize this fact!

And then, again, Christ is always ours. He is never more ours at one time, and less ours at another. The moment we believe in Him, we may know our perfect and invariable right to Christ—a right which depends not upon the changes of the hour, or upon the temperature of our frames and feelings, but upon those two Immutable things wherein it is impossible for God to lie. Christ is ours tonight; and, Glory be to His name for it, if we believe, He is ours forever—

"This sacred bond shall never break, Though earth's old columns bow! The strong, the feeble and the weak Can claim their Savior now!"

And this they shall do, perhaps with greater joy, but not with greater right, when they stand before the Throne of God!

I cannot, tonight, in a place to which I am so little accustomed, bring all my thoughts together as I would. But, I think if I could but put this Truth of God before you, or rather, if the Spirit of God would put it so that you could feel Christ to be yours, it would make you spring from your pew with ecstasy! Why, it is enough to thrill every chord in a man; and if a man may be compared to a harp, make every string in him pour forth an ocean of music! Christ mine— myselfChrist's—there cannot be a more joyous or more heavenly theme beneath the skies!

I have thus completed the first work of this evening—taking the sentences of the text in the order of time. I shall now take the text IN THE ORDER IN WHICH IT IS GIVEN TO US, WHICH IS THE ORDER OF OUR EXPERIENCE.

Do you not see, that to a man's experience, God's order is reversed? We begin thus—"My Beloved is mine." I go to Him, take Him up in the arms of my faith, as Simeon took up the little Child in the Temple, and pressing Him to my heart, I say—"Jesus, You are mine. All unholy and unclean, I nevertheless obey Your command; I believe You, I take You at Your word; I touch the hem of Your garment; I trust my soul wholly with You; You are mine and my soul can never part with You." What next? Why then, the soul afterwards says—"Now I am Yours, tell me what You would have me to do. Jesus, let me abide with You. Lord, I would follow You wherever You go; put me on any service, dictate to me any Commandment; tell me what You would have me do to glorify You"—

"Through floods, through flames, if Jesus leads, I'll follow where He goes."

¡Porque soy suyo! Cristo es mío: esto es fe. Yo soy suyo: estas son buenas obras. Cristo es mío: ¡esa es la manera sencilla en que el alma se salva! Yo soy de Cristo; ése es el método igualmente sencillo mediante el cual la salvación se manifiesta en sus frutos prácticos. Me temo que algunos de ustedes nunca han cumplido la última frase: "Yo soy de Cristo". Conozco a algunos, por ejemplo, que creen (fíjate, no me refiero a aquellos que no creen que es el deber de todo cristiano profesar su fe en el bautismo, pero sin embargo no están bautizados. Dicen que son bautistas en principio. ¡Son bautistas sin ningún principio en absoluto! Son hombres que conocen la voluntad de su Maestro, y no la hacen, y seguramente serán golpeados con muchos azotes. En otros hombres se convierte en un pecado de ignorancia, pero en tales hombres es voluntarioso. Responda: "Es algo no esencial". Las cosas que no son esenciales para la salvación son, sin embargo, esenciales para la obediencia. Como dije hace unos sábados, a usted no le gustaría un sirviente que sólo hiciera lo que le gustaba hacer y le dijera que algunas de sus órdenes no eran esenciales. Estoy bastante seguro de que si un soldado no cargara su arma, o no se pusiera en fila, o llevara las armas al hombro ante la orden, el consejo de guerra nunca escucharía ni por un instante la súplica de no esencial. Los mandamientos de Dios requieren obediencia, y es esencial que todo siervo sea fiel. Yo digo, es extremadamente esencial para un cristiano hacer lo que Jesús nos ordena hacer, si eso nos salva de nada, ¡en cualquier caso su cumplimiento nos salvará del pecado de serle desobedientes!

¿Intentarán ahora, mis queridos amigos, no sólo en el mandamiento que está en el umbral de la casa, sino en todos los demás, sentir que no son suyos? "Ah", dice un hombre, "no soy mío; tengo mucho que hacer por mi familia". Otro dice: "No soy mío, pertenezco a un partido político". Otro: "No soy mío; pertenezco a una empresa". Así es: todas estas son formas en que se evita que los hombres digan: "Yo soy de mi Amado, y mi Amado es mío". ¡Oh, si pudiéramos, por cualquier medio, sentir que todos somos de Cristo! Yo, aunque tuviera en mis venas una gota de sangre que no fuera la suya, buscaría que saliera; y si tuviera un solo poder, mental, físico o espiritual, que no pudiera ni quisiera servir a Dios, aunque pudiera perjudicar mi comodidad, oraría devotamente para que este Jonás fuera arrojado al mar, este Acán apedreado, este Amán colgado en la horca. Esta cosa cancerosa es algo mortal; esta cosa condenable debe ser cortada, de una vez por todas, porque "es mejor entrar al cielo cojo y manco, que con dos ojos y dos brazos ser arrojado al fuego del infierno". ¡Debemos tener ojos que vean a Cristo! Debemos sentir que todos somos de Cristo y vivir como si todos fuéramos de Cristo, porque no tenemos derecho a decir: "Mi amado es mío", a menos que podamos agregar: "Y yo soy suyo". Miren, señores, miren la gran multitud de profesores. ¡Cuán pocos son los que viven como si fueran de Cristo! ¡Actúan independientemente de Hm! Compran y venden por cuenta propia; el hecho de que son mayordomos nunca penetra en sus gruesos cerebros; que todo lo que tienen no es suyo, sino suyo, nunca parece haber entrado en su corazón, aunque lo hayan cantado con sus labios.

"Y si pudiera hacer alguna reserva, y el deber no me llamara, amo a mi Dios con celo tan grande, que le daría todo".

¡Muchos hombres han cantado eso, pasando la uña del pulgar por una moneda en su bolso, para saber si era de cuatro centavos o de tres centavos! Dice que le daría todo a Cristo; pero luego quiere decir que la letra se girará a un crédito muy largo, y que pagará cuando muera (renunciará a lo que no puede llevarse consigo) y cuando deje su cadáver podrido, dejará su riqueza podrida. ¡Oh, si todos pudiéramos sentir que todos somos de Cristo! ¡Vaya, la Iglesia de Dios no estaría encerrada y encerrada dentro de los estrechos límites de Inglaterra y Estados Unidos por mucho tiempo, si alguna vez sintiéramos que somos de Cristo! En este mismo momento China está abierta a la empresa cristiana. El líder de los llamados "rebeldes" resulta ser, después de todo, un hombre sumamente iluminado en las cosas de Dios. Le ha dicho al Sr. Roberts, el misionero: "Hoy abro 18 capillas en Nankin; escribe a tus amigos y diles que vengan a predicar, y estaremos encantados de escucharlos. Te doy un pasaporte para que nadie te toque, y cualquier hombre que predique el Evangelio de Cristo pasará ileso por mis dominios". Y de hecho emitió, sólo unos días antes de la llegada del último correo, una proclamación por la cual toda idolatría es abolida en todos sus dominios, y la brujería y la adivinación se convierten en delitos, e invita y ora específicamente para que sus Hermanos en Inglaterra envíen la Palabra de Vida, para que puedan tenerla entre la gente. Ahora bien, confieso honestamente que si este lugar no hubiera sido construido y no hubiera tenido nada más allá de los estrechos límites del lugar en el que he predicado últimamente, ¡me habría sentido en mi conciencia obligado a ir a aprender el idioma y predicar la Palabra allí! Pero ahora sé qué hacer. Debo permanecer aquí, porque este es mi lugar; pero quisiera que Dios encontrara algunos en la Iglesia, algunos en Londres, que no tienen un vínculo tan amable como éste para mantenerlos en su propia tierra, que dijeran: "Aquí estoy, envíame. Soy hombre de Cristo; allí está el campo de Cristo. Déjame ir y segarlo, porque la cosecha está madura. Ayúdame, oh Dios, y trataré de recogerlo para tu honor". "Mi Amado es mío y yo soy suyo". ¡Esto último, "Yo soy suyo" haría la vida barata, y la sangre como agua, y el heroísmo una cosa común y la audacia pero un deber cotidiano, y el autosacrificio el espíritu mismo de la vida cristiana! Aprende bien, entonces, el significado de aquella frase: "Yo soy suyo".

Pero, por favor, fíjese una vez más (temo cansarlos y, por lo tanto, seré breve): "Mi amado es mío", ese es mi llamado. Él me llama a Él. Él se entrega a mí. Él es mío. Yo soy suyo, ¡esa es mi elección! Yo era suyo antes de saber que Él era mío; pero aprendí primero mi vocación y después mi elección. Tenemos decenas de personas que no vendrán a Cristo porque no pueden entender la elección. Conoce a un chico en la calle e invítalo a ir a una escuela de dos centavos. "No", dice el niño, "no me siento apto para ir a una escuela nacional para aprender a leer y escribir, porque, a decir verdad, no entiendo el idioma hebreo". Usted respondería: "Pero, mi buen muchacho, aprenderás hebreo después, si puedes, pero eso no es razón, en cualquier caso, para que no aprendas inglés primero. Ven primero a la escuelita; después irás a la escuela primaria; si progresas, Irás a la Universidad, obtendrás tu título de B.A. y tal vez obtengas una Maestría en Artes. ¡Pero aquí tenemos pobres almas que quieren obtener su maestría antes de haber ido a la escuela de un centavo! Quieren leer los tomos antes de leer el libro básico. No se contentan con deletrear a, B, C: "Soy un pecador, Cristo es un Salvador", sino que anhelan hojear el libro de los decretos y descubrir las cosas profundas de Dios. Los descubrirás después; irás paso a paso, mientras el Maestro te dirá cada vez: "Amigo, sube más alto". Pero si comienzas con la elección, tendrás que bajar de nuevo, porque habrá un hombre más honorable que tú que entrará, y con vergüenza comenzarás a ocupar el lugar más bajo. He visto muchos cristianos de altos vuelos que comenzaron en la copa del árbol; eran hombres temáticos; la sabiduría moriría con ellos; los jueces, los dictadores, los mismos cónsules, los cardenales, los papas, lo sabían todo. Y siempre que tales hombres son bondadosos, el Señor siempre les mete la lanceta y los hace cada vez más y más pequeños, hasta que al final dicen: "¡Ay de mí, porque estoy perdido!". Y claman: "Mi alma es como un niño destetado". Empiece desde abajo y crezca. ¡Pero no empieces desde arriba y bajes! ¡Ése es un trabajo duro, pero subir es un trabajo placentero, un trabajo gozoso! Comience diciendo: "Mi Amado es mío". Pronto conoceréis vuestra elección. y decir: "Yo soy suyo".

¡Y ahora no creo que predicaré más sobre mi texto, sino que simplemente descenderé sobre mis oyentes durante unos minutos, con todas mis fuerzas! ¿Cuántos de nosotros podemos atrevernos a decir esto esta noche? ¡Cientos de ustedes pueden! ¡Miles de ustedes pueden! Si este fuera el Día del Juicio, si esta noche estuvieran de pie, recién levantados de sus tumbas, si ahora escucharan el sonido de la trompeta, si ahora vieran al Rey en Su belleza sentado en el Gran Trono Blanco, sé que muchos de ustedes dirían: "Mi Amado es mío, y yo soy de Él". Si hoy hubiera comenzado el reinado milenario de Cristo, si las copas se hubieran abierto, las plagas se hubieran derramado, y si ahora Cristo hubiera venido, para que los impíos fueran expulsados ​​y sus santos reinaran, estoy seguro de que muchos de ustedes dirían: "¡Bienvenido, bienvenido, Hijo de Dios! Mi amado es mío, y yo soy de él". Y hay muchos de ustedes también que, si el ángel de la muerte pasara por el banco y batiera sus alas negras en su rostro, y el aire frío de la muerte los golpeara, dirían: "Está bien, porque mi Amado es mío, y yo soy suyo". ¡Podrías cerrar tus ojos y tus oídos a las alegrías y a la música de la tierra, y podrías abrirlos a los esplendores y melodías del Cielo! No tener miedo a la muerte debería ser siempre la marca del cristiano. A veces, una alarma repentina puede robarnos la presencia de ánimo; pero ningún creyente está en buen estado de salud si no está preparado para enfrentar la muerte en cualquier hora y en cualquier momento. Caminar valientemente hacia las fauces del dragón, atravesar las puertas de hierro y no sentir terror, estar listo para estrechar la mano del rey esqueleto; considerarlo como un amigo y no como un enemigo; éste debería ser el espíritu habitual y la práctica constante del heredero del Cielo. ¡Oh, si en mi alma estuviese escrito: Mío es mi amado, y suyo soy yo! Ven, bienvenida a la Muerte—

"Ven, Muerte, y alguna banda celestial, con gusto iré contigo."

Pero, y un solemne "pero", pase la pregunta por estas galerías, y en esta área, y cuántos de ustedes deben decir: "Nunca pensé en eso. Nunca pensé si yo era de Cristo o Cristo mío". No te reprenderé esta noche. No te gritaré. La gracia de Dios para mí prohíbe que este sea un día de truenos. Que sea un día de fiesta para todos y de tristeza para nadie. ¿Qué te diré entonces sino esto? ¡Oh, que Cristo sea tal vez tuyo! Cuando estuvo aquí en la tierra, eligió ir entre pecadores, ¡pecadores del tono más negro! Y ahora Él está en el Cielo; Allá Él ama a los pecadores tanto como siempre. ¡Él está tan dispuesto a recibirte esta noche como al ladrón! Le dará tanta alegría a Su corazón escuchar tu clamor esta noche, como cuando agradeció a Dios que estas cosas fueron reveladas a los niños. Es para Su honor que usted sea Suyo; es para Su alegría que Él sea tuyo. ¡Pecador! Si quieres tener a Cristo, si ahora el Espíritu de Dios te hace querer, ¡no hay obstáculo de parte de Dios cuando te quitan el obstáculo de tu parte! Si estás dispuesto, por Su Gracia, ¡Él está más dispuesto que tú! Si la puerta de tu corazón está en el pestillo, ¡la puerta del Cielo está abierta de par en par! Si tu alma anhela a Cristo, ¡Su corazón te ha anhelado durante mucho tiempo! Si tienes sólo una chispa de amor por Cristo, Él tiene un horno de amor por ti; y si no tienes nada en absoluto (ni amor, ni fe), ¡oh, te pido que lo tengas ahora! "Cree en el Señor Jesucristo y serás salvo". ¡Tú! ¡Tú! ¡TÚ! ¿Viniste aquí por curiosidad? Zaqueo escuchó a Cristo por curiosidad; pero fue salvo. ¿Viniste con un propósito peor? Dios te bendiga de todos modos, sea cual sea el motivo por el que viniste; ¡Y que Él te traiga a Él esta noche! Confía en Cristo ahora y serás salvo. Mi vida por la tuya: si tú pereces confiando en Cristo, ¡yo también pereceré! Incluso si tuviera un oído que me escuchara, el cual pertenece a una ramera, a un ladrón, a un asesino, sin embargo, "el que cree en el Señor Jesucristo será salvo". Y si crees en Él y estás perdido, yo estaré perdido contigo; y toda la Iglesia de Cristo debe perderse también; porque hay el mismo camino al Cielo para los mejores y para los peores: ¡para los más viles como para los más justos! "Nadie viene al Padre sino por Cristo". ¡Nada puede condenar a un hombre excepto su propia justicia! Nada puede salvarlo excepto la justicia de Cristo. ¡Todo tu pecado, tu pecado pasado, no te destruirá, si ahora crees en Jesús! Será arrojado al mar para siempre y empezaréis de nuevo como si nunca hubierais pecado. ¡Su Gracia te guardará para el futuro, y conservarás en tu camino un honor para la Gracia de Cristo y un gozo para tu propia alma! Pero si sois desobedientes y no coméis del bien de la tierra, entonces diré, como dijo Isaías en el pasado: "Soy hallado de los que no me buscaban, pero todo el día extendí mis manos a una generación impía y contradictoria". ¡Dios ha extendido sus manos! ¡Oh, si fueras sabio y corrieras a Sus brazos esta noche!

Sé que estoy hablando con algunos hombres moralistas, algunos que dicen: "Es una vergüenza decirles a los hombres que son depravados. Yo no lo soy". Bueno, creemos que si sus vidas estuvieran escritas, se podría demostrar que así fue. "Es una vergüenza", dicen, "decir a los hombres que no pueden llegar al Cielo por sus buenas obras, porque entonces serían malvados". Es extraño, sin embargo, que cuanto más se predica esta Verdad, ¡mejor es la gente! Predicar buenas obras como camino al cielo siempre produce borrachos y ladrones, pero predicar la fe en Cristo siempre produce los mejores efectos. El Dr. Chalmers, que no era un fanático, dice: "Cuando prediqué la mera moralidad, prediqué la sobriedad hasta que todos se volvieron borrachos; prediqué la castidad hasta que no fue conocida en ninguna parte; prediqué la honestidad hasta que los hombres se convirtieron en ladrones. Pero", dice, "tan pronto como prediqué a Cristo, ¡hubo en la aldea tal cambio como nunca antes se había conocido!" Bueno, creemos que la justicia propia te destruirá, amigo mío, y por eso te decimos, honesta y claramente, que ¡tú también podrías esperar llegar al Cielo volando en un globo que llegar allí mediante tus buenas obras! Es mejor navegar a la India en un colador que llegar a la Gloria por tu propia bondad; También podrías ir a la corte envuelto en telarañas que buscar ir al cielo con tu propia justicia. ¡Fuera vuestros harapos, vuestros harapos sucios y podridos! ¡Son sólo un puerto para los parásitos de la incredulidad y el orgullo! ¡Fuera vuestra justicia podrida, vuestro oro falso, vuestra riqueza falsificada! ¡No tiene ningún valor ante los ojos de Dios! ¡Ven a Él vacío, pobre, desnudo! Te irrita tus orgullosos oídos, ¿verdad? ¡Más vale, digo, perder el orgullo que perder el alma! ¿Por qué condenarse por el orgullo? ¿Por qué llevar la cabeza tan alta que hay que cortarla? ¿Por qué alimentar tu orgullo con la sangre de tu alma? ¡Seguramente hay cosas más baratas que eso para beber con orgullo! ¿Por qué dejar que te chupe hasta la médula de los huesos? ¡Sea sabio! ¡Inclínate, agáchate, agáchate para ser salvo! Y ahora, en el nombre de Jesús de Nazaret, el Hombre, el Dios, os lo ordeno, como Su mensajero y Su siervo, y bajo vuestro propio riesgo rechazad el mandato: "Creed, arrepiéntete y bautízate cada uno de vosotros". "Cree en el Señor Jesucristo y serás salvo", "porque el que crea y sea bautizado, será salvo. El que no crea, será condenado".

Dios agregue Su bendición, por amor de Su nombre. Amén.