Heavenly Buying 2
Back to J. C. Philpot Sermons
II. The good and wise counsel that the Lord gives the Laodicean church. But this church of Laodicea had doubtless living members. She had doubtless those in her who knew and felt the malady, who could not run with the swift, who saw there was something deficient, who feared in their own conscience there was some lurking disease; and yet who might have drunk into a measure of the Laodicean spirit, and were neither hot nor cold—neither cold enough for the world, nor hot enough for God. There might have been, and doubtless were, sincere, God-fearing, praying members among them. To these the Lord speaks, and to these alone, and he gives them this wise and salutary counsel. "I counsel you to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that you may be rich; and white clothing, that you may be clothed, and that the shame of your nakedness not appear; and anoint your eyes with eye-salve, that you may see."
Three pieces of counsel does the Lord lay before her; and these three directions did the blessed Spirit doubtless whisper into some of their hearts.
A. "I counsel you to buy of me gold tried in the fire." What is this "gold tried in the fire?" Is it not faith? or, rather, is it not tried faith? And this the Lord bids her buy; as though he would sell no other. Do we not read, that "the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold which perishes, though it be tried with fire, may be found unto praise, and honor, and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ?" (1 Pet. 1:7.) The faith then that the Lord counsels her to buy is "tried" faith, compared by himself to "gold tried in the fire." But why should he compare this faith to gold?
1. First, gold is the most precious of all metals; and so faith is the most precious of all graces. It is that whereby the soul is saved, whereby it is justified, whereby it walks in the ways of the Lord, and triumphs over death, sin, hell, and the world. And therefore, well may the Lord compare faith to gold, seeing that living faith in the heart of a child of God is such a precious grace.
2. But there is another quality in gold that the Lord makes use of to compare faith unto—gold is indestructible. Put it in the hottest furnace, submit it to the strongest flames, it loses nothing in the fire, it suffers no injury; it is still indestructible, unconsumable. And so faith, in the heart of a child of God, is a grace indestructible, unconsumable; the fire of temptation, the furnace of affliction, the flames of persecution, can never burn up living faith in the soul.
3. Again—gold is tried and made to shine forth in all its native purity and brightness by being subjected to the furnace. And thus faith in the heart of a child of God is separated from all the dross and impurity that attach to it, from the carnality and unbelief and infidelity that surround it, as the dross and tin surround the gold, by being subjected to the burning flame. And as there is no other way whereby the gold is made to shine forth in all its intrinsic splendor, but by the fire; so there is no other way by which faith is made to shine brightly forth out of the defilements that surround it, except by being put into the fire of affliction and the furnace of temptation.
Thus it is as if the Lord, giving this wise counsel to the Laodicean church, said to her, "I counsel you to buy of me this precious gold tried in the fire. I give no other. It is that which I bestow upon my people; it is what I give to all my saints; it is that which comes down in answer to prayer—faith tried by the test of affliction, persecution, and distress; and made to shine more brightly in proportion to the furnace which tries it."
But some may say, 'Does not the Lord counsel the church of Laodicea to BUY this gold? How can she buy it? Is she not poor, miserable, and wretched? What has she to buy this faith with? Shall she present her gifts? Shall she offer her graces? Shall she bring her knowledge? Shall she come with her consistency? Shall she offer her merits? What has she to lay at the Lord's feet in exchange for this "gold tried in the fire?"' Nothing—absolutely nothing; for she is poor, wretched, and miserable. What then has she to offer in exchange for this "gold tried in the fire?" for if she buys, she must have something to give in exchange.
But still there is great beauty in the expression—it was not used in vain. The Lord does not say to her, 'I counsel you to ASK of me gold tried in the fire;' but he used the word "buy." And yet she has nothing to buy it with. How is this enigma to be solved? Thus—does not the word "buy" imply some exchange? Where there is a buyer, there must be a seller, and there must be an exchange between the parties. How does this take place in spiritual traffic? Thus—when the soul is deeply convinced of its helplessness, ignorance, blindness, wretchedness, and folly, and lays all these at the Lord's feet, he takes them, so to speak, upon his own shoulders; and then, in return, he deals out of his loving bounteous heart, out of the fullness that dwells in himself, his precious treasures.
There is one passage that seems to show what this spiritual buying is, "He has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (1 Cor. 5:21.) That is, our sins, our iniquities, our defilements, our shortcomings, our imperfections, were all laid upon Jesus; as we read "He has laid (or made to meet) upon him the iniquities of us all." (Isa. 53:6.) As one says in the Old Testament, "Let all your needs lie upon me, only lodge not in the street." (Judges 19:20.) So, when the Lord draws a poor guilty sinner to his bosom, he says, "Let all your needs lie upon me. Lay at my footstool your infirmities and your backslidings; your darkness, deadness, and coldness; your doubts and fears, your misgivings, your troubles, your exercises, your temptations, and your perplexities. Bear them not in your own strength; carry them not in your own arms; lay them not on your own shoulders; you can not bear them; they would sink you to hell. Let them all lie upon me."
And as the Lord speaks, he draws the poor, needy, guilty sinner to his bosom, and enables him to lay at his feet all the exercises, temptations, and distresses of his soul. Thus the Holy Spirit dictates, "Cast your burden upon the Lord; he will sustain you; he will never allow the righteous to be moved." (Psalm. 55:22.) And thus when the poor sinner is enabled to come, with all his helplessness, guilt, shame, sinfulness, and misery, and spread them before the Redeemer's feet, and by an act of faith casts his burden upon the Lord, there takes place in the court of conscience a spiritual exchange, set forth in the text under the word "buy." And this is the only buying—a buying "without money and without price." (Isa. 55:1.)
The Lord saw living members in the Laodicean church, and he therefore gave them this counsel—"Be not like the rest; do not think that you are rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; I know what you are, and honest conscience in your bosom tells you the same tale. Draw near to my throne of grace; open before me your sorrowful heart—confess to me how you have backslidden, into what a carnal state you have sunk, and how lukewarm in the things of God; tell me what temptations vex, what snares entangle, what sins beset you. Come, buy of me gold tried in the fire."
Thus the Lord, when he draws the poor needy soul to his footstool, communicates the precious gift of faith to his heart—living faith, a faith that is exercised with burdens—a faith "that lives and labors under load"—a faith that struggles against the world, the flesh, and the devil—a "tried faith"—for he gives no other. And when the soul takes his counsel (and we only can take his counsel as he enables us), then there is this blessed exchange—our poverty and his riches, our shame and his glory, our sins and his pardon, our defilement and his righteousness. And therefore, he adds, "buy of me gold tried in the fire, that you may be rich,"—not in pretension, not in profession, but in reality; rich in the eyes of a heart-searching God; rich for eternity; rich by the possession and enjoyment of heavenly riches; rich in divine treasure; rich in that which the moth corrupts not, nor thieves break through and steal.
B. "Buy white clothing, that you may be clothed, and that the shame of your nakedness not appear." What did she need? "White clothing." And why? Because she was naked, defiled, polluted, and unclean. But did she not maintain the doctrine of Christ's imputed righteousness? Doubtless she did. It is never brought against her that she had departed from the truth; it is never thrown as a reproach against her that she had imbibed soul destroying error. She held the doctrines of grace as firmly as ever. Her ministers preached truth; her members held it; it was written in her church articles; it was her creed and boast. But she had not received it with power into her soul. It had not been communicated to her by the teaching and testimony of the Holy Spirit. She had the doctrine, but not the power; she had the letter, but not the experimental reality. God the Spirit had never wrought with power in her soul to believe. He had never brought forth the garment of Christ's imputed righteousness, and put it on her, nor had she received it by the hand of living faith. She was indeed a very sound Calvinist; she held the doctrines firmly; but the sweet enjoyment and divine unction of them in her soul she had not experienced.
Now, the Lord speaks to her conscience. He saw there were members of the church at Laodicea who could not be satisfied with doctrines in their head. They wanted the life and power of God's teaching and God's testimony in their conscience. They could not be contented with being members of a gospel church, submitting to the articles of a sound creed, hearing the truth preached Lord's day after Lord's day. They wanted something deeper, something more powerful, something more spiritual, something more experimental than this. They were at times full of guilt and fear; temptations and troubles exercised their mind. They felt they had a soul to be saved or lost; they felt they were standing upon the brink of eternity, and one plunge might hurl them into the dread gulf.
These the Lord counsels, and says to them, 'Listen to me—I am the only wise Counselor; it is I only who give true wisdom; I counsel you to buy of me white clothing that you may be clothed, and that the shame of your nakedness may not appear.' As though he thus spoke to the heart, 'You think in your own mind you have need of nothing, that you can appear boldly before the throne of God, and can lift up your head without shame in that awful day; and that you can say, "Lord, Lord, have we not called upon your name, and in your name cast out devils, and in your name done many wonderful works." 'But,' he says, 'this will not do. There is something more needed than this; I counsel you to buy of me, who alone am able to bestow it, white clothing, that you may be clothed, and that the shame of your nakedness not appear before men and angels, as it appears to my heart-searching eye.'
But what are we to do to obtain it? To merit it? to work for it? to earn it? No; the Lord despises all such things as these. The only qualification is, a deep feeling of our necessity, our nakedness, and our shame; and a feeling that there is no other covering for a needy, naked, guilty soul, but the robe of the Redeemer's spotless righteousness. And when the soul is led to his divine feet, full of guilt, shame, and fear, abhorring, loathing, and mourning over itself, and comes in the actings of a living faith, in the sighs and cries of a broken heart, in hungerings, thirstings, and longings, desiring that the Lord would bestow upon him that rich robe; then the blessed exchange takes place; then there is a buying; then the Lord brings out of his treasure-house, where it has been locked up, the best robe, puts it upon the prodigal, and clothes him with it from head to foot.
What had the prodigal done to merit the best robe? Was it by his consistency? by his obedience to his father's precepts? by carefully keeping the portion bestowed upon him? No—he had "wasted his substance in riotous living," had gone into a far country, and there trampled under foot, lavished, and spent all that he had received. But was there nothing else? We read, "He came to himself," guilt and sorrow worked in his bosom; repentance unto life was given unto him; he felt himself unworthy of the least of God's mercies; that he was not worthy to be called his son; and he said—"I will arise and go unto my father." He rose, and went to his father. (This was all of grace.) And when the father saw him at a great distance, he had compassion on him, ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him; and said to the servants, "Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him." No other qualification (and this itself was the fruit of divine operation) was needed but a sense of his misery, nakedness, and guilt, and a cry unto his father to pardon, pity, and forgive. This is buying—sweet buy! blessed exchange! Our nakedness for Christ's justifying robe; our poverty for Christ's riches; our helplessness and insufficiency for Christ's power, grace, and love.
C. But the Lord adds a third counsel. "Anoint your eyes with eye-salve, that you may see." What was the climax of wretchedness in the Laodicean church? She did not know her real state; did not see her true standing; was not acquainted with her own deceit and hypocrisy, and the delusions of Satan, with which he was blinding her eyes. Had she seen herself as God saw her, there would have been some hope for her; had she beheld herself in the light of God's countenance, and felt herself to be what the Lord knew she was, it would have been her mercy. But this was the climax, the ultimatum, the crowning-point of her misery—that she was blind! She saw not how deeply sunk she was. She mistook evil for good, darkness for light, bitter for sweet, crooked for straight, the delusions of Satan for the teachings of God. Therefore, he says, "Anoint your eyes with eye-salve, that you may see; may you have a view of your real case; go no longer on in this awful state of self-deception; that the devil may no longer blind your eyes to your state before God; that you may not go unto the very verge of, or into eternity, with the veil over your heart. Anoint your eyes with eye-salve, that you may see."
How is this to be done? With eye-salve! Is it to be had in every street? O no! Where is the eye-salve, this wondrous eye-salve, which has such efficacy that when the least particle of it is spread over the eyelid, sight is given to see light in God's light? Who keeps in his bosom, who holds in his treasury, for the church of God, this marvelous, miraculous, supernatural eye-ointment? Is not this the teaching of the blessed Spirit? the "unction that teaches all things, and is truth, and no lie," the "anointing which is from above?" In a word, is not this eye-salve heavenly teaching?
And thus, when the Lord counseled the Laodicean church to anoint her eyes with eye-salve, he directed her to a throne of grace, that there she might apply to the Lord to bestow upon her that divine unction, that heavenly anointing, which "opens blind eyes." It does not mean that you and I have power, as creatures, to anoint our own eyes with heavenly unction. If we could do so, we would teach ourselves. But is not this the promise to the church, "All your children shall be taught of the Lord?" But this is the meaning of it, 'Come to my throne; plead with me in fervent prayer; pour out your heart at my footstool; feeling your blindness and ignorance, without special teaching, beg it of me; and, in answer to your prayer, I will anoint your eyes with eye-salve, and then you shall see.'
But why are the blessed Spirit's teachings compared to eye-salve, or eye-ointment? Because her eyes had films over them; darkness had covered them; cataracts had seized them; and her eyes becoming blinded in this way, she could not see her real standing. But the Lord says, "If you have but the least particle of heavenly eye-salve, and that eye-salve is spread over your eyelids; in other words, if the unction of the Holy Spirit touches your conscience, and the anointing of the blessed Spirit comes with power into your soul, you will see then (and this is the only sight worth having); and what will you see? The first thing you will see is, your nakedness, your shame, your helplessness, your misery, your wretchedness."
And this is the prelude to receiving the blessing. Depend upon it, you and I shall never go to a throne of grace sincerely, earnestly, fervently, and perseveringly, unless we feel our need of those blessings which God alone has to bestow. If I can teach myself, do I need heavenly teaching? If I can see by my own unaided sight, do I want heavenly eye-salve spread over my eyelids? If I know God, and Jesus Christ, and myself—the workings of my fallen nature, and the deceitfulness, hypocrisy, and self-righteousness of my evil heart—by my own knowledge, or my own understanding, I don't need God to teach me.
But when I see and feel I know nothing except by divine teaching, have nothing but by divine communication, and feel nothing but by divine inspiration—this leads me to a throne of grace to beg of the Lord to teach me and show me what I am, take the veil off my heart, discover to me my real state; not allow me to be deceived and deluded by the devil; not permit me to call evil good and good evil, to put darkness for light and light for darkness, bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter, and think I am something while I am nothing. Divine light in a man's conscience will teach him what he is, and divine life in a man's soul will make him feel what he is. When he has not God's light, he is dark; when he has not God'steachings, he is ignorant; when he has not God's wisdom, he is all folly; when he has not God's guidance, he goes astray; when he has not God's upholding, he falls; when he has not God's preserving, he turns aside into the paths of crookedness and error. So that we cannot see ourselves, we cannot see others; we cannot see the truth, we cannot see our saving interest in the truth; we cannot see the Person of Christ, his justifying righteousness, his atoning blood, his dying love, nor our participation in them, except so far as the blessed Spirit anoints our eyes with eye-salve that we may see.
Are there any here whose conscience tells a tale not to be mistaken, with a voice not to be silenced, that you are very dead in your souls, very cold in your affections, very dark in your mind, very worldly in your spirit? that you have very few or no smiles of God's countenance; few or no whisperings of God's love to your soul; that you have few or no intimations of your saving interest in the love and blood of the Lamb? Is there something that tells you all this? In prayer you are very cold, very short, and very formal. The word of God is to you a neglected book. When you go to hear preaching, your thoughts and affections are at the ends of the earth. Instead of being what most think you, a flourishing Christian—poverty, emptiness, and need are stamped upon your inward soul.
Do you feel it? Then there is some hope for you. There is some hope for a man whose conscience is made honest and tender in God's fear. It is a good sign for him—and the Lord speaks to him, and gives him this good advice. May it not be thrown away! May we have ears to hear it! May the Lord himself speak it home to us!—"I counsel you"—(and what the Lord speaks will be attended to by the Lord's people,) "I counsel you to buy of me gold. Come to my bosom! Come out of the world! Come to my feet!" How the Lord speaks to the soul! "Come sincerely, come honestly, come boldly, come tenderly. I counsel you to buy of me gold tried in the fire. Ask me for it, plead with me to bestow it on you, tell me that nothing else will satisfy you except that living faith that justifies the soul, saves it, and takes it home to glory."
Are there here those who feel they have not enjoyed the clear manifestations of God's love to their soul, and are trembling to think how they will stand at the great day? The Lord counsels them (may he give them an ear to hear) to buy of him also "white clothing," his righteousness, that spotless robe that covers the needy and naked soul; "that they may be clothed, and the shame of their nakedness not appear," that they may stand at the last day in that robe of righteousness in which there is neither spot nor blemish.
"Anoint your eyes with eye-salve. Beg of me to teach you; call upon me—I will show you things that you have not known; plead with me for the internal teachings and sure testimonies of the blessed Spirit and then you will see yourself in your true colors, as a poor, blind, naked, filthy, helpless wretch; and you will see the glorious Person of Christ, the riches of his atoning blood, the sympathy of his merciful bosom, the super-aboundings of grace over the aboundings of sin."
If you be thus highly favored, you will also see others; you will not be deceived by pretensions then. It will not be mere profession of the truth that will satisfy you then; no mere outward consistency will do for you then; you will want to see something more than this in others, as well as in yourself; you will want to see the mind of Christ in them, to see the image of a suffering Jesus, and the likeness of Christ stamped upon their hearts, lips, and lives. And if you cannot find this in the church to which you belong; if you cannot find this in the congregation with which you worship; if you cannot find this among those who profess the same doctrines with yourself, then you will be a separate person. You will not associate with those who have not the life of godliness; but you will walk with the Lord, that he himself may teach and bless you; and you will come out of everything that you find by experience defiles your conscience, that you may have the inward testimony and witness of the Lord himself in your soul.
Did the church of Laodicea listen to these counsels? Not as a whole church. There might be, and doubtless were, individuals, who did listen to this counsel; they got the blessing, for the blessing was designed for them. The blessing was not designed for the church at large. She was in due time to be spued out of Christ's mouth, for she was "neither hot nor cold." But the members, the spiritual members, were saved, though as by fire. There were doubtless in the Laodicean church (as there are at the present day) living members, gracious people; and these were, for the most part, mourning and sighing over their lukewarmness, deadness, and barrenness in the things of God. The Lord speaks to such, and gives them wise counsel; and they only will hear it. Dead professors resent all this. These professors want no such counsel. They would rather be plastered over with untempered mortar, and have their vain minds pleased by being thought highly of, than have the point of the trowel pick out all their putty.
God keep me from going about with lime and a brush to whitewash dead professors, and sepulchers filled with rotten bones! God enable me (he only can) to speak to the living souls of sensible sinners, and hold up before them a Savior's blood and righteousness! But God keep me from bolstering up dead professors, who have but a name to live; and from sewing pillows to the armholes of those who are not taught of God, and have nothing but an outward profession, without the inward reality! I believe all God's ministers will be faithful according to the measure of faithfulness that is bestowed upon them. They are not to be bribed or frightened into silence. They will speak out of the fullness of an exercised heart what they have known, felt, and experienced. So I desire ever to speak in this pulpit or any other. Not to come here to deceive souls, and foster delusion by uttering smooth words; but to detect hypocrisy in hypocritical hearts, to unmask empty profession in empty professors; and at the same time, to strengthen the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees; and thus to say to those who are of a fearful heart, "Fear not, the Lord is with you—and in his own time and way will abundantly comfort and bless you."
Back to J. C. Philpot Sermons