Let Us Go Forth 2
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Once more- and here is a very difficult part of the Christian’s course- the Christian is to come out not only from the world’s pleasures, and sins, and irreligion, but there are times when the true followers of Christ must come out from the world’s religion as well as irreligion. Every nation has a religion. In the days of Abraham, the little nationalities round him all had their god. In the days of Christ, there was an established religion in Judea; and I know that out of its synagogues our Lord Jesus Christ was thrust within fury. There was an established religion, within its priests and its proud Pharisaic professors, but our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ boldly had his protest against its distortions of Scripture, its lack of true spirituality, itsworldliness, its pomp and pride. In his day, Jesus Christ was as true a dissenter as any of us, and separated himself and his little company from the authorized and established ecclesiastical camp.
Judaism had ceased to be the religion of Abraham, neither were the Pharisees the true exponents and successors of Moses; therefore Christ with burning words, though full of charity, with loving heart, but with thundering tongue, bore an awful witness against the religion of his own age. He knew how the multitude respected it, and how the great ones lived upon it, but for all this, though his life must be shed for his protest, Christ Led His Disciples Away from the National Religion to Something Better, Nobler, and More Sublime. And you and I too, brethren, must see that we never fall in within the religion of the times, because it happens to be fashionable, and because the multitude follow it, or the law of the land patronizes it. If there exists anywhere on earth a Church which teaches for doctrine the commandments of men, come out of her, and bear your witness for the truth. I see before now a Church which tolerates evangelical truth in her communion, but at the same time lovingly embraces Puseyism, and finds room for infidels and for men who deny the authenticity of Scripture. This is no time for us to talk about friendship with so corrupt a corporation. The godly in her midst are deceived if they think to mold her to a more gracious form. Her bishops will not touch the Burial Service, although four thousand clergy-men petition for a little ease for their consciences; nor will they give up reading in God’s own worship the filthy story of "Susannah and the Elders," nor the nursery tale of "Bel and the Dragon" -though one of their priests avers that he would quite as soon read "Jack and the Bean-stalk." We have waited long enough; her space for repentance has been already too long.
Flee out of her, all you who love your souls. Come you out from among her; be you separate; touch not the unclean thing, lest you be partakers of her plagues, for her plagues are many. Often have I read works in which the Puseyites call the Church of Rome their sister Church; well, if it be so, let the two harlots make a league together, but let good and honest men come out of both apostate Churches, and those who love the Lord Jesus, whether clergy or laity, must leave them to their doom. I know it is hard work; it calls upon many to be poor, and give up their livings, but they must do it.
Scotland witnessed, a few years ago, one of the noblest spectacles the world ever beheld. My heart would break with joy for England if I should live to see such a day and such a deed of heroism; but there is not spirit enough left in us; there is not grace enough left in us. I fear we have fallen upon a degenerate age. The "land of brown heath and shaggy wood, land of the mountain and the flood," has nurtured a noble race of brave, bold men, and these could give up house, and home, and living, for the truth and for God’s sake; but it is not so in England. No, they will sell their consciences; they will cower down and mutter a lie at the command of the State; they will bury adulterers and seducers in sure and certain hope of a blessed resurrection. They will teach a catechism which their conscience tells them is not true, for pelf, for station; for the sake of the loaves and fishes, the men of God (and many of them we hope are such) will hold still to the false Church. But our pretest is lifted up against her, and our foot stands altogether outside her camp. Come out from among her; be you separate; touch her not; have no communion with her false doctrines. As for each of us who know the truth, our place is with Christ outside the camp, bearing his reproach. I am sure my text contains all this and more; and I would to God that his Church would take up her true position now, and be separate in all things from anything that defiles and that makes a lie.
II. But now, secondly, we have in the text, THE CHRISTIAN’S LEADER. It does not say, "Let us go forth outside the camp" merely, but, "Let us go forth therefore unto him." Here is the pith of the text- "unto him." Beloved, we might leave society- we might forsake all its conventionalities, and become Nonconformists in the widest sense, and yet not carry out the text; for the text is, "Let us go forth unto him." O beloved, it is this point that I would urge upon you! I am no politician; I care not one whit which Church has the State-pay, or which has not; I care not for political dissent; but I do care for devoutly following my Master’s Word, and will. And when I read this text, " Let us go forth therefore unto him," I set myself to learn what the Word means.
It means, first, let us have fellowship with him. He was despised; he had no credit for charity; he was mocked in the streets; he was hissed at; he was hounded from among society. If I take a smooth part, I can have no fellowship with him: fellowship requires a like experience. Come, then, my soul, don the Savior’s garb- walk through the mire with him; off with your silver slippers- go barefoot with Christ; be like the bush which
burns, but is not consumed; be content that your shoulders should be raw with his rough cross- he carried it- do not you shirk the labor. Expect not to wear the crown where Christ carried the cross; but, for fellowship’s sake, follow him.
Again, if I am to follow him, I am to follow his example. What Christ did, that I am to do. I am to go forth unto him. It is never to be a rule unto me that Mr. So-and-so did such-and-such a thing, or Mrs. So-and-so. What Christ did is to be my rule. Some men are for hanging on what Luther did, or what Calvin did; that is nothing to the Christian; he says, "I am to go forth unto Jesus." Follow Jesus Christ, and none but Jesus Christ, and then you will be separate indeed from the rest of men.
I am to go forth unto him: that is, I am to go forth to his truth. Wherever I see his truth, I am to espouse it. Wherever I see error, I am to denounce it without hesitation. I am to take his Word to be my only standard; and just where his Word leads me, there I am to go, no matter where. I may have been educated in one way, but I am to bend my education to this Book. I may have conceived prejudices, but they must give way before his truth. I may know that such-and-such a belief is profitable to me, but my profit shall go for nothing in comparison with the Word of God.
And then I can to go forth to Christ’s witness-bearing. The present age does not believe in witness-bearing, but the whole Bible is full of it. The duty of every Christian is to bear witness for the truth. Christ says, "For this purpose was I born and came into the world." He who knows the truth, but lays the finger of silence on his lips, saying, "Peace, peace, when there is no peace," is a sorry Christian. But if you have been washed in Jesus’ blood and saved by his righteousness, I do implore you, take your position with Christ as witness-bearers for the truth as it is in Jesus. My Master wants today a band of men and women who are prepared to be singular, so long as to be singular is to be right; he wants men and women of bold, unflinching, lion-hike hearts, who love Christ first, and his truth next, and Christ and his truth beyond all the world; men and women, too, whose holy lives and consistent conversation are not to be perverted by the bribes of this world, and whose testimony is neither to be distorted nor silenced by it's frowns or by smiles. Happy souls shall they be who dare to take their stand with Christ today. The struggles of the Covenanters of old need to be renewed at this moment. The strife of the Puritanic age needs to return once more to the Church; and what if the stakes of Smithfield come again! and what if the times of persecution return to us! The good old vessel which outrode the blood-red storm will outride it still, and she will reach her home with all her passengers and crew safe on board, to be received by the King, and honored with his gracious smile.
We are to take care, however, that it is to Christ we go; not to party, not to denomination; not to anything but Christ and his truth. Out upon denominationalism or anything else which savors not of Christ Jesus! Whether it be the Baptist Church, or the Episcopalian, or the Presbyterian Church, which errs from Christ’s way, it is nothing to any one of us which it may be. It is Christ we are to care for, and Christ’s truth; and this we are to follow over all the hedges and ditches of men’s making, straight away to Christ, clinging to Christ’s mantle, fighting a way straight through where he himself fought, and opened the path to his crown. This, then, have we spoken of the Christian’s Leader.
III. Now, in the third place, we have THE CHRISTIAN’S BURDEN. He is to bear the Lord’s reproach. The reproach of Christ, in these days, takes this shape. "Oh," say they, "the man is too precise." He is right; but still, truth is not always to be spoken. The thing is wrong, no doubt, which he denounces, but still the time has not come yet; we must be lenient towards these things. The man is right in what he says, but we must not be too precise nowadays. We must give and take a little- there must be charity." God’s Word, in this age, is a trivial concern- some do not even believe it to be inspired; and those who profess to revere it, set up other books in a sort of rivalry with it. Why, there are great Church dignitaries nowadays who write against the Bible, and yet find bishops to defend them. "Do not, for a moment, think of condemning their books or them; they are our dear brethren, and must not be fettered in thought." How many days ago is it since a bishop talked in this way in convocation.
Some believe in Popery; but here, again, the plea will be, "They are our dear brethren." Some believe in nothing at all; but still they are all safely housed in one Church, like the beasts, clean and unclean, in Noah’s ark. Those who come out with Christ, get this reproach: they are too precise; in fact, they are "bigots." That is how the world brings it out at last, "bigots" "a set of bigots!" I have heard say that the word bigot took its rise from this- that a certain Protestant nobleman being commanded, in order to gain his lands, to kneel down, and in some way or other commit the act of idolatry towards the host, said, when he came at last to the point, "By God, I will not;" and they called him henceforth a "By-God." If this be the meaning of the word "bigot," we cheerfully adopt the title; and were it right to swear, we would aver "By him that lives! — by heaven! — we cannot speak a lie, and we cannot bend our knee to the shrine of Baal, bigots or no bigots." The truth is first, and our reputation next. Then they say, "Ah! these people are behind their time; the world has made such advances; we are in the nineteenth century; you ought to know better; the discoveries of science put your narrow views out of court." Very well, Christian, be content to be behind the times, for the times are getting nearer to judgment and the last plagues. "Ah!" but they say, "these people seem to us to be so self-righteous; they think themselves right and nobody else."
Very well, Christian, if you are right, think yourself right; and if everybody else should call you self-righteous, that does not make you so. The Lord knows how we cling to the cross, and as poor sinners, look up to Christ and Jesus Christ alone. Our conscience is void of offense in this matter. "Ah!" they say, "they are not worth noticing; they are all a pack of fools." It is very remarkable that in the judgment of their own age, good men always have been fools. Fools have been the ones who have turned the world upside down. Luther and Calvin, Wesley and Whitfield were all fools; but somehow or other God managed by these fools to get to himself a glorious victory. And then they turn round and say, "It is only the poor-only the lower orders. Have they any of the nobility and gentry with then?"
Well, this reproach we can pretty well bear, because it is the old standard of Christ that the poor have the gospel preached unto them; and it has ever been a sweet reflection that many who have been poor in this world have been made rich in faith. Brethren, you must expect if you follow Christ to endure reproach of some sort or another. Let me just remind you what reproach your Master had to bear. The world’s church said of Christ, "He is a deceiver: he deceives the people." Incarnate truth, and yet a deceiver! Then they said, "He stirs up the people: he promotes rebellion. He is no friend of good order- he foments anarchy; he is a mere demagogue." That was the world’s cry against Christ, and, as that was not enough, they went further, and said, "He is a blasphemer;" they put him to death on the charge that he was a blasphemer. They whispered to one another, "Did you hear? he said so-and-so last Sabbath, in his sermon. What a shocking thing he did in such a place! He is a blasphemer." Then came the climax; they all said he had a devil, and was mad. Surely they could go no further than this, but they supplement it by saying, when he cast out devils, that he did it through Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. A sorry life your Master had, you see.
All the filth in earth’s kennels was thrown at him by sacrilegious hands. No epithet was thought coarse enough; no terms hard enough; he was the song of the drunkard, and they that sat in the gate spoke against him. This was the reproach of Christ; and we are not to marvel if we bear as much. "Well," says one, "I will not be a Christian if I am to bear that." Skulk back, then, you coward, to your own damnation. But oh! men that love God, and who seek after the eternal reward, I beg You Do Not Shrink From This Cross. You must bear it. I know you may live outside it if you will fawn and cringe, and keep hack part of the price; but do not this, it is unworthy of your manhood, much more is unworthy of your Christianity.
For God and for Christ be so holy and so truthful that you compel the world to give its best acknowledgment of your goodness by railing at you — it can do no more, it will do no less. Be content to take this shame, for there is no heaven for you if you will not- no crown outside the cross, no jewels outside the mire. You must stand in the pillory if you would sit in glory; you must be spit upon, and be treated with shame if you would receive eternal honor; and if you reject the one you reject the other.
IV. We close by noticing THE CHRISTIAN’S REASON FOR BEARING HIS REPROACH, AND GOING Outside THE CAMP. It is in the text, "Let us go forth therefore" -there is the reason. Why then? First, because Jesus did. Jesus Christ came into the world pure and holy, and his life and his testimony were a witness against sin. Jesus Christ would not conform. If he would but have done this, he might have been King of the Jews. But no,the most loving spirit that ever lived was also the most firm. Nobody shall say that Christ was either self-willed or harsh, or that he hated other men- nothing of the kind; never was there such pure generosity, such overflowing affection for men, as you find in Christ. But yield the truth, yield holiness? No, never! Not a grain of it. Be silent? No, he rebukes the Pharisees. And when the lawyer pulls his coat, and says, "Master, in so doing, you rebuke us," then Jesus Christ begins, "Woe unto you lawyers." All classes have their portion from his mouth. The Herodians come to him, does he for a moment yield to them, or when the opposite party tempt, does he side with them? Does he either side with the Sadducee or with the Pharisee? No, Christ’s course was ever an independent one; he committed himself unto no man, for he knew what was in man. The whole of his life through, you cannot mistake him for a Pharisee, or a Sadducee, or any one of the other teachers. He stands out like a lone mount of light, separate and apart from the chain of dark mountains; and so must the Christian. Christ was separate; and so must you be. Christ was pure, holy, truthful; so must you be. I ask you Either Renounce Your Profession, or Else Seek Grace to Carry it Out.
Moreover, the connection of the text tells us that Christ set apart his people by going outside the camp. That he might sanctify his people, he suffered outside the camp. Christ’s separation was in order that his people might be separated. The head is not of the world, and shall the members be of it? The head is despised and rejected- shall the members be honored? "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." The world rejects Christ- shall the world receive us? No, if we be truly one with him, we must expect to be rejected too. Christ’s Separation Is the Type And Symbol of the Separateness of All the Elect.
Again, Christ would have his people separate for their own sanctification. You cannot grow in grace to any high degree while you are conformed to the world. The path of separation may be a path of sorrow, but it is the path of safety; and though it may cost you many pangs, and make your life like a long martyrdom, and every day a battle, yet it is a happy life after all. There is no such life as that which the soldier of Christ leads; for though men frown upon him, Christ so sweetly smiles upon him that he cares for no man. Christ reveals himself as a sweet refreshment to the warrior after the battle, and so blessed is the vision, that the warrior feels more calm and peace in the day of strife than in his hours of rest. Believe me, the highway of holiness is the highway of communion. You cannot live near to Christ and yet truckle. A blot on your conscience will certainly separate Christ from you, as to communion. Be pure, be clear, be chaste, as before the Lord, and you may walk as on the mountain-tops, having Christ for your companion, enjoying with him a heaven on earth. The Covenanters and martyrs tell us in their diaries, that they were never so happy as when they were in the dungeon alone with Christ for company; nay, their best days were often their days of burning- they called them their wedding-days, and went to heaven singing and chanting the triumphal psalm, as they mounted in their chariots of fire.
Let us close with this last thought and reason. Thus we shall hope to win the crown if we are enabled by divine grace faithfully to follow Christ in all respects. Oh! the crown! the crown! the crown ! Come, let me hold it up to you! Is not this a treasure? Eternal life, likeness to Christ, sitting at his right hand? Do you not hear them- the harps of angels- the songs of the redeemed? Do you not hear them, I say, as in one perpetual psalm of joyfulness they salute the Lord their God with thanksgiving? It is but a flea-bite here, and then an eternity of bliss! A moment’s shame, and then an eternal honor; a little while of witness-bearing, a little while of suffering, a little while to be rebuked, and then "for ever with the Lord." This reward is so great, that it transcends the light affliction which is but for a moment. I will not put so little shame in contrast with it all. Why, in this age we suffer nothing: a few hard words, a jeer, a sneer- now and then a friend who leaves us because we speak the truth; but what is that? O brethren, we are denied the honor of those favored saints who died for Jesus. Our weak spirits love these softer times; but, after all, the days of honor were the days of persecution, and the times when saints won brightest crowns were when they suffered most.
I fear the Church of Christ is growing sleepy. Men of God have lost muscle and nerve. Our fathers died for half a truth, and we will not bear rebuke for a whole one. Two women were tied to the stake at Wigton and drowned in the rising tide- do you know what for? Simply because they would not say, "God save the king." You say, "What does that matter?" Well, it was comparatively a theological trifle. They held a certain theory concerning the bearing of the headship of Christ upon the political position of the king, because they thought the thing was wrong- though I, for my part, would say, "God save the king" a thousand times, yet they would not say it once, and died in constancy to their belief.
The two women were actually tied to stakes by the seaside. The tide came up, and when the elder woman of the two was drowned, they asked the younger whether she would say it now. But no, she would not. She believed it to be a truth concerning Christ and his kingdom; and though it only touched one of the smallest jewels of his crown, yet she would not do it, and therefore the gurgling waters came up to her chin, and at last rolled over one who had faithfully borne witness to a portion of truth which seems very trifling to us nowadays, but which to her seemed to be worth dying for.
Nowadays, I say, we would not die for the whole Bible, though in other ages saints would have died for the dot of an i, or the cross of a t. We turn tail, and are frightened because somebody has said a hard thing to us for defending the truth which concerns Jesus, and has the salvation of man wrapped in it. I say we cannot fight for the great, and they would fight for the little. O may God restore to us, dear friends, more grace, more piety, more love for souls, more care for the kingdom of Christ, a sterner prizing of the truth, and a determination solemnly avowed before the Lord of Hosts, that come what may, we will contend earnestly for the faith once delivered unto the saints. We stand upon the Rock of Ages, confident that God will defend the right, and that right in the end shall come off victorious. God give you grace- you especially, the members of my charge- from this day, more than ever you have done, to take your place outside the camp, and cheerfully and joyfully to bear Christ’s reproach.
Some of you cannot do this; you cannot bear his reproach; you cannot go outside the camp, for you have no vital faith — you have not believed in Jesus. O sinner, you are not to carry Christ’s cross first, but look to that cross for salvation; and when he has saved you, as he will if you trust in him, then take up your cross and carry it, and praise the name of God from this time forth, even for ever.
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