The attractive Christ : and other sermons

Front matter

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HeAlTRACTIVe (HRlsiii

^^^OTHeRSeHMONS '

Preface

Most of the sermons contained in this volume were preached in the Calvary Baptist Church, New York, on consecutive Sunday mornings during the last few months. The discourses preached on Sunday evenings during the same period, and during a few additional months, will be published under the title, " Sunday Night Lectures on the Land and the Book."

It is the sincere desire and prayer of the author that all readers may experience the power of "The Attractive Christ," and may at last rejoice in "The Beatific Vision" of the King in his

beauty.

ROBERT STUART MacARTHUR.

Calvary Study, Jan., 1898.

Contents

SERMON PAGE

I. The Attractive Christ 9

II. The Healing Lord . 27

II

THE Evangelist Luke places this interesting miracle immediately after the Sermon on the Plain. There is, however, no contradiction between the order which he gives and that observed by Matthew. Matthew here gives us examples of our Lord's earlier miracles without strict regard to chronological order. His language does not necessarily connect this miracle closely with that which precedes. The prominence of the centurion whose servant was healed probably led to the selection of this miracle from others which might have been recorded, and the healing without touching or seeing the person afflicted may also have influenced the evangelist in selecting this miracle and in giving it its position in the inspired narrative. Capernaum had now become Christ's principal residence. It was also the center of his operations in that vicinity. After his preaching tours he went back to Capernaum as his home. On one occasion as he entered the town a centurion came to him preferring a request for his boy or servant, or more strictly, his slave. A centurion was a Roman officer commanding one hundred men. This particular centurion was probably stationed at Capernaum as it was an important provincial town, and the center of considerable traffic on the sea of Galilee. He was probably in the service of Herod Antipas and his presence and that of his soldiers might be required in that vicinity to preserve order. Let us study, for a little time, the promise which was here given. It is worthy of notice that it was a promise made in answer to prayer.

We do not know with certainty whether the centurion approached him personally or through the instrumentality of others. The centurion knew well that in the judgment of the Jews all heathen were without the covenant and so without the pale of mercy. He knew well that a middle wall of partition separated between the children of Abraham and all Gentiles. Perhaps he did not therefore personally approach Christ, but sent others, entreating him that he would come and heal his servant. From the narrative in Matthew it would seem that he had come himself, but perhaps we are to take the expression with a somewhat broader meaning as taught in the parallel passage in Luke. There it would seem that the elders of the Jews were employed on this errand ; it would also seem that they were very willing messengers. They pleaded for him as one who deserved a favor at their hands, and they add, '' for he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue." Perhaps, indeed, both he and the elders came at different times. The truth to be emphasized at this point is that the promise was made in answer to prayer. Had the centurion not prayed, the Saviour had not promised. That we may receive blessings from God our minds must be prepared for their reception. Our hearts must be on the same key as God's heart. Two pianos or harps in a room will give appropriate response when a chord on either is struck. There is some subtle affinity between the lightning and its conductor. There is evermore a relation, doubtless along the lines of strict natural law, if only we were able to understand the law, between the prayers we offer, the promises God makes, and the blessings we receive.

Prayer is the nerve which moves the muscles of omnipotence ; prayer is the muscle which moves the arm of the Almighty. All earthly blessings are in some way related to earnest prayers. It has been well said that it was in Luther's closet that the Reformation was born. Constantine was right when he refused to have his statue taken standing and insisted that it be taken kneeling, as it was by kneeling in prayer to God that he had risen to eminence among men. We know that before the delivery of President Edwards' great sermon on '' Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," which so mightily moved his congregation, certain earnest Christians had spent the preceding night in prayer. It is also affirmed that a company of believers spent the night in prayer before the delivery of John Livingston's sermon, which resulted in the conversion of hundreds of souls and started a revival movement which swept with irresistible power over parts of Scotland and Ireland. The Scriptures abound in illustrations of immediate and direct answers to prayers. Noble as were the achievements of modern science when the American continent was girdled by telegraphs, and still nobler when the old world and the new were so united, a still more remarkable spiritual telegraph exists. Abraham said unto God, " Oh, that Ishmael might live before thee ! " and the immediate answer came, '^ As for Ishmael, I have heard thee." In critical circumstances David asked of the Lord, " Shall I go and smite these Philistines ? " And the answer of God immediately came, " Go, and smite the Philistines." Similar examples might be greatly multiplied showing that man may talk to God, and that God immediately replies to man in answer to his prayer. Indeed, the lives of Moses, Isaiah, Hezekiah, Elijah, Daniel, and thousands in the history of the Christian church, would be utterly inexplicable but for the blessed truth that God hears and answers prayer. The day may come when it will be seen that this spiritual telegraph from earth to heaven is as fully in harmony with great laws of the physical and spiritual universe, as it is now seen that telegraphs and telephones are in harmony with the laws of God, which we usually call the laws of nature. We are warranted in saying that if Stephen had not prayed Paul had not been converted. Is there not a similar relation between the prayers of thousands of parents, teachers, and other Christians, and the conversion of thousands of men now in our pulpits and tens of thousands in the pews.

Again, it is to be noticed thst this promise is made iji answer to the prayer of a Gentile. This fact is quite remarkable. God had promised to answer prayer when offered by the '' seed of Jacob," but this man did not belong to the stock of Abraham. He was probably one of the Roman garrison of Capernaum. He was by birth a heathen. But perhaps he felt the utter emptiness and worthlessness of faith in the many gods of polytheism. Many trained in heathenism experienced the need of a fuller faith than heathenism could give, and they had attached themselves in nearer or remoter relations to the congregations in Israel. They found that Judaism gave a satisfaction to the deepest wants of their spiritual nature which heathenism could never supply. Some of these had become proselytes of different names, and they thus formed a connection between Gentile and Jew which greatly helped in the spread of the gospel, and in the bringing in of that time when there was neither Jew nor Gentile, but a blessed oneness in Christ Jesus. It is most interesting to observe that all the centurions mentioned in the New Testament, so far as we have any knowledge of their history, were men of worthy character. We have in addition to the one brought before us in connection with the text, the centurion who was on guard at the time of the crucifixion of Christ. This man saw the wonderful portents which accompanied the death of the Son of God. He acknowledged the claims of Jesus, saying, "Truly this man was the Son of God." We also have the case of CorneHus, who had renounced idolatry and had become a worshiper of Jehovah before he had received a knowledge of the gospel. His case marks a distinct epoch in the earlier history of the church. He feared God, he gave alms, and he had a good reputation among the Jews. His prayers for fuller light were graciously answered, until at length he was honored as the first Gentile convert received into the church, in such a way as to prove that Christ's religion was intended for all and was not limited by the rites of Judaism. We also have the case of Julius, who was the keeper of the Apostle Paul on his journey to Rome. This centurion was a model of courtesy and kindness. He was a man of noble elements of character even before he became a Christian. His conversion added Christian graces to his original and rare endowments. Indeed these centurions seem to have preserved in their character and conduct some of the virtues of the earlier and purer Romans "in the brave days of old."

That Gentiles should find light and life in Judaism was quite in harmony with all the promises of the Old Testament regarding the Messiah. It was distinctly said in connection with our Lord's presentation in the temple that he should be '*a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel." This statement is in harmony with the prophecy that "in his name shall the Gentiles trust." It was in harmony with his own words, ''Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out." It is in harmony also with the teachings of the Apostle Paul, when he said, " For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek ; for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him." Christianity was needed by, intended for, and adapted to, all nations of all climes and in all centuries. It is the only religion ever promulgated among men that was intended for all nations, irrespective of color or condition. In this respect Christianity is unique among the religions of the earth. Jesus Christ was the only founder of a faith that was intended to become universal. Such a conception marks him as the foremost thinker of the world. Such a conception as this never dawned upon the minds of the sages of Greece or Rome, and never suggested itself to the dreamiest imagination of the dreamiest Oriental philosopher.

We see also that this is a promise made to a Gentile for a slave. The word translated "servant," in the ninth verse, means a bondman or a slave, although it is also used to express a service that is voluntary. We know that in the days of Christ slavery was almost universal among heathen nations. Such a request on the part of the centurion was an evidence of great consideration and condescension. Slaves then had no rights which freemen were bound to respect. Even Cicero deemed it needful to excuse himself for feeling sorrowful over the death of a domestic servant in his household. One has only to pronounce the names of Domitius, Octavius, and others in similar positions, to be reminded of their unspeakable brutality toward slaves. The lives of these slaves were not more valuable in their sight than the lives of insignificant domestic animals. The humility and condescension of the centurion are worthy of all praise. He counted himself guilty of presumption to have asked the presence of Christ under his roof. Not only did he feel his unworthiness as a heathen, but his spiritual unworthiness as a sinner, in asking for the presence of the King of Israel and the Lord of glory in his home. He asked, therefore, simply that Christ should speak the word, and he knew that his servant would be healed. All the indications of this man's character, as brought out in the narrative, commend him to our consideration. He was one of those true children of God outside the fellowship of a recognized faith. The manner in which he spoke of himself as ''a man under authority," showed his conception of Christ's position and power. If it were true that he, occupying so much lower a place than Christ, had those who obeyed him, how much more certain was it that Christ's word would be powerful over men, diseases, and devils. He recognized the fact that Christ was Prince over angels and spirits. He therefore could, without going to the centurion's house, give his command, and it would be speedily executed by the messengers of his will.

The centurion here evidences a conception of Christ's relation to the kingdom of earth and heaven, as beautiful as it is original, and as truthful as it is spiritual. This servant was a paralytic. He suffered from an abnormal relaxation of the nerves, and from the loss of sensation and the power of voluntary motion. It seemed as if he was on the very border of death. It is not wonderful that Christ marveled at the centurion's beautiful union of childlike faith and profound humility ; it is not wonderful that Christ said, " Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel." Christ did not reject those who came to him on their own account ; neither did he reject those who came on behalf of others. It is a wonderful blessing which comes to our own souls when we are anxious for the conversion of the souls of our fellow-men. We are told that, "the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends." Would to God that we all experienced deep anxiety for the conversion of those about us ! Men on every hand are suffering from spiritual paralysis, and only Christ can heal them. Let us go on their behalf to Christ with full purpose of heart as did the elders or the centurion on behalf of the domestic servant. Let us carry them, as did those who let down the sick man through the roof at the feet of Christ, to the great Physician. There is no selfishness in true religion. The more we give away, the more we keep ; the less we bestow, the less we possess. When our hearts are warm with the love of Christ, we cannot rest satisfied until we bring all about us to the heart of Christ, that they also may be saved with an everlasting salvation.

It is further to be remarked that this is a promise of more than was asked; for in the prayer that was offered, the centurion left all with Christ, and Christ answered, " I will come and heal him." The mothers brought their little children to Jesus that he might touch them; Jesus took them up, folded them in his arms, and blessed them. Christ always gives us more than we deserve, and usually more than we ask. We receive not more because we ask so little. We are not to dictate to God, but we are to ask God to bestow blessings in harmony with his own righteous will. The centurion simply informed Christ that his servant lay at home sick of the palsy ; then Jesus made his gracious promise. But Jesus did even more than he promised. We also are diseased. The case of men everywhere is desperate because of the disease of sin. For them the world has not sure promise of relief; for them philosophy gives no panacea. For the ills of life and the diseases of sin human wisdom has no remedy. Whither shall men go for relief 1 Thank God, there is a balm in Gilead, and there is a physician there. Thank God, Christ is able to save unto the uttermost all who come unto God by him. Thank God, that '* the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."

Gracious was the action of Christ in connection with the healing of this servant. He said to the centurion, or his messengers, '* Go thy way, and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee." And we are permitted to read, "And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour." Not only was the force of the disease broken, but the disease itself was entirely removed. Wonderful is the condescension of Jesus Christ ! He loves to bestow the treasures of his grace upon needy souls. He waits here to-day to answer those who ask for the forgiveness of sin and for the healing of their souls.

This leads us to observe, in the last place, that this is a promise which was immediately fulfilled. We have already seen that in the selfsame hour the servant was healed. Moses prayed, " I beseech Thee, show me thy glory," and immediately the answer came, " I will make all my goodness pass before thee." Wonderful is it that God often answers so promptly and so fully. He fulfills his own promise, " While they are yet speaking I will answer." We have in the account of the healing of the centurion's servant the first instance of faith in Christ's power to heal at a distance, and we have also seen that this great faith was not exercised by some favored Israelite, but by an outcast Gentile. I have read that a British soldier in India was lying near to death. He had long neglected, and often had reviled, religion ; but now that he was dying, he wished that some one might tell him how he might be saved. Soon he thought of a Christian friend living at a distance of one hundred and sixty miles, and to him he sent this telegraphic message : ''I am dying ; what shall I do to be saved ?" Instantly the reply came back to him, " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." He laid hold of the truth thus communicated by telegraph. The words were received in an honest and trustful heart, and soon he died with the hope of salvation in his soul. Thank God, that as Christ was able to heal at a distance, he is able from his throne in heaven at this moment to send saving grace to every sin-sick soul. To-day parents, teachers, and pastor are praying for some of you. Will you trample over a kneeling mother and a praying father, as you press along the downward road to everlasting perdition ^ Stop ! I beseech you, stop now, and receive the salvation which Jesus offers. I would be to-day the centurion going to Jesus on your behalf. I now communicate to you his willingness to say, " I will come and heal him." Are you willing to be healed .? Do not tell me that you .need no healing. Do not claim that you are only slightly diseased. The leprosy of sin is deadly. There is only one Physician who can cure the sin-sick soul ; there is only one balm that can heal this terrible wound. Here and now I lift before you Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the lost. Hear me, rather hear God who speaks in his word and through my lips, saying, '* Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth ; for I am God, and there is none else."

For I know whom, I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have com7nitted unto him against that day. — 2 Tim. i : 12.

Ill

GOD is the absolutely faithful trustee. Stewards must be faithful or they are unworthy of their name. God must be just or he would cease to be God. Perhaps good and God are not etymologically one ; but goodness and godliness are practically one and the same thing. Godhood and falsehood are incompatible ideas ; an unjust God we cannot for a moment consider possible. One unjust act on the part of God would leave the throne of the world vacant, and the whole world godless. God is the able, stable, reliable trustee of all the interests of immortal beings for time and for eternity.

These great truths the Apostle Paul fully appreciated when he wrote the words chosen as the text. These words were written in prison in Rome. This fact seems apparent everywhere throughout the Epistle, although there is some doubt as to whether it was written during the apostle's first or second imprisonment. It is, however, almost the unanimous opinion of scholars that it was written at Rome, and while the apostle was there imprisoned. The words belong to what is probably the last Epistle which the great apostle ever wrote. He was then nearing the end of his journey, awaiting his almost certain martyrdom.

The Epistle is, therefore, invested with the deepest and tenderest interest. It contains the dying counsels of the most eminent apostle to a young man whom he greatly loved and who was then just entering upon his ministerial life. This young man, Timothy, was the apostle's son in the gospel. Over the early years of his Christian life the apostle watched with paternal solicitude, and now that he has entered upon his public career, the apostle still counsels him with fatherly wisdom and motherly affection. We have here the glorious words of triumphant assurance which the matchless Paul speaks to his beloved disciple. If ever Paul's heart voiced itself in deep emotion, it is in this Epistle ; if ever he spoke as a dying man to dying men, it is throughout these chapters. Timothy's presence the apostle greatly desired, especially because nearly all others in whom he might have reposed confidence had deserted him in his hour of need. Only Luke was with him, and he desired that Timothy also might be near in his time of trial, as well as to aid in the work of the ministry. The apostle's last words to Timothy are spoken assuredly as the result of profound conviction. Here we sit at this great man's feet and hear his parting counsels. Soon he may have to stand before Nero ; soon he may receive the sentence of condemnation ; soon the headsman's sword may sever his head from his body ; and soon he may stand in the presence of the Judge of the quick and the dead. All these facts the apostle well knew ; but nowhere in this letter is there a tone of defeat. The letter is a bugle note ; it is a shout of triumph ; it is a paean of victory. How glorious is the Christian faith when it supports the apostle in scenes like these ! This Epistle should be read with the deepest interest. We are always supposed to attach much significance to the words of a dying man ; then, if ever, we feel that the man will speak the absolute truth regarding the things that lie nearest his deepest heart. To all Christians, and especially Christian ministers, this Epistle is invaluable. It tenderly touches our hearts ; it inspires our hopes ; it brightens our prospects. The text epitomizes much of the Epistle; it has been a benediction to thousands of souls. It assures the doubting, confirms the wavering, and inspires the hopeless.

In studying the text, we notice, in the first place, the apostle's committal — " that which I have committed unto him against that day." This committal possesses some striking characteristics. It is a personal committal. It is interesting to notice the pronouns, /, zvhom, he, and him, as they appear in this text. The apostle came into personal relations with the Lord Jesus ; he knew that no one but himself could make this committal for himself. Religion is a personal matter between the individual soul and God. No man can believe by proxy ; no man can obey by proxy. In the strict sense of the word no man can be sponsor for his fellow-man. Personality is eternal ; a wall as high as heaven and as deep as hell, divides every man in his deepest religious relations from every other man. No rite, no tradition, no ordinance ought to be allowed to come between the soul and God. It is said that when the learned Dr. Alexander was dying, a Christian friend undertook to quote, at his bedside, the verse now used as the text, but in repeating it, said, " I know in whom I have believed." The dying man roused himself and interrupted his friend, saying, "■ Let not even a preposition come between me and my blessed Saviour." Too often we have let whole creeds, ancient traditions, unscriptural rites and groundless superstitions come between us and our divine Redeemer. There is much of heathen superstition in many Christian creeds. It is most unfortunate for the church of Christ that so many things have come between the seeking soul and the seeking Saviour. It is to be feared, that often at the bedside of the dying the ordinance of the Lord's Supper has been thrust between the soul asking for Christ and Christ who waits to deliver the penitent and trusting sinner. The apostle's committal was in the deepest and broadest and fullest sense a personal committal.

It was also a universal committal. He committed to Christ all his bodily interests. He knew not what might shortly befall his body. Bonds and afflictions might await him ; death could not, at longest, be far distant. He knew that already his body had suffered much on behalf of his Lord. He in writing to the Galatians reminded them that he bore in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus ; he referred to this fact with a tenderness and dehcacy which deeply touch our hearts as we read his words. He well knew that all forms of suffering had been endured, and he might well expect still greater sufferings, if that were possible, in the near future. But here and now he commits all the interests of his physical being for sickness or health, for joy or sorrow, for life or death, into the keeping of his glorious Lord.

He committed also all the concerns of his professional life to the Lord Jesus. There were, doubtless, those who believed that the Apostle Paul had made a great mistake when he became the disciple of Jesus of Nazareth. The apostle might well have cherished high professional ambitions ; he doubtless would have taken high rank as a learned rabbi. He might have stood at the head of some famous school of rabbinical learning ; he might have been known throughout the learned world of his day as a leader of philosophic thought. With his great powers of mind, with his vast and varied erudition, he might have taken rank with the orators, scholars, and statesmen of his day. But all these possibilities, eminently becoming and desirable in themselves, he counted but dross for the excellence of the knowledge and service of Jesus Christ. He was willing to be nothing that Christ might be ever)rthing ; he was wilUng to lose his life for Christ's sake; and thereby he found his truer, nobler, and diviner life. But for his consecration to Christ comparatively few in the world to-day would have ever heard his name. His indifference to earthly renown has secured for him a renown otherwise utterly impossible. His whole-hearted service for God, irrespective of reputation or fame, has crowned him with glory which time shall not dim, and fame which will increase with the passing generations. The same law holds true to-day. The willingness of Carey to spend and be spent among the heathen in India, has made his name synonymous with the missionary enterprise round the globe. In his consuming zeal for the lost souls of the heathen, Judson was willing to sacrifice home, country, fame, and life; and in the heroism of that sacrifice he has written his name among the immortals. But for his heroic sacrifice he might have been merely a successful pastor in a quiet American parish, instead of being one of the brightest stars in the missionary firmament. God help us all to learn this lesson, and to lay ourselves in joyous and complete consecration upon the altar of Jesus Christ.

It was also an eternal committal. It reached past time and entered eternity. The apostle committed his soul for time and eternity to the keeping of his Lord; '^ against that day" was the limit of the committal, as he here describes it. In so speaking the apostle had in mind the great day of judgment. When language like that of the text is employed, the judgment day, ''the day for which all other days were made,-' is always in the writer's mind. The early Christians seem so often to have thought and spoken of the judgment day that it came to be readily understood when they referred to it simply as "that day," The apostle looked forward to seeing his Lord and Saviour seated on his great white throne. He had seen him amid the blinding light of the Damascus highway; he is at the last to see him above all principalities and powers, in all the splendor and glory of divine triumph. But the apostle looked to that time without fear or alarm. In the Judge he will find his best friend ; in the King his loved Saviour. The apostle knew that Christ was both able and willing to keep him from the power of sin, and to preserve him in holiness of heart and life until that great day. He knew that Christ would go with him through all the trials of life, would sweeten its bitter waters, would cool the fierceness of its flames, would go with him into the valley of the shadow of death, and would at last welcome him among the redeemed. He had no fear in going into the solemnities of the unknown world and across the trackless sea, so long as he had Jesus Christ as guide and pilot.