2132. Christ Put On

No. 2132-36:121. A Sermon Delivered On Lord’s Day Morning, February 23, 1890, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not make provision for the flesh, to fulfil its lusts. {Ro 13:14}

For other sermons on this text:
   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1614, “Dressing in the Morning” 1614}
   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2132, “Christ Put On” 2133}

1. Christ must be in us before he can be on us. Grace puts Christ within, and enables us to put on Christ without. Christ must be in the heart by faith, before he can be in the life by holiness. If you want light from a lantern, the first business is to light its candle inside; and then, as a result, the light shines through, to be seen by men. When Christ is formed in you, the hope of glory, do not conceal your love for him; but put him on in your conduct as the glory of your hope. Just as you have Christ within as your Saviour, the secret of your inner life, so put on Christ to be the beauty of your daily life. Let the external be brightened by the internal; and this shall be for you that “armour of light” which all the soldiers of the Lord Jesus are privileged to wear. Just as Christ is your food, nourishing the inner man, so put him on as your dress, covering the outer man.

2. “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” It is a very wonderful expression. It is most condescending on our Lord’s part to allow for such an exhortation. Paul speaks the mind of the Holy Spirit, and the word is full of meaning. Oh, for grace to learn its teaching! It is full of very solemn warning to us, for we need a covering so divinely perfect. Oh, for grace to practise the command to put it on! The apostle does not so much say, “Take up the Lord Jesus Christ, and bear him with you”; but, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” and so wear him as the garment of your life. A man takes up his staff for a journey, or his sword for a battle; but he lays these down again after a while: you are to put on the Lord Jesus as you put on your clothes; and so he is to cover you, and to become part and parcel of your outward appearance, surrounding your very self, as a visible part of your revealed personality.

3. “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” This we do when we believe in him: then we put on the Lord Jesus Christ as our robe of righteousness. It is a very beautiful picture of what faith does. Faith finds our manhood naked to its shame; faith sees that Christ Jesus is the robe of righteousness provided for our need, and faith, at the command of the gospel, appropriates him, and gets the benefit of him for it. By faith the soul covers her weakness with his strength, her sin with his atonement, her folly with his wisdom, her failure with his triumphs, her death with his life, her wanderings with his constancy. By faith, I say, the soul hides itself within Jesus; until Jesus only is seen, and the man is seen in him. We take not only his righteousness as being imputed to us, but we take him to be really ours; and so his righteousness becomes ours as a matter of fact. “By the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” His righteousness is set to our account, and becomes ours because he is ours. I, though long unrighteous in myself, believe in the testimony of God concerning his Son Jesus Christ, and I am accounted righteous, even as it is written, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.” The riches of God in Christ Jesus become mine as I take the Lord Jesus Christ to be everything to me.

4. But, you see, the text does not distinctly refer to this great matter, for the apostle is not referring to the imputed righteousness of Christ. The text stands in connection with precepts concerning matters of everyday practical life, and to these it must refer. It is not justification, but sanctification that we have here. Moreover, we cannot be said to put on the imputed righteousness of Christ after we have believed, for that is on us as soon as we believe, and needs no more putting on. The command before us is given to those who have the imputed righteousness of Christ, who are justified, who are accepted in Christ Jesus. “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ” is a word to you who are saved by Christ, and justified by his righteousness. You are to put on Christ, and keep on putting him on in the sanctifying of your lives to your God. Every day you are continually more and more to wear as the dress of your lives the character of your Lord.

5. I will handle this subject by answering questions. First, Where are we to go for our daily dress? “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” Secondly, What is this daily dress? “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” Thirdly, How are we to act towards evil when we are clad like this? “and do not make provision for the flesh, to fulfil its lusts.” And then I will finish with the consideration of the question, Why should we hurry to put on this matchless dress? For “The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us put on the armour of light.”

6. I. May the Holy Spirit help us while we, in the first place, answer the enquiry, WHERE ARE WE TO GO FOR DAILY DRESS?

7. Beloved, there is only one answer to all questions concerning our necessities. We go to the Lord Jesus Christ for everything. To us “Christ is all.” “He is made by God to us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” When you have come to Christ for pardon and justification, you are not to go elsewhere for the next thing. Having begun with Jesus, you are to go on with him, even to the end; “for you are complete in him,” perfectly stored in Christ, fully equipped in him. “It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell.” Every necessity that can ever press upon you between this Marah in the wilderness and that sea of glass before the throne, will be found to be met in Christ Jesus. You ask, “What am I to do for a vesture which will befit the courts of the Lord? for armour that will protect me from the assaults of the foe? for a robe that will enable me to act as a priest and king to God?” The one answer to the all-encompassing question is, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” You have no further need. You need not look elsewhere for a thread or a shoe-latchet.

8. So, dear friends, I gather from this, that if we seek an example, we may not look elsewhere than to our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not written, “Put on this man or that”; but “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” The model for a saint is his Saviour. We are very apt to select some eminently gracious or useful man to be a pattern for us. A measure of good may result from such a course, but a degree of evil may also come of it. There will always be some fault about the most excellent of our fellow mortals; and just as our tendency is to caricature virtues until we make them faults, so it is our greater folly to mistaken faults for excellencies, and copy them with careful exactness, and generally with abundant exaggeration. By this plan, with the best intentions, we may reach very sad results. Follow Jesus in the way, and you will not err: let your feet go down exactly in his footprints, and you cannot slide. Just as his grace enables us, let us make it true, that “as he was, so are we in this world.” You need not look beyond your Lord for an example under any circumstances. Of him you may enquire as of an unfailing oracle. You need never enquire what is the general custom of those around you: the broad road of the many is no way for you. You may not ask, “What are the rulers of the people doing?” You do not follow the fashion of the great, but the example of the greatest of all. “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ” will apply to each one of us. If I am a tradesman, I am not to ask myself — On what principles do other tradesmen conduct their business? Not so. What the world may do is no rule for me. If I am a student I should not enquire — How do others feel towards religion? Let others do as they wish, it is for us to serve the Lord. In every relationship, in the domestic circle, in the literary world, in the sphere of friendship, or in business connections, I am to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” If I am perplexed, I am bound to ask — What would Jesus do? and his example is to guide me. If I cannot conceive of his acting in a certain way, neither must I allow myself to do so; but if I perceive, from his precept, his spirit, or his action, that he would follow such and such a course, I must keep to that line. I am not to put on the philosopher, the politician, the priest, or the popularity hunter; but I am to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, by taking his life to be the model upon which I fashion my own life.

9. From our text I should also gather that we are to go to the Lord Jesus Christ for stimulus. We want not only an example, but a motive, an impulse and constraining power to keep us true to that example. We need to put on zeal as a cloak, and to be covered with a holy influence which will urge us onward. Let us go to the Lord Jesus for motives. Some flee to Moses, and would drive themselves to duty by the thunders of Sinai. Their intention in service is to earn eternal life, or prevent the loss of the favour of God. So they come under law, and forsake the true way of the believer, which is faith. Not from dread of punishment or hope of hire do believers serve the living God; but we put on Christ, and the love of Christ constrains us. Here is the spring of true holiness: “Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace.” A stronger force than law has gripped you: you serve God, not as servants, whose sole thought is the wage, but as children, whose eye is on the father and his love. Your motive is gratitude to him by whose precious blood you are redeemed. He has put on your cause, and therefore you would take up his cause. Please do not go to the steep sides of Sinai to find motives for holiness; but hurry to Calvary, and there find those sweet herbs of love, which shall be the medicine of your soul. “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” Covered with a consciousness of his love, fired with love for him in return, you will be strong to be, to do, or to suffer, as the Lord God may appoint.

10. Need I say, never find a reason for doing right in a desire to win the approbation of your fellow men? Do not say, “I must do this or that in order to please my company.” That is a poor life which is sustained by the breath of other men’s nostrils. Followers of Jesus will not wear the livery of custom, or stand in awe of human censure. Love of commendation, and fear of disapprobation, are low and beggarly motives: they sway the feeble many, but they ought not to rule the man in Christ. You must be moved by a far higher consideration: you serve the Lord Christ, and must not, therefore, become the lackey of men. His glory is to be your one aim; and for the joy of this you must treat everything else as a light thing. Here we find our spur — “The love of Christ constrains us.”

11. Beloved, the text means more than this. “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ”; that is, find in Jesus your strength. Although you are saved, and are quickened by the Holy Spirit, so as to be a living child of the living God, yet you have no strength for heavenly duty, unless you receive it from above. Go to Jesus for power. I charge you, never say, “I shall do the right because I have resolved to do it. I am a man of strong mind; I am determined to resist this evil, and I know I shall not yield. I have made up my mind, and there is no fear of my turning aside.” Brother, if you rely on yourself in that way, you will soon prove to be a broken reed. Failure follows at the heel of self-confidence. “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.”

12. I charge you, do not rely on what you have acquired in the past. Do not say in your heart, “I am a man of experience, and therefore I can resist temptation, which would crush the younger and greener folk. I have now spent so many years in persistent well-doing that I may consider myself out of danger. Is it likely that I should ever be led astray?” Oh sir, it is more than likely! It is a fact already. The moment that a man declares he cannot fall, he has already fallen from sobriety and humility. Your head is turned, my brother, or you would not talk about your inward perfection; and when the head turns, the feet are not very safe. Inward conceit is the mother of open sin. Make Christ your strength, and not yourself; nor your acquirements or experiences. “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ” day by day, and do not make the rags of yesterday to be the raiment of the future. Get grace fresh and fresh. Say with David, “All my fresh springs are in you.” Get all your power for holiness and usefulness from Jesus, and from him alone. “Surely in the Lord I have righteousness and strength.” Do not rely on resolves, pledges, methods, prayers; but lean on Jesus only as the strength of your life.

13. “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” This is a wonderful word to me, because it indicates that in the Lord Jesus we have perfection. I shall in a moment or two show you some of the virtues and graces which are resplendent in the character of our Lord Jesus Christ. These may be compared to different parts of our armour or dress — the helmet, the shoes, the breastplate. But the text does not say, “Put on this quality or virtue of the Lord Christ”; but “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” He himself, as a whole, is to be our array. Not this excellence or that; but himself. He must be to us a sacred over-all. I do not know by what other means to bring out my meaning: he is to cover us from head to foot. We do not so much copy his humility, his gentleness, his love, his zeal, his prayerfulness, as himself. Endeavour to come into such communion with Jesus himself that his character is reproduced in you. Oh, to be wrapped up with himself: feeling, desiring, acting, as he felt, desired, and acted. What a raiment for our spiritual nature is our Lord Jesus Christ! What an honourable robe for a man to wear! Why, in that case, our life would be hidden in Christ, and he would be seen over us in a life quickened by his Spirit, swayed by his motives, sweetened with his sympathy, pursuing his purposes, and following in his steps. When we read, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” it means, “Receive the whole character of Christ, and let your whole character be conformed to his will.” Cover your whole being with the whole of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a wonderful precept! Oh, for grace to carry it out! May the Lord turn the command into an actual fact. Throughout the rest of our lives may we be more and more like Jesus, so that the purpose of God may be fulfilled in which we are “predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son.”

14. Once more, observe the speciality which is seen in this dress. It is specially adapted to each individual believer. Paul does not say merely to one person, “Put thou on the Lord Jesus Christ,” but to all of us, “Put you on the Lord Jesus Christ.” Can all the saints put on Christ, whether babes, young men, or fathers? Not all of you could wear my coat, I am quite certain; and I am equally certain that I could not wear the garments of many of the young people now present; but here is a matchless garment, which will be found suitable for every believer, without expansion or contraction. Whoever puts on the Lord Jesus Christ has put on a robe which will be his glory and beauty. In every case the example of Jesus is admirably suited for copying. Suppose a child of God should be a king; what better advice could I give to him, when about to rule a nation, than this, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ?” Be such a king as Jesus would have been. Indeed, copy his royal character. Suppose, on the other hand, that the person before us is a poor woman from the workhouse; shall I say the same to her? Yes, and with equal propriety; for Jesus was very poor, and is a most suitable example for those who have no home of their own. Oh worker, put on Christ, and be full of zeal! Oh sufferer, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and abound in patience! That friend over there is going to the Sunday School this afternoon. Well, in order to win those dear children to the Saviour, “put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” who said, “Permit the little children to come to me, and do not forbid them.” In his sacred raiment you will make a good teacher. Are you a preacher, and about to address thousands of grown-up people? How better can I advise you than that you put on Christ and preach the gospel in his own loving, pleading, earnest style. The preacher’s model should be his Lord. This is our preaching gown, our praying surplice, {a} our pastoral robe — the character and spirit of the Lord Jesus; and it admirably suits each form of service.

15. No man’s example will precisely fit his fellow man; but there is this strange virtue about the character of Christ, that you may all imitate it, and yet none of you would be mere imitators. He is perfectly natural who is perfectly like Christ. There need be no affectation, no painful restraint, no straining. In a life so fashioned there will be nothing grotesque or disproportionate, unmanly or romantic. So wonderfully is Jesus the Second Adam of the new-born race, that each member of that family may bear a likeness to him, and yet exhibit a distinct individuality. A man advanced in years and wisdom may put him on, and so may the least instructed, and the newest comer among us. Please remember this: we may not choose examples, but each one is bound to copy the Lord Jesus Christ. You, dear friend, have a special personality; you are such a person that there is not another exactly like you, and you are placed in circumstances so unique that no one else is tested exactly as you are; — to you, then, this exhortation is sent: “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” It is absolutely certain, that for you, with your unique personality, and unique circumstances, there can be nothing better than that you array yourself in this more than royal robe. You, too, who live in ordinary circumstances, and are only tested by common temptations, you are to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ”; for he will be suitable for you also. “Oh,” one cries, “but the Lord Jesus never was exactly where I am!” You say this from lack of knowing better, or from lack of thought. He has been tempted in all points like you are. There are certain relationships which the Lord Jesus could not literally occupy; but then, he took their spiritual counterpart. For example, Jesus could not be a husband after the flesh. Does anyone demand how he could be an example for husbands? Listen! “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.” He is your model in relationship which, naturally, he never sustained, but which, in very deed, he has more than fulfilled. Wherever you may be, you find that the Lord Jesus has occupied the counterpart of your position, or else the position is sinful, and ought to be abandoned. In any place, at any hour, under any circumstances, in any matter, you may put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and never fear that your array will be unsuitable. Here you have a summer and winter garment — good in prosperity, as well as in adversity. Here you have a garment for the private room or the public forum, for sickness or for health, for honour or for reproach, for life or for death. “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” and in this raiment of embroidered gold you may enter into the King’s palace, and stand among the spirits of just men made perfect.

16. II. Secondly, trusting in the Holy Spirit, let us enquire WHAT IS THIS DAILY DRESS? The Lord Jesus Christ is to be put on. May the Spirit of God help us to do so!

17. We see how the sacred dress is here described in three words. The sacred titles of the Son of God are spread out at length: “Put on the Lord — Jesus — Christ.” Put him on as Lord. Call him your master and Lord, and you will do well. Be his servant in everything. Submit every faculty, every capacity, every talent, every possession to his government. Submit all that you have and are to him, and delight to acknowledge his superior right and his royal claim over you. Be Christ’s man; his servant, under bonds to his service for ever, finding life and liberty in it. Let the dominion of your Lord cover the kingdom of your nature. Then put on Jesus. Jesus means a Saviour: in every part be covered by him in that blessed capacity. You, a sinner, hide yourself in Jesus, your Saviour, who shall save you from your sins. He is your sanctifier driving out sin, and your preserver keeping sin from returning. Jesus is your armour against sin. You overcome through his blood. In him you are defended against every weapon of the enemy: he is your shield, keeping you from all evil. He covers you all over like a complete suit of armour, so that when arrows of temptation fly like a fiery shower, they may be quenched upon heavenly a shield of mail, and you may stand unharmed amid a shower of deaths. Put on Jesus, and then put on Christ. You know that Christ means “anointed.” Now, our Lord is anointed as Prophet, Priest, and King, and as such we put him on. What a splendid thing it is to put on Christ as the anointed Prophet, and to accept his teaching as our creed! I believe it. Why? Because he said it. This is argument enough for me. Mine is not to argue, or doubt, or criticize; Christ has said it, and I, putting him on, find in his authority the end of all strife. What Christ declares, I believe; discussion ends where Christ begins. Put him on also as your Priest. Notwithstanding your sin, your unworthiness, your defilement, go to the altar of the Lord by him who, as Priest, has taken away your sin, clothed you with his merit, and made you acceptable to God. In our great High Priest we enter within the veil. We are in him; by faith we experience this, and so put him on as our Priest, and lose ourselves in his accepted sacrifice. Our Lord Jesus is also anointed to be King. Oh, put him on in all his imperial majesty, by yielding your every wish and thought to his sway! Set him on the throne of your heart. Just as you have submitted your thought and understanding to his prophetic instruction, so submit your action and your practical life to his kingly government. Just as you put on his priesthood and find atonement in him, so put on his royalty and find holiness in him.

18. I now wish to show the description given in Colossians chapter three from the twelfth verse. I will take you to the wardrobe for a minute, and ask you to look over the articles of our outfit. See here, “Put on therefore”; you see everything is to be put on; nothing is to be left on the hangers for the moth to eat, nor in the window to be idly stared at: you put on the whole armour of God. In true religion everything is designed for practical use. We keep no garments in the drawer; we have to put on all that is provided. “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, a heart of mercies, kindness.” Here are two choice things: mercy and kindness — silken robes indeed! Have you put them on? I am to be as merciful, as tender-hearted, as kind, as sympathetic, as loving to my fellow men as Christ himself was. Have I reached this point? Have I ever strove for it? Who among us has put on these royal gloves?

19. See what follows — these choice things come in pairs — “humbleness of mind, meekness.” These choice garments are not so much esteemed as they should be. The cloth of one called “Proud-of-Heart” is very fashionable, and the trimmings of Mr. Masterful are much in demand. It is a melancholy thing to see what great men some Christians are. Truly, the footman is bigger than his master. How some who would be thought saints can bluster and bully! Is this to put on the Lord Jesus Christ? Point me to a word of our Lord’s in which he scolded and tyrannized, and overrode any man. He was meek and lowly, even he, the Lord of all: what ought we to be, who are not worthy to release the latchets of his shoes? Permit me to say to any dear brother who does not have a very tender nature, who is naturally hard and rasping, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” my brother, and do not make provision for that unfeeling nature of yours. Endeavour to be lowly in mind, so that you may be gentle in spirit.

20. See, next, we are to put on longsuffering and forbearance. Some men have no patience with others: how can they expect God to have patience with them? If everything is not done to their mind they are in a fine fury. Dear me! whom have we here? Is this a servant of Mars, or of the Fire-god? Surely, this fighting man does not profess to be a worshipper of Christ! Do not tell me that the man lost his temper. It would be a mercy if he had lost it, so as never to find it again. He is selfish, petulant, exacting, and easily provoked. Does this man have the spirit of Christ? If he is a Christian, he is a naked Christian, and I would urge him to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” so that he may be appropriately clothed. Our Lord was full of forbearance. “Consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you are wearied, and faint in your minds.” Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and bear and forbear. Put up with a great deal that really ought not to be inflicted upon you, and be ready to bear even more rather than give or take offence.

21. “Forgiving each other, if any man has a quarrel against any; even as Christ forgave you, so also do you.” Is this not heavenly teaching? Put it in practice. Put on your Lord. Have you fallen to loggerheads with each other, and did I hear one of you growling, “I’ll, I’ll, I’ll —— ?” Stop, brother! What will you do? If you are true to the Lord Jesus Christ you will not avenge yourself, but give place to wrath. Put the Lord Jesus on your tongue, and you will not talk so bitterly; put him on your heart, and you will not feel so fiercely; put him on your whole character, and you will readily forgive, not only this once, but up to seventy times seven. If you have been unjustly treated by one who should have been your friend, lay aside wrath, and begin again; and perhaps your brother will begin again also, and both of you by love will overcome evil. “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.”

22. “And above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.” Love is the sash which binds up the other garments, and keeps all the other graces well braced, and in their right places. Put on love — what a golden sash! Are we all putting on love? We have been baptized into Christ, and we profess to have put on Christ; but do we daily try to put on love? Our baptism was not true if we are not buried to all old enmities. We may have a great many faults, but may God grant that we may be full of love for Jesus, for his people, and for all mankind!

23. How much I wish that we could all put on, and keep on, the next article of this wardrobe! “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you are called in one body; and be thankful.” Oh, for a peaceful mind! Oh, to rest in the Lord! I recommend that last little word, “Be thankful,” to farmers and others whose interests are depressed. I might equally recommend it to certain tradespeople, whose trade is quite as good as they could expect. “Things are a little better,” one said to me; and at that time he was heaping up riches. When things are extremely good, people say they are “middling,” or a “little better”; but when there is a slight falling off they cry out about “nothing doing, stagnation, universal ruin.” Thankfulness is a rare virtue; but let the lover of the Lord Jesus abound in it. The possession of your mind in peace, keeping yourself quiet, calm, self-possessed, content — this is a blessed state; and in such a state Jesus was; therefore, “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” He was never in a fret or fume. He was never hurried or worried; he never repined or coveted. Had he nothing to trouble him? More than you have, brother. Had he not many things to distress him? More than all of us put together. Yet he was not ruffled, but showed a princelike calm, a divine serenity. Our Lord would have us wear this. His peace he leaves with us, and his joy he would have fulfilled in us. He wishes us to go through life with the peace of God keeping our hearts and minds from the assaults of the enemy. He would have us quiet and strong — strong because quiet, quiet because strong.

24. I have read of a great man, that he took two and a half hours to dress himself every morning. In this he showed rather littleness than greatness; but if any of you put on the Lord Jesus Christ you may take as long as you need to do it. It will take you all your lives, my brothers and sisters, to put on the Lord Jesus Christ fully, and to keep him on. For let me say again, that you are not only to put on all these garments which I have shown to you in the wardrobe of the Colossians, but, more than this, you are to put on everything else that makes up Christ himself. What a dress is this! “Put on Christ,” says the text.

25. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ for daily wear. Not for high days and holy days only, but for all time, and every time. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ on the Lord’s day, but do not lay him aside during the week. Ladies have ornaments which they put on occasionally for display on grand occasions: as a rule, these jewels are hidden away in a jewel case. Christians, you must always wear your jewels. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and have no jewel box in which to conceal any part of him. Put on Christ to keep him on. I saw a missionary from the cold north the other day, and he was wearing a coat of moose skin, which he had worn among the Red Indians. “It is a capital coat,” he said, “there’s nothing like leather. I have worn it for eleven years.” In the arctic region through which he had travelled, he had worn this garment both by night and by day; for the climate was much too cold to allow the taking off of anything. Brethren, the world is far too cold to allow us to take off Christ even for an hour. So many arrows are flying around that we dare not remove a single piece of our armour even for an instant. Thank God, we have in our Lord a dress which we may always wear. We can live in it, and die in it; we can work in it, and rest in it, and, like the raiment of Israel in the wilderness, it will never wear out. Put it on more and more.

26. If you have put on something of Christ, put on more of Christ. I dare not say much in commendation of apparel, here in England, for the tendency is to exceed in that direction; yet I noticed, the other day, the remark of a missionary in the South Sea Islands, that as the heathen people became converted they began to clothe themselves, and as they acquired tenderness of conscience, and delicacy of feeling, they gave more attention to dress — wearing more clothes, and of a better kind. However that may be as for dress for the body, it is certainly so as for the arraying of the soul. As we make spiritual progress, we have more graces and more virtues than in the beginning. Once we were content to wear faith only, but now we put on hope and love. Once if we wore humbleness, we failed to wear thankfulness; but our text exhorts us to wear a full dress, a court suit; for we are to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” You cannot wear too much of him. Be covered from head to foot with him.

27. Put on the Lord in every time of trial. Do not take him off when it comes to the test. Quaint Henry Smith says that some people wear the Lord Jesus as a man wears his hat, which he takes off to everyone he meets. I am afraid I know people of that kind, who wear Christ in private, but they take him off in company, especially in the company of the worldly, the sarcastic, and the unbelieving. Put on Christ, intending never to take him off again. When tempted, tested, ridiculed, hear in your ear this voice, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” Put him on all the more as others tempt you to put him on.

28. III. My time fails me, and I must hurriedly notice, in the third place, HOW WE ARE TO ACT IN THIS DRESS TOWARDS EVIL.

29. The text says, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not make provision for the flesh, to fulfil its lusts.” By the flesh is meant here the evil part of us, which is so greatly aided by the appetites and desires of the body. When a man puts on Christ, does he still have the flesh about him? Alas! it is even so. I hear some brethren say that they have no remaining corruptions. I claim liberty to believe as much as I like of a man’s statements concerning his own personal character. When he bears witness concerning himself, his witness may or may not be true. When a man tells me that he is perfect, I hear what he has to say, but I quietly think within myself that if he had been so, he would not have felt the necessity of spreading the information. “Good wine needs no bush”; and when our town once holds a perfect man within its bounds there will be no need to advertise him. Goods that are puffed probably need puffery. Brethren, I fear we have all very much of the flesh about us, and therefore we need be on our guard against it. What does the apostle say? “Make no provision for the flesh.” By this, he means several things.

30. First, give no tolerance to it. Do not say, “Christ has sanctified me so far; but you see I naturally have a bad temper, and you cannot expect it to be removed.” Dear brother, do not make provision for so sheltering and sparing one of your soul’s enemies. Another cries, “You know I always was very desponding; and therefore I can never have much joy in the Lord.” Do not make room for your unbelief. If you find a kennel for this dog, it will always lie in it. “But,” another says, “I was always rather fond of gaiety, and so I must mix up with the world.” Well if you cook a dinner for the devil, he will take a seat at your table. This is to make provision for the flesh, to fulfil its lusts. Do not do that, but kill the Canaanites, break their idols, throw down their altars, and fell their groves.

31. Moreover, give sin no time. Allow no furlough for your obedience. Do not say to yourself, “At all other times I am exact, but once a year, at a family meeting, I take a little liberty.” Is it liberty for you to sin? I am afraid there is something rotten in your heart. “Ah!” one cries, “I only allow myself an hour or two occasionally with questionable company. I know it does me harm; but we must all have a little relaxation, and the talk is very amusing, though rather loose.” Is evil a relaxation to you? It ought to be worse than slavery. What a trial is foolish talking to a child of God! How can you find pleasure in it? Give no licence to the flesh; you cannot tell how far it will go. Always keep it under subjection, and make no provision for its indulgence.

32. Provide no food for it. Carve it no rations. Starve it out; at any rate, if it needs fodder, let it look elsewhere. When you are allotting your provision to the body, the soul, the spirit, allot nothing to the depraved passions. If the flesh says, “What is for me?” say, “Nothing.” Some people like a little bit of reading for the flesh. As some people like a little bit of what they call “rather high” food, so these folk enjoy a portion of tainted doctrine, or questionable morality. So they make provision for the flesh, and the flesh takes care to feed on it, and to give its lusts a meal. I have known professors, whom I would not dare to judge, dabble just a little in matters which they would forbid to others, but they think them allowable to themselves, if done in secret. “You must not be too exact,” they say. But the apostle says, “Do not make provision for the flesh.” Do not give it a morsel; do not even allow it the crumbs that fall from your table. The flesh is greedy, and never has enough; and if you give it some provision, it will steal much more.

33. “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” and then you will leave no place for the lusts of the flesh. What Christ does not cover is naked to sin. If Christ is my livery, and I wear him, and so am known to be his affirmed servant, then I place myself entirely in his hands always and for ever, and the flesh has no claim whatever on me. If, before I put on Christ, I might make some reserve, and duty did not call, yet now that the Lord Jesus Christ is on me, I have no more reserves, and am openly and confessedly my Lord’s. “Do you know,” says the apostle, “that as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ?” Being buried with him, we are dead to the world, and live only for him. May the Lord bring us up to this mark by his mighty Spirit; and he shall have the glory for it.

34. IV. If this is the case, and we have indeed “put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” we will thank God for evermore; but if it is not so, let us not delay to be arrayed in this dress. WHY SHOULD WE HURRY TO PUT ON CHRIST?

35. A moment is all that remains. It is dark. Here is armour made of solid light; let us put on this attire at once; then the night will be light around us, and others beholding us will glorify God, and ask for the same raiment. With so dense a night all around us, a man needs to be dressed in luminous robes; he needs to wear the light of God, he needs to be practically protected from the darkness around him.

36. “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” moreover; for the night will soon be over: the morning will soon dawn. The rags of sin, the sordid robes of worldliness, are not fit attire for the heavenly morning. Let us dress for the sunrising. Let us go out to meet the dawn with garments of light on us.

37. “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” for he is coming, the beloved of our souls! Over the hills we hear the trumpet sounding; the heralds are crying aloud, “The bridegroom comes! The bridegroom comes!” Though he has seemed to tarry, he has always been coming post-haste. Today we hear his chariot wheels in the distance. Nearer and nearer is his advent. Let us not sleep as others do. Blessed are those who will be ready for the wedding when the Bridegroom comes. What is that wedding dress that shall make us ready? Nothing can make us more fit to meet Christ, and to be with him in his glory, than for us to put on Christ today. If I wear Christ as my dress I do great honour to Christ as my Bridegroom. If I take him for my glory and my beauty while I am here, I may be sure that he will be all that and more to me in eternity. If I take pleasure in Jesus here, Jesus will take pleasure in me when he shall meet me in the air, and take me up to dwell with him for ever. Put on the wedding dress, you beloved of the Lord! Put on the wedding dress, you brides of the Lamb, and put it on at once, for behold he comes! Hurry, hurry, you slumbering virgins! Arise and trim your lamps! Put on your robes, and be ready to behold his glory, and to take part in it. Oh you virgin souls, go out to meet him; with joy and gladness go out, wearing him as your gorgeous apparel, fit for the daughters of a king. May the Lord bless you, for Christ’s sake! Amen.

[Portions Of Scripture Read Before Sermon — Ro 12; 13:8-14]
{See Spurgeon_Hymnal “The Lord’s Day — Sweet Rest” 917}
{See Spurgeon_Hymnal “Jesus Christ, Life on Earth — His Divine Example” 262}
{See Spurgeon_Hymnal “Jesus Christ, Life on Earth — Imitation Of Jesus” 263}

{a} Surplice: A loose vestment of white linen having wide sleeves and, in its amplest form, reaching to the feet, worn (usually over a cassock) by clerics, choristers, and others taking part in church services. OED.

Public Worship, The Lord’s Day
917 — Sweet Rest
1 My Lord, my love, was crucified,
      He all the pains did bear;
   But in the sweetness of his rest
      He makes his servants share.
2 How sweetly rest thy saints above
      Which in thy bosom lie!
   The church below doth rest in hope
      Of that felicity.
3 Welcome and dear unto my soul
      Are there sweet feasts of love;
   But what a Sabbath shall I keep
      When I shall rest above!]
4 I bless thy wise and wondrous love,
      Which binds us to be free;
   Which makes us leave our earthly snares,
      That we may come to thee!
5 I come, I wait, I hear, I pray!
      Thy footsteps, Lord, I trace!
   I sing to think this is the way
      Unto my Saviour’s face!
                        John Mason, 1683.

Jesus Christ, Life on Earth
262 — His Divine Example
1 My dear Redeemer and my Lord,
   I read my duty in thy Word;
   But in thy life the law appears
   Drawn out in living characters.
2 Such was thy truth, and such thy zeal,
   Such deference to thy Father’s will,
   Such love, and meekness so divine,
   I would transcribe and make them mine.
3 Cold mountains and the midnight air
   Witness’d the fervour of thy prayer;
   The desert thy temptation knew,
   Thy conflict and thy victory too.
4 Be thou my pattern; make me bear
   More of thy gracious image here;
   Then God the Judge shall own my name
   Amongst the followers of the Lamb.
                        Isaac Watts, 1709.

Jesus Christ, Life on Earth
263 — Imitation Of Jesus
1 Lord, as to thy dear Cross we flee,
   And plead to be forgiven,
   So let thy life our pattern be,
   And form our souls for heaven.
2 Help us, through good report and ill,
   Our daily cross to bear;
   Like thee, to do our Father’s will,
   Our brethren’s griefs to share.
3 Let grace our selfishness expel,
   Our earthliness refine;
   And kindness in our bosoms dwell,
   As free and true as thine.
4 If joy shall at thy bidding fly,
   And grief’s dark day come on,
   We, in our turn, would meekly cry,
   “Father, thy will be done.”
5 Kept peaceful in the midst of strife,
   Forgiving and forgiven,
   Oh may we lead the pilgrim’s life,
   And follow thee to heaven!
            John Hampden Gurney, 1851.