3391. Preparation for the Lord’s Supper

A Sermon Published On Thursday, January 29, 1914.

Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. {1Co 11:28}

For other sermons on this text:

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2647, “Preparation Necessary for the Communion” 2648}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2699, “Examination Before Communion” 2700}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2865, “Fencing the Table” 2866}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3391, “Preparation for the Lord’s Supper” 3393}

   Exposition on 1Co 11:17-34 Lu 22:14-24 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2638, “Right Observance of the Lord’s Supper, The” 2639 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Mt 26:17-30 1Co 11:18-34 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2865, “Fencing the Table” 2866 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Mt 26:17-30 1Co 11:20-34 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2595, “What the Lord’s Supper Sees and Says” 2596 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Mt 26:17-39 1Co 11:20-34 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2699, “Examination Before Communion” 2700 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Mt 26:26-30 1Co 11:20-34 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2268, “Question for Communicants, A” 2269 @@ "Exposition"}

1. “Let a Man examine himself.” That is, any man — every man who intends to eat of that bread and drink of that cup. The word is indefinite so that it may be understood to be universal. No man is to come to that table, no woman is to draw near, without the previous self-examination. No age will excuse us, for there have been aged hypocrites, as well as young deceivers. No office will exonerate us from this examination, for there was a Judas even among the disciples. The highest degree in the Church of God may consist with the most rotten formality. We are to examine ourselves each time we come. Each man is to do so. No one is to shirk the personal duty. Everyone is to undertake it as in the sight of God. Brothers and sisters, you members of the church, about to come around this table, give heed to the mandate of the Holy Spirit, by the inspired apostle, “Let each one here examine himself, and so let him eat of this bread.”

2. “Let a man examine himself.” The word is forcible. Let him make inquisition into his own soul, as to whether all is right or not. Let him search diligently, tracing out every symptom that looks unfavourable, if perhaps that symptom may reveal the truth. Let him dwell on every dark side or bad looking spot, if perhaps those dark signs should mean more than is apparent on the surface. We are not to trifle with ourselves by making a superficial survey. Let a man examine himself as does the dealer in precious metals when he thrusts the ore into the fire, knowing that only the gold will come out, while the dross will be consumed. Put yourself into a crucible. Heat the furnace of examination seven times hotter than normal, for since your heart will, if possible, escape from knowing the truth, be resolved that it shall know it, and the worst of it, too. Let a man review, test, prove, search, try. In all the strongest words that I could find that mean the fullest scrutiny I would put the language of the apostle, “Let a man examine himself.”

3. “Let a man examine himself.” He need not be so particular to examine those who are around him. If there should be unworthy communicants at the table, his communing will not be damaged by it. Though some may have intruded where they ought not to be, yet if your heart and mind shall come near to Christ in actual fellowship, we shall not have the less indulgence from our Lord because a Judas happened to be there. “Let a man examine himself.” Let it be personal work. I know there is an examination through which the church member among us passes, when such as are experienced in the faith ask, “What do you know about these things? What is your faith regarding this and that? Have you believed? Have you repented?” Such an examination, however, must never satisfy you. Please never feel that it is any certificate of genuine discipleship to have been seen by the elders, or to have had the pastor satisfied concerning your conversion. We are poor fallible creatures; we cannot profess to search the heart; indeed, we never did profess it. It is only your outward life, and your profession, that we are called on to judge at all. You must not go by our examination, but “Let a man examine himself.” You are to look into your own heart, with your own eyes only, and ask to have them enlightened by the Holy Spirit. You are to hold the balance yourselves, and weigh your soul in it. You are not to be satisfied with a second-hand judgment, or with another man’s search. Take the candle yourself, man. Go through every corner and every crevice. Sweep out the old leaven, and so keep the feast in simplicity of heart. “Let a man examine himself.”

4. “And so,” says the apostle, “let him eat of that bread.” That is to say, the examination is to be timely. It is always to come at the time of the eating of the bread and the drinking of the wine. It should always be the prelude to communion. Examination should preface enjoyment. You should see whether you ought to be there, and have a right to be there, and that ascertained, then you should come but not until then. Is it not a very significant circumstance that the very first time our Lord took the bread and broke it, and instituted this Supper, there was at that very time a self-examination going on, and then they made an appeal to the Lord himself at the conclusion, for each one said, when the question was asked as to who it was who would betray him, “Lord, is it I?” “Lord, is it I?” — not at all an unsuitable question to be passed around tonight, when we shall break bread, and hear it said, “One of you will betray me.” Ah! brethren, I fear there are many more than one here among professors who will betray him. Perhaps there are scores, if not hundreds, among so large a number of professing Christians who will not prove, after all, to be genuine. Then let the question, though it stirs the anguish of your souls, pass around among you, “Lord, is it I?” “Lord, is it I?” nor let any man eat of this bread, or drink of this cup, until he has humbly in his soul sought to examine his conscience, so that he may investigate this matter whether he is Christ’s or not.

5. Now, dear brethren, for a few minutes only, we shall look at the matter about which we are to examine ourselves; and then we shall press on you this examination, by giving you a few reasons for it. May God grant us a blessing in this searching business.

6. I. Our first point is: — CONCERNING WHAT WE ARE TO EXAMINE.

7. You will observe that the text does not tell us, “Let a man examine himself concerning this or that particular, and so let him eat.” He is to examine himself; but the apostle does not say about what. The inference is that he is to examine himself about this Supper; he is to examine himself as to whether he has a right to eat of this bread and to drink of this wine. The Supper gives us the clue, then, as to what we are to examine ourselves about. I shall see before me presently broken bread and the wine cup filled with the red wine. These two things are the emblems — the bread of the body of Christ, which was bruised and made to suffer for our sake — the wine of that precious blood of Christ by which sin is pardoned and souls are redeemed.

8. I have no right to touch these emblems unless in my soul I believe the facts that they represent. Shall I not begin to question myself then? Do I accept as a certain fact that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us? Do I believe that God descended from the highest throne of glory, and became a man of woman born? Do I believe that he suffered in human flesh, the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God? Do I believe that in his blood, which was “shed for many,” there is a virtue for the putting away of sin and making atonement to Almighty God, and so that sinners may be accepted in the beloved? Unless I believe these things I am clearly a hypocrite, a terrible hypocrite, if I dare to come to this table at all. I am perverse among the perverse to thrust myself in to touch the emblems when I do not accept the facts which those emblems represent. Now, every man here can easily examine himself by that test, but I hope most of us here would say, “We do believe those facts.” Yes, but do you believe them as facts that are forcible in themselves and full of consequences? Do you apprehend them in their amazing weight and their stupendous bearing on the judgment of God and the destiny of men? God made flesh — God incarnate — Jesus, Emmanuel suffering to put away the sins of his people — The Christ of God presenting salvation to every soul that trusts in him! Why, this is news such as never stirred even Paradise itself before. It is the best, and highest, and most wonderful news that angels ever heard. We ought so to hear and so to accept these facts in that same spirit that characterized them when they transpired, in order to duly discern their importance, or we have no right to come here.

9. Furthermore, brethren, every man who eats of the bread and drinks of the wine shows symbolically by the eating of the bread that the flesh of Christ is his, and by the drinking of the wine that the blood of Christ is his. Because he has possession of these things, he, therefore, comes to eat as men eat their own bread, or to drink as men drink their own wine. Now, dear hearer, the question asked of you is this — Do you have an interest in the body and the blood of Christ? “How can I know my interest in it?” one says. You may know it like this — Do you fully and only rely on Jesus Christ for your salvation? Do you implicitly trust the merits of his agonies? Do you, without any other confidence, cast yourself fully on the great atoning sacrifice and transactions of Calvary? If so, that faith gives you Christ; it is the evidence that Christ is yours; you need not be afraid to come and take the wine when you so obviously have the thing that is signified by it. You may come; you are invited to come; you cannot stay away without sin if Christ indeed is yours.

10. The question may assume another form. This Supper was instituted so that we might remember Christ in it. Here is a question for each one of you — Can you remember Christ? Will coming here help you to remember Jesus Christ? If not, you must not come. But, how can you remember what you do not know, and how shall you remember at all properly, one in whom you have no part nor lot? To remember Christ as a mere person in history is of no more use than to remember Julius Caesar or Napoleon Buonaparte. To remember Christ, who loved you and gave himself for you — this is the choice memory that will be beneficial to your spirits. Beloved, I am quite certain that sometimes in what is called the Sacrament there is little or no memory of Christ. Men and women come to it with no idea of remembering him. They think that there is something in the thing itself; some holiness in eating the bread and drinking the wine; some grace bestowed by the priestly hands that administer the emblems of the Passion. But oh! it is not so. This is not to receive the Lord’s Supper; this is only Popish idolatry; this is not the true worship of the child of God. You come to the table to remember him, and only so far as those signs help you to remember him; to trust him, to love him, only so far do they become a means of grace to you. There is no latent moral virtue in material substances; no regeneration lurks in water; no confirmation in grace streams from priestly hands. There is no sanctity in lawn sleeves; {a} there is no holiness in bread, and nothing devout in wine. These are just outward and visible signs. The holiness, the sanctity, the grace, must lie in your own hearts as you lovingly receive these symbols, and draw near with true spirits to the Lord, who bought you with his blood. Ask yourselves, then — do you remember him? Would these things help you to remember him? If not, you have no business here.

11. It may be that some child of God here tonight is not fit to come to the table. You may be startled, perhaps, by that remark, but I venture to suppose such a thing possible, and if it should happen to turn out to be the case, I pray that brother or sister to take the admonition to heart. Is there any brother whom you have offended, whose forgiveness you have not sought, or is there anyone who has offended you, to whom you have not rendered forgiveness? I do think that what our Lord said about coming to the altar, and leaving the gift before the altar until first we have been reconciled to our brother — though this is no altar at all — may be with all righteousness supposed concerning this table. How can you expect fellowship with Christ with an unforgiving heart? How can you love God, whom you have not seen, if you do not love your brother, whom you have seen? If it is so hard for you to forgive, how hard will it be for you to be forgiven? An unforgiving spirit shuts you out of heaven. Why, man, you cannot even perform the lowliest act; you cannot pray; you cannot say, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us”; and if you cannot pray, how much less can you commune. Oh! see to that, and let each man examine himself on that.

12. In pressing this subject on you, may I be permitted to say, very earnestly, that the right way to examine ourselves before coming to this table is by the rule which is laid down in Scripture. Examine yourselves by the tests and proofs of the Spirit which are spoken of in God’s Word. Just as you would examine another, impartially: — 

            Nothing extenuate,

   Nor aught set down in malice,

so you must examine yourselves. Alas! we have one rule for others and another rule for ourselves. How mistakenly quick-sighted are we to discover the imperfections and infirmities of others of God’s people, while our own glaring sins scarcely give our conscience a twinge. We go about with great beams in our eyes, all the while wondering why our brethren cannot see the mote that is in theirs. Judge yourselves, judge yourselves, and let the severity of your judgment on your fellow Christians be now turned on yourselves; it will be much more to your profit, and much more according to the rules of Christian love. May God grant that none of us may be afraid of the strictest rules of Scripture in their sternest form. Alas! brethren, we often stop short in our examinations just when they might be of use to us, like the patient who tears off the plaster just when it begins to work, or ceases to receive the medicine precisely when it has reached a point in which it would be useful to him. Press home, press home, the grave questions and anxieties that lurk within you. Never be afraid to be probed to the quick, and to be cut to the core. Make no provision for self-deception. Ask the Lord to lay bare your hearts, very bare, before his omniscient eye; and as you are examining like this do not flinch, do not mince matters; do not trifle, do not be partial, but judge yourselves truly and thoroughly, lest, after all, you should be mistaken; and lest, after coming to this table, you should be banished from the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

13. So much on the methods which we are to use when we examine our fitness to come to this table.

14. II. Permit me now, as best I can: — TO PRESS THIS VERY IMPORTANT SUBJECT ON YOU, WITH SOME REASONS WHY THERE SHOULD BE SUCH A SELF-EXAMINATION.

15. I might say, brethren, that such an examination should be used because self-knowledge is always valuable. The old Greeks, whose wonderful sayings often verged on inspiration, used to say, “Man, know yourself!” It is bad for a man to be acquainted with foreign countries, and to know nothing of his own, to understand other men’s farms, and to let his own run to waste; to be conversant with other men’s health, and to be dying of a secret disease himself; to study other men’s characters, but to allow his own character to be obnoxious in the sight of God. Know yourselves. Nothing will pay you better than to search your own hearts, and to know yourselves. Of all stock-taking this is one of the most beneficial. It will often be the death of pride when a man finds out what he really is. Self-righteousness will fly before such a searching, as owls fly before the rising sun. Know yourself, and you are on the road to knowing Christ, for the knowledge of self will humble you, will make you feel your need of Jesus; and may, in the hands of God the Holy Spirit, lead you to the finding of the Saviour. Oh! men and women, how is it that you have so many acquaintances, such a large circle of friends, and yet do not make acquaintance with yourselves? While you will read much of literature, you do not read your own hearts; you commune with others, yet you do not commune with yourselves, and do not know yourselves. Please examine yourselves, if for nothing else because such an education is among the most precious that a man can gain.

16. Examine yourselves, again, you professed Christians, because it is a marvellously easy thing for us to be deceived, and to continue to be deceived. Of course, every man likes to be flattered. Whether he believes it is so or not, this is a universal truth, and any man — I do not care who he may be — is very easily to be persuaded that all is right with him. Satan, too, will help your natural tendencies, your partiality to yourselves. He only wishes to lull you to sleep, and to rock you in the cradle of delusion. All things around a man conspire to help him to delude himself. The notion of grace which is commonly entertained, the popularity of religion, the ease with which a man can join a church, the littleness of persecution in these days — all these things help to make it a very easy passage by which a man may glide along, until even when he dies he may still believe that he is on the road to heaven, while all the while he has been going post-haste to hell. Oh! since it is so easy to be deceived, and it is your soul that is in jeopardy, I beseech you to examine yourselves.

17. Besides, my dear friends, you know how some are deceived. Search your memories for a minute. Do you not know some among your own acquaintance that are deceived? Ah! you readily remember them! But do you know that there were people sitting in other parts of the Tabernacle who were thinking of you while you were thinking of them! You said of such a one, “Ah! I have watched her at home; I know that noisy tongue of her’s; she is no Christian.” And that very woman was just whispering to herself, “Ah! I know him; I have bought things from his shop; I know those short weights of his; he is no Christian.” Ah! you do not want God to condemn you; if you were only allowed to speak, you would condemn yourselves. But if such is the case, that we so readily can find out that others are deceived, is not the question one that is worth the asking, “May we not be deceived ourselves?” Oh! let it come home to each of us. May not the preacher be deceived? May not elders and deacons, who have been in honour these many years, be, nevertheless, rotten at heart? May not members of this church, who have been at this table from the very beginning, almost from their childhood, have, after all, had only a superficial godliness that will not stand the fire that shall try every man’s work, of what kind it is? Therefore, I beseech you, since many are deceived, examine yourselves, and so come to this table.

18. Further, remember that it is important for professing Christians to do this beyond all others, because, perhaps, there is no greater bar to the reception of grace in all this world than the belief that you already have grace. It would be a mercy if some present here had never joined the church. Sad that I should say it, but it is so. It would be a mercy to themselves that they had never professed to be Christians, because now, if we preach repentance, they say, “I repented years ago”; if we talk about faith in the Saviour, they say, “I have faith; I joined the church, and affirmed my faith”; if we speak of Christian knowledge — they have Christian knowledge — though it is the knowledge that puffs up. They have the imitation of all the graces, and, just as it is sometimes very difficult to know which is the real gem and which is the paste gem that imitates it, so these people live so much like Christians, in many respects, that it is hard even for themselves to discover that they are not rich and increased in goods, but are naked, and poor, and miserable. If I were outside of Christ, I would wish to be out of the church. If I had no faith in him, oh that I had no profession of him! If there is any soul in any place that is least likely to be saved, it is an unregenerate soul inside the church, participating in Christian ordinances, and dead while it lives. Search yourselves, then on this account.

19. And let me add another solemn word. Search yourselves because within a short time, at the very longest, you will be on the bed of death, and there, if not before, there will be deep searchings of heart. When the outward man decays, and the flesh is melting away, you will need something more than a profession to lean on. Sacraments, and going to places of worship will prove very poor things to bear you up in the midst of the billows of death. How must a man feel when he puts out on that dread sea with his life-jacket, and finds it will not bear his weight; when he leaps into his life-boat that he had hoped would bear him safely to the haven, and finds that every timber is strained, and that it leaks, and he sinks into the flood. Oh! find out your mistakes while there is still time to rectify them! I implore you by the living God, whose face of fire you shall soon see, prepare yourselves for his judgment, as well as for the judgment of your own conscience in the hour of death, for every man must be weighed in the balance. No mere pretender shall pass the gates of bliss. Destitute of faith, it does not matter how bright your profession, you shall be banished from his presence. If it is not grace-work and heart-work you may have eaten or drunk in his presence, and he may have taught in your streets, he will never know you. If you have never confessed your sins in secret to the great High Priest, if you have never laid your hand on that precious head that bore the sin of his elect, if you have never seen in solemn transfer your iniquities passed over to him, and if your faith has never recognised that transaction and rejoiced in it, oh! beware, beware, beware, for in the last tremendous day your professions shall be only a painted pageantry for you to go to hell in — indeed, worse than that, among the faggots of your burning that shall flash most furiously with devouring fire, will be the faggots of your base profession, your bastard godliness, your counterfeit graces, your glitter that was not golden, your profession that was not based on possession.

20. Oh! dear brethren for these reasons let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of this bread.

21. But now, supposing this to be all done, and we have come to this answer, “I am not in Christ; I am not a Christian; I have not believed.” Then, away, away, away from this table! But where shall I send you? I will send you to the cross. Though you may not come to the table, you may come to Jesus.

22. But suppose your answer should be, “I am very unworthy and sinful, but still I have believed in Jesus, though I still see much in myself that is evil.” Dear brethren, that is not the question. Preparation for the Lord’s Supper does not lie in perfect sanctification, but in true faith in Jesus. If, then, you have made sure of this and have finished the examination — I mean for tonight — because after you have examined yourself, it does not then say, “Keep on,” but “So let him eat,” and I do not like that examination to stick in the throat so that you cannot digest the dainty morsels of the Saviour’s precious body. It is done; you have examined, and you know him; you have believed in him, and trusted that he is able to keep you. Now, then, take care that you eat, I mean not merely eat with the mouth and drink with the throat, but now take care to pray that you may have real fellowship with the Incarnate God, gratefully magnifying the grace that has made you to differ, and cheerfully accepting the precious Person who is the basis of your reliance, of the life of your soul.

23. May God grant you now, having passed the door and shown your entrance ticket as true Christians, to sit and eat bread in the Kingdom of God!

{a} Sleeves of lawn: considered as forming part of the episcopal dress. OED.

Expositions By C. H. Spurgeon {Mt 6:1-24 1Co 3:1-16}

1. Take heed that you do not do your alms before men, to be seen by them: otherwise you have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

The motive which leads a man to give, will form the true estimate of what he does. If he gives to be seen by men then when he is seen by men he has the reward he sought for, and he will never have any other. Let us never do our alms before men, to be seen by them.

2-5. Therefore when you do your alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may have glory from men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand does: so that your alms may be in secret: and your Father who sees in secret himself shall reward you openly. And when you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward.

I have heard very great commendation given to certain Easterners, because at the hour of the rising of the sun, or the hour when the sound is heard from the summit of the mosque, wherever they may be, they put themselves in the posture of prayer. God forbid I should rob them of any credit they deserve, but far be it from us ever to imitate them. We are not to be ashamed of our prayers, but they are not things for the public street. They are intended for God’s eye, and God’s ear.

6, 7. But you, when you pray, enter into your closet and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret shall reward you openly. But when you pray do not use vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think they shall be heard for their much speaking.

It is not very easy to repeat the same words often without it becoming a vain repetition. A repetition, however, is not forbidden, but a “vain” repetition. And how greatly do they err who measure prayers by the yard. They think they have prayed so much because they have prayed for so long, whereas it is the work of the heart — the true pouring out of the desire before God — that is the thing to be looked at. Quality not quantity: truth, not length. Often the shortest prayers have the most prayer in them.

8, 9. Do not be therefore like them: for your Father knows what thing you have need of, before you ask him. Therefore in this way pray:

And then he gives us a model of prayer, which never can be excelled, containing all the parts of devotion. They do well who model their prayers on this.

9-13 Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Our Saviour now makes an observation on this prayer, and on one particular part of it which has tripped up a great many.

14, 15. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

There are some who have altered this, and pray in this way, “Forgive us our debts as we desire to forgive our debtors.” It will not do. You will have to desire God to forgive you, and desire in vain, if you pray in that way. It must come to this point of literal, immediate, completed forgiveness of every offence committed against you if you expect God to forgive you. There is no wriggling out of it. The man who refuses to forgive, refuses to be forgiven. May God grant that none of us may tolerate malice in our hearts. Anger glances off the heart of wise men: it only burns in the heart of the foolish. May we quench it, and feel that we freely, and fully, and heartily forgive, knowing that we are forgiven.

16. Moreover when you fast, do not be as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, so that they may appear to men to fast. Truly I say to you, they have their reward.

Simpletons praise them — think much of them, and they plume themselves on it, and think themselves the very best of men. They have their reward.

17, 18. But you, when you fast, anoint your head, and wash your face: so that you do not appear to men to fast, but to your Father who is in secret, and your Father, who sees in secret, shall reward you openly.

Yet have I heard people speak of certain emaciated ecclesiastics as being such wonderfully holy men. “How they must have fasted! They look like it. You can see it in their faces.” Probably produced much more likely by a fault in their digestion, than by anything else; and if not — if we are to suppose that the leanness of a man’s body is to be the sign of his holiness — then the living skeleton was a saint to perfection. But we are not beguiled by such follies as these. The Christian man fasts, but he takes care that no one shall know it. He wears no token or sign even when his heart is heavy. Very often he puts on a cheerful air, lest by any means he should impart unnecessary sorrow to others, and he will be cheerful and happy, apparently, in the midst of company, to prevent their being sad, for it is enough for him to be sad himself, and sad before his Father’s face.

19-21. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupts, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

There is many a way of sending your treasure before you to heaven. God’s poor are his money boxes — his treasurer. You can pass your treasure over to heaven by their means. And the work of evangelizing the world by the labours of God’s servants in the ministry of the gospel — you can help this also. There is much need you should. You can also pass your treasure over into the King’s treasury, and your heart will follow it. I have heard of one who said his religion did not cost him a shilling a year, and it was remarked that very probably it would have been expensive at that price. You will find people form a pretty accurate estimate of the value of their own religion by the proportion which they are prepared to sacrifice for it.

22. The light of the body is the eye: if therefore your eye is single,

If your motive is single — if you have only one motive, and that a right one — the master one of glorifying God — if your eye is single.

22, 23. Your whole body shall be full of light. But if your eye is evil, your whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness how great is that darkness!

When a man’s highest motive is himself, what a dark and selfish nature he has; but when his highest motive is his God, what brightness of light will shine on everything.

24. No man can serve two masters:

He can serve two people very readily. For that matter, he can serve twenty, but not two masters. There cannot be two master-principles in a man’s heart, or master-passions in a man’s soul. “No man can serve two masters.”

24. For either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Though some men’s lives are a long experiment of how far they can serve the two.

Reading from 1 Corinthians 3: — 

1. And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal, even as to babes in Christ.

The church at Corinth consisted of people of much education and great abilities. It was one of those churches that had given up the one-man system, where everyone talked as he liked — a very knowing church, and a church of Christians, too; but for all that, Christian babies. And though they thought themselves to be so great, yet the apostle says that he never spoke to them as to spiritual: he kept to the simple elements, regarding the carnal part as being too much in them as yet, to be able to drink down spiritual things.

2. I have fed you with milk, and not with solid food: for so far: you were not able to bear it, neither yet now are you able.

How grateful we ought to be that there is milk, and that this milk does feed the soul — that the simplest truths of Christianity contain in them all that the soul needs, just as milk is a diet on which the body could be sustained, without anything else. Yet how we ought to desire to grow so that we may not always be on a milk diet but that we may be able to digest the solid food — the high doctrine — the deep things of God. These are for men, not for babes. Let the babes be thankful for the milk, but let us aspire to be strong men so that we may feed on solid food.

3. For you are yet carnal: for since there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are you not carnal and walk as men?

A united church, you may conclude, is a growing church — perhaps a grown church; but a disunited church, split up into factions, where every man is seeking position and trying to be noted — such a church is a church of babes. They are carnal, and walk as men.

4. For while one says, “I am of Paul”: and another, “I am of Apollos”; are you not carnal?

Instead of that, they should all have striven together for the defence of the common faith of Jesus Christ. There is no greater symptom of mere infancy in true religion than the setting up of the names of leaders or the preference for this or that particular form of doctrine, instead of endeavouring to grasp the whole truth wherever one can find it.

5, 6. Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered: but God gave the increase.

Let God, then, have all the glory. Be grateful for the planter, and grateful for the waterer, indeed, and grateful to them as well; but, still, let the stress of your gratitude be given to him, without whom watering and planting would be in vain.

7, 8. So then neither is he who plants anything, neither he who waters; but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one:

They are pursuing the same purpose; and Apollos and Paul were one in heart. They were true servants of one master.

8, 9. And every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are labourers together with God: you are God’s husbandry, you are God’s building.

The church is built up. God is he who builds it up — the master of the work, but he employs his ministers under him to be builders.

10-13. According to the grace of God which is given to me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let every man take heed how he builds on it. For other foundation can no man lay than what is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man’s work shall be revealed: For the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what kind it is.

It is very easy to build up a church quickly. It is very easy to make a great excitement in religion, and become very famous as a soul winner. It is very easy. But time tests everything. If there were no other fire than the mere fire of time, it would suffice to test a man’s work. And when a church crumbles away almost as soon as it is gotten together, when a church declines from the doctrines which it professed to hold, when the teaching of the eminent teacher is proved, after all, to have been fallacious and to have been erroneous in practical results, then what he has built comes to nothing! Oh! dear friends, what little we do we ought to aspire to do for eternity. If you shall only lay the brush to the canvas once, make an indelible stroke with it. If only one work of art shall come from the statuary’s workshop, let it be something that will live all down through the ages. But we are in such a mighty hurry: we make a lot of things that die with us — ephemeral results. We are not careful enough concerning what we build with. May God grant that this truth may sink into our minds. Let us remember that, if it is hard building with gold and silver, and even harder building with precious stones, yet what is built will stand the fire. It is easy building with wood, and easier still with hay and stubble, but then there will be only a handful of ashes left of a whole life-work, if we build with these.

14, 15. If any man’s work endures which he has built on, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

If he meant right — if he did endeavour to serve God as a worker, though he may have uttered many errors, and have been mistaken — (and which of us has not been?) — he shall be saved, though his work must be burnt.

16. Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

Do you know it? He says, “Do you not know?” but I might leave out the “not” and say, “Do you know that you are the temple of God?” What a wonderful fact it is! Within the body of the saint, God dwells, as in a temple. How do some men injure their bodies or utterly despise them, though they would not do so if they understood that they are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in them.