OUR time here is very short and uncertain. This is not our rest. We were created for eternity. Through an endless eternity we shall reap the fruit of our choice here. Moses having considered this chose “rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” He saw there were two hells and two heavens. He saw a little heaven here and a great hell hereafter, and a little hell here and a great heaven hereafter, and he chose the little hell and the great heaven. He acted wisely for himself. He has been more than two thousand years in glory, and it is only commencing. A few years would have ended his happiness in Egypt. Some of us here this day have been professing to make surrender of ourselves, and it will be an infinite shame to that soul if he is found yet on the left hand of Christ. I will endeavour to show:—
I.—Something of the nature of living unto the Lord, and dying unto the Lord.
Every gracious soul in this world desires to live and die so as eternally to live.
1. To live unto the Lord.
(1) This implies a purpose of heart to live to Him. Naomi was putting a trial upon Ruth, but when she saw she was stedfast she ceased. Barnabas when he went down to Antioch exhorted them to cleave to the Lord with purpose of heart. Where this purpose is in the soul, eternity must be in the view of the creature. There is something of counting the cost in it.
(2) This resolution is created in the soul by the Spirit of God. Often on a sick bed when eternity is appearing, there are many vows and purposes, but the time is coming when it will be shown who was the author of these, the creature or God. In wet weather pools are filled, but in dry weather they are dried up. Why? Because they have no spring. So it is with many who make vows at certain seasons. But the soul of the believer has a principle of spiritual life that makes him live unto the Lord. It is called in another place a spirit born of the Spirit. The spirit that is from God must rise to God. It is weak at first. Perhaps the Spirit of God takes possession of the soul by a thought. Many a child of God may say, “I do not know whether I have peace or not, but I know that my peace is broken.” This life is compared to a grain of mustard seed. How difficult it would be to find a grain of mustard seed in a cask of sand. But it is of a growing nature. It is like the light of the morning growing stronger and stronger, and it will continue to be of a growing nature till the soul is swallowed up in its original spring. It is within the soul that the people of God have their difficulties and sorrows.
One difficulty is to be felt from the old covenant in the soul. When any difficulty arises, runs the soul to the covenant of works. But the corruption is awakened, and when you say to the creature, “You are becoming religious,” he says, “Oh, no, I am becoming a devil.” Another difficulty arises from the difficulty of exercising faith in Christ in the hearing of the gospel. A third difficulty arises when they hear that there is a fountain of grace in Christ. It is one thing to hear of that fulness, and another thing to have the fulness opened by the Spirit.
(3) In living unto the Lord, there is implied that the mystery of the Godhead begins to be opened to the soul. There is an infinite mystery in the Godhead, and nothing will bring the soul into it but the teaching of grace. When this mystery is opened, there is evidence of a living principle in the soul. The Lord puts obligations on the soul to live to Him. Sometimes the child of God enjoys more at his food than the carnal professor at the table of the Lord. It is very difficult for a Pharisee to get through the child of God; he gets a knock here and a knock there. A bleeding soul needs a broken Saviour and a merciful God.
2. To die unto the Lord.
This implies dying in the faith of the Lord as a Saviour. How precious is it when one comes to grapple with death to have union to Christ. To die unto the Lord is to die in the promise. They die to His glory. It is the purpose of every child of God here below to live to Him. The devil cares nothing though you give your bodies to the Lord, if he get your hearts. The Lord says, “Son, give me thine heart.” Jesus is offered to sinners the greatest. “Him that cometh unto me, I will in nowise cast out.” “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.” Eternity is long to reap, and His people shall see Him as He is and shall enjoy happiness in the being of God for ever.