Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 797
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, February 23, 1868, by.
“These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear.” Jude 1:12.
WHEN the Church of God is extending her bounds rapidly, it is of the utmost importance that the growth should be real and permanent. If the walls of Zion are being built quickly, the master builders should keep an anxious eye upon the workmanship lest the stones should be put together with untempered mortar and the whole erection should, by-and-by, come to the ground. We desire not to grow up in a night, as the gourd, lest we also perish in a night. Our Lord Jesus, who is the great Shepherd of the sheep, sends to His Churches, at times when they are most prospering, sad reminders of human frailty by which He warns them to, “take heed that they be not deceived; but see to it that they make sure work, and build substantially, with gold, silver, and precious stones, and not with wood, and hay, and stubble.”
It is a very doleful season for the Church of God when everything is asleep, but there are dangers connected even with activity. When a man is under the intense excitement of earnest endeavor for Christ, it is possible that much within him may be spurious—a mere fungus growth forced out by heat—and hence it is deeply necessary, as Jude says, to write unto the saints and to speak unto Believers concerning this thing, that they be sound, true, real, sincere and approved in the sight of God. Jude tells us in the text, and indeed in his whole Epistle, that many who make a high profession are not what they profess to be, and that in the Church of God, in her best estate, many are clouds without rain, trees without fruit and wandering stars reserved for eternal darkness.
I. To come to the text at once, we have to remark from it that WE MUST EXPECT TO FIND UNGODLY MEN IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. They ought not to be there—the Church is bound to use her most earnest endeavors to keep them out—and, being in and being discovered, she should not be slow to cast them forth. She should put away wicked members and endeavor to preserve her purity! But for all that there will never be a perfect Church this side of the grave. They are without fault in the Canaan above, but a mixed multitude always will be mingled with the tribes of Israel while we are in this wilderness.
We may look for this, in the first place, because it has always been so. If even in the Paradise of God among perfect beings, sin intruded, how much more in our imperfect assemblies Where every man’s heart is naturally deceitful? The very first human family had a Cain in it who, on the day of solemn sacrifice, came to God’s altar although he was of that Wicked One, and slew his brother. When, after a solemn judgment, the earth had been purged, and a little Church of only eight members was gathered in the ark, there was among them one of whom the Patriarch said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be.” Ham was in the ark an ungodly reprobate, though surrounded by saints!
When the Lord had been pleased, according to the election of Divine Grace, to take Abraham from among mankind and set apart both him and his household, we read of Ishmael who mocked Isaac. In Isaac’s family we hear of profane Esau. However few may be the chosen, there is sure to be some connected with them who are with them, but not of them. The people who were eminently typical of the Church of Christ, I mean Israel in the wilderness, were polluted in the same manner—no matter how strict might be its regulations, and how earnest might be its leader—yet the rebellious murmured, the mixed multitude fell a lusting, and Korah, Dathan and Abiram were a root of bitterness. I need not take you through all the history of the Lord’s people down to the coming of Christ, but wherever you may put your finger you will be certain to discover the tares mingling with the wheat, and the serpent’s seed nestling in the bosom of the elect household.
As for the days since the coming of our Master, this fact is painfully conspicuous! Our Lord had but 12 disciples who were near to Him, and yet He said, “I have chosen you 12 and one of you is a devil.” The name of Judas will go down to eternity stamped with the curse, “It were better for that man that he had never been born.” Afterwards, when Jesus had ascended and the Spirit of God had been given—when the Church had all things in common and was in her first love— yet we read of Ananias and Sapphira who hypocritically pretended to have given their substance when they had kept back much of it—and upon them the stern voice of Peter pronounced sentence of immediate death. So early were the liar and the hypocrite found within the gates of Zion that pristine purity could not utterly exclude the unworthy.
Look again at the Church in Samaria. The preaching of Philip had stirred the city, and a pretender to magic who had deluded the people professed to become, himself, a Believer. He believed, it is said, and was baptized—but his heart was not right in the sight of God—his faith was not the faith of God’s elect. How solemn were the words of Peter to him, “You have neither part nor lot in this matter…For I perceive that you are in the gall of bitterness, and in the bonds of iniquity!” The execrable name of Simon Magus is another proof that the Church of Christ, in her most zealous state, cannot expect to be clear of the basest of men.