The Bible, just PARTof why I believe… ( Archived) (545)

I. Beloved, let us PASS BY THAT CROWD OF OUTER-COURT WORSHIPPERS WHO ARE CONTENT TO LIVE WITHOUT KNOWING CHRIST. I do not mean the ungodly and profane! We will not consider them just now—they are altogether strangers and for-eigners to Him—I mean children of God—the visible saints. How many there are of these whom I must call outer-court worshippers, for they are strangers to this panting to know Him. They can say with Paul, “That I may win Him and be found in Him”—that they do want. But this higher wish, “That I may know Him,” has not stirred their hearts. How many Brothers and Sisters we know who are content to know Christ’s historic life! They read the Evangelists and they are charmed with the perfect beauty of the Savior’s history. “Never man spoke like this Man,” they say. And they confessthat never man acted with such love as He did. They know all the incidents of His life, from His manger to His Cross. But they do not know Him. They are as men who have read “Caesar’s Commentaries,” but who have never seen Caesar. They know the battles which Caesar fought. They can even recognize the mantle which Caesar wore “that day he overcame the Nervii,” but they do not know Caesarhimself. The Person of the Lord Jesus is asmuch hidden from their eyes us the golden pot of manna when concealed in theark. They know the life of Christ, but not Christ the Life. They admire His way among men, but they see Him not as the Way. Others there are who know Christ’s doctrine and prize it, too, but they know not Him. All which He taught is dear to them. Orthodoxy—for this they would burn at Smithfield, or lay down their necks at Tower Hill! Many of them are well-instructed and Divinely-illuminated in the doctrine of Christ. And the wonder is that they should stop there, be-cause, Beloved, it does seem to me when I begin to know a man’s teaching, that the next thing is the desire to know his person. Addison, in one of the “Spectators,” tells us that the reason why so many books are printed with the portraits ofthe authors is just this—that as a man reads a book, he feels a desire to know what sort of appearance the author had. This, indeed, is very natural. If you have ever been refreshed under a minister’s printed sermons. If you have at anytime received any benefit from his words, I know you have said, “I would like to see that man. I would like to hear thetruth flow hot and fresh from his living lips. I would like to know just how he said that sentence, and how that passage sounded as it came from his earnest heart.” My Beloved, surely if you know the doctrine of Jesus, if you have so been with Christ as to sit at His feet and hear what He has to say, you must, I hope, have had some longings to know Him—to know His Person. And if you have, you will have had to pass by multitudes of followers of Jesus who rest satisfied with His words, but forget that He is, Himself, “THE WORD.” Beloved, there are others—and against them I bring no complaint. They go as far as they can—they are delighted with Christ’s example. Christ’s Character is in their esteem the mirror of all perfection. They desire to walk in His foot-