The Spurgeon Series 1857 & 1858. Charles H. Spurgeon

and for that he would give up everything, even the friendship of friends. His business, by night and by day, was to pray down the pope, to preach down the pope, to write down the pope, and do it he must, though often in the roughest, coarsest manner, with iron gauntlets on his hands. It was his work; do it he must. You might have done what you pleased with Luther, even to the ripping out his tongue: he would have taken his pen, dipped it in fire, and written in burning words the doom of Papacy. He could not help it, heaven had forced him to the work; he had a special commission given him from on high, and no man could stop him any more than he could stop the wind in its blowing, or the tide in its motions. Christ had a special work. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; the Lord has anointed me to preach glad tidings to the poor.” And he felt the effects of this anointing — the power of this impelling. And he must not stop, he could not, he dare not. “I must,” he said, “be about my Father’s business.”

      8. 3. But once more, Christ had something which few of us can fully know. He had a vow upon him — the vow to do the work from all eternity. He had become the surety of the covenant; he had sworn that he would execute his Father’s business. He had taken a solemn oath that he would become man; that he would pay the ransom price of all his beloved ones; that he would come and do his Father’s business, whatever that might be. “Lo, I come,” he said. “In the volume of the book, it is written of me, I delight to do your will, oh God.” Therefore, being faithful and true, the covenant, the engagement, the suretyship, the sworn promise and the oath made him say, “I must be about my Father’s business.” Whenever you make a vow, my dear friends — and do that very seldom — take care that you keep it. Few should be the vows that men make, but they should always be sincerely kept. God asks no vow of us; but when his Spirit moves us to make a vow — and we may do so honestly if we make a vow in his strength — we are bound to keep it. And he who feels that he has made a vow, must then feel himself impelled to do the work which he has vowed to do. Let the difficulty be never so great, if you have vowed to overcome it, do it. Let the mountain be never so high, if you have made a vow to God that you will attempt it, scale its summit, and never give it up. If the vow is a proper one, God will help you to accomplish it. Oh you upon whom are the vows of the Lord! (and some of you have taken solemn vows upon you, by making a profession of religion) I beseech you, by the sacrament in which you dedicated yourself to your Lord, and by that other sacrament in which you found communion with Jesus, now to fulfil your vows, and pay them daily, nightly, hourly, constantly, perpetually; and let these compel you to say, “I must be about my Father’s business.” These, I think, were the impelling motives which forced Christ on in his heavenly labour.

      9. Secondly. But now, what was his Father’s business? I think it lay in three things — example, establishment, expiation.

      10. 1. One part of his Father’s business was, to send into the world a perfect example for our imitation. God had written various books of example in the lives of the saints. One man was noted for one virtue, and another for another. At last, God determined that he would gather all his works into one volume, and give a condensation of all virtues in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now he determined to unite all the parts into one, to string all the pearls on one necklace, and to make them all apparent around the neck of one single person. The sculptor finds here a leg from some eminent master, and there a hand from another mighty sculptor. Here he finds an eye, and there a head full of majesty. He says, within himself, “I will compound these glories, I will put them all together; then it shall be the model man. I will make the statue par excellence, which shall stand first in beauty, and shall be noted ever afterwards as the model of manhood.” So said God, “There is Job — he has patience; there is Moses — he has meekness, there are those mighty ones who all have eminent virtues. I will take these, I will put them into one; and the man Christ Jesus shall be the perfect model of future imitation.” Now, I say, that all Christ’s life he was endeavouring to do his Father’s business in this matter. You never find Christ doing a thing which you may not imitate. You would scarcely think it necessary that he should be baptized; but lo, he goes to Jordan’s stream and dives beneath the wave, that he may be buried in baptism to death, and may rise again — though he did not need to rise — into newness of life. You see him healing the sick, to teach us benevolence; rebuking hypocrisy to teach us boldness; enduring temptation to teach us hardness, by which, as good soldiers of Christ, we ought to war a good warfare. You see him forgiving his enemies to teach us the grace of meekness and of forbearance; you behold him giving up his very life to teach us how we should surrender ourselves to God, and give up ourselves for the good of others. Put Christ at the wedding; you may imitate him. Indeed, sirs, and you might imitate him, if you could, in turning water into wine, without a sin. Put Christ at a funeral; you may imitate him — “Jesus wept.” Put him on the mountain top; he shall be there in prayer alone, and you may imitate him. Put him in the crowd; he shall speak so, that if you could speak like him you would speak well. Put him with enemies; he shall so confound them, that he shall be a model for you to copy. Put him with friends, and he shall be a “friend who sticks closer than a brother,” worthy of your imitation. Exalt him, cry hosanna, and you shall see him riding upon a “colt, the foal of an ass,” meek and lowly. Despise and spit upon him; you shall see him bearing contumely and contempt with the same evenness of spirit which characterised him when he was exalted in the eye of the world. Everywhere you may imitate Christ. Indeed, sirs, and you may even imitate him in that “the Son of Man came eating and drinking,” and in it fulfilled what he determined to do — to pull down the vain pharisaism of man, which says that religion stands in meats and drinks, whereas, “Not what goes into a man defiles a man, but what goes out of a man, that defiles the man.” And that is the time when we should take heed to ourselves, lest the inner man be defiled. Never once did he swerve from that bright, true mirror of perfection. He was in everything as an exemplar, always doing his Father’s business.

      11. 2. And so in the matter that I have called establishment; that is the establishment of a new dispensation; that was his Father’s business, and in it, Christ was always doing it. He went into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Was he doing it then? Ah, sirs, he was; for it was necessary that he should be “a faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.” When he speaks, you can see him establishing his Word, and when he puts the finger of silence to his lips, he is doing it as much; for then was fulfilled the prophecy, “he was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb.” Does he work a miracle? Do the obedient winds hush their tumult at his voice? It is to establish the gospel, by teaching us that he is divine. Does he weep? It is to establish the gospel, by teaching us that he is human. Does he gather the apostles? It is that they may go abroad into every land, preaching the Word of God. Does he sit upon a well? It is that he may teach a woman, and that she may teach the whole city of Samaria the way of salvation. He was always engaged in this work of example, and this work of establishment.

      12. 3. And ah, beloved, when he came to the climax of his labour, when he came to the greatest toil of all, what a thousand men could never have done; when he came to do the great work of expiation , how thoroughly he did it!

      View him prostrate in the garden;

      On the ground your Maker lies.

      On the bloody tree behold him:

      Hear him cry before he dies —

      ‘IT IS FINISHED!’

      And there you have a proof that he was about his Father’s business. It was his Father’s business made him sweat great drops of blood; his Father’s business ploughed his back with many gory furrows; his Father’s business pricked his temple with the thorn crown; his Father’s business made him mocked and spit upon; his Father’s business made him go about bearing his cross; his Father’s business made him despise the shame when, naked, he hung upon the tree; his Father’s business made him yield himself to death, though he needed not to die if so he had not pleased; his Father’s business made him tread the gloomy shades of Gehenna, and descend into the abodes of death; his Father’s