The reverse of the coin, the other side of the foundation bears, deep-cut, this inscription: Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity,' and the two inscriptions are always to be held together. Look how they fit one another. The one is a promise; the other is a commandment. The one says a deep thing about God; the other says a plain thing about us. It is of no use going up into the heights of the Lord knoweth them that are His,' unless you also come down to the simple teaching, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.' The Jews believed the first of these two inscriptions, and it was all their religion; look what wild work it made of them and their morality, and their whole nation. There have been plenty of Christian people who have been so absorbed in the contemplation of unconditional election,' eternal predestination,' final perseverance,' and all the rest of the theological formularies that have been spun out of these words, that they have forgotten the other side altogether. And so there has been licence, and a presumptuous building upon a supposed past; there has been a contempt for the outsiders,' and the driving of a coach and six through the plainest teachings of common righteousness and morality. And the only way to keep the Lord knoweth them that are His' from being a minister of sin is, in the same breath, to say, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.'
To name the Name of Christ is the same as to say that you are His. And if you are, the best proof that you do belong to Jesus Christ is your living the life of plain, practical righteousness, and putting away from yourself everything that is evil. People talk about looking into themselves for evidences of their being saved,' as they say. I would rather take your neighbour's opinion as to whether you are saved or not than yours; and you will be far more likely to come to the possession of calm assurance that you do belong to Jesus Christ, if your assurance is based upon this, I am living as He would have me to do.' That is the infallible sign that you are His. That homely, pedestrian righteousness, down amongst the commonplaces of daily life, and the little things of it, that, and not emotions, however soaring; not aspirations, however ardent; not the consciousness of communion apart, however deep and sweet, is the sign that we are Christ's. However necessary all these things are, still they are necessary mainly as means to an end, and the end of all the revelation of God in Jesus Christ, and of all these joys and experiences of the individual Christian soul, is to make us live righteously, soberly, godly, in this present world. And the more we do thus live, the more we shall get, not only the consciousness of belonging to Jesus Christ, but the help by which we shall be able to stand.
So, dear brethren, my one last word to you is, hold these two things ever together in your minds and thoughts. What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.' You have a right to be confident, because, far deeper than, and prior to, anything that you do, there are the knowledge, the love, the sympathy, and the outstretched hand of the loving and upholding Saviour. But you have only the right to the confidence based upon his knowledge of you, if that confidence is working in you a departing from iniquity. If you know that you are trying, in your poor way, to do that, and that you are trying to do it for His sake, and because you think that you are His, then, whatever may happen to others, whatever may befall some of the outworks ofyour faith or belief, whatever changes may impend, you may be sure of this, that the foundation of God standeth sure,' and that, weak as we are, building upon Him who is the foundation, we shall be able to resist all the assaults of evil.
Only remember, that Christ Himself has told us that many would come to Him and say, Lord! Lord! have we not prophesied in Thy name, and in Thy name done many wonderful works?' And He will say unto them, Depart from Me, I never knew you,' and the proof that He never did is that He has to address them aa Ye that work iniquity.'
