to obey Him. He has no business to substitute His
will for every other law; and you have no business--and it will be at
the peril of your manhood if you do--to take any man, the Man Christ or
any other, as an absolute example and pattern and master.

My brethren, Christ's claim to absolute obedience rests upon His divine
nature and on His redeeming work. He has delivered us from our enemies,
and therefore He commands us. He has given Himself for us, and therefore
He has a right to say, 'Give yourselves to Me.' He is God manifest in
the flesh, and therefore absolute power becomes His lips, and utter
submission is our dignity. To say to Him 'Lord, Lord,' carries us whole
universes beyond saying to Him, 'Rabbi, Rabbi.'

IV. And now, lastly, we have in this great discourse the authority of
our Lord set forth as being the authority of Him who is to be the Judge
of the world.

'Then will _I_ profess unto you I never knew you; depart from _Me_, ye
that work iniquity.' He, the meek, the humble, who never claimed for
Himself anything except what His consciousness compelled Him to assert,
who desired only that men should know Him for what He was, because it
was their life so to know Him, here declares that the whole world is to
be judged by Him, that He has such knowledge of men as will pierce
beneath the surface of professions and will be undazzled by the most
stupendous miracles, and beneath the eloquent words of many a preacher
and the wonderful works of many a so-called Christian philanthropist,
will see the hidden rottenness that they never saw, and, tearing down
the veil, will reveal men at the last to themselves.

That is no human function, that is no work that belongs to a mere
teacher, pattern, martyr, sage, philosopher, or saint. That is a divine
work; and the authority of Him whose final word to each of us will
settle beyond appeal our fate, and reveal beyond cavil our character, is
a divine authority. He has a right to command because He is going to
judge; and the lips that declare the law are the lips that will read the
sentence.

So, my brethren, do you take the whole Christ for yours, the Son of God,
the crown and end of revelation, the sinless and the perfect, who died
on the Cross for our salvation, and loves and pities, and is ready to
help every one of us; who, therefore, commands us with an absolute
authority, and who one day comes to be our Judge? If you turn to Him and
ask Him, 'Art Thou He that should