DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, APRIL 17, 1870,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Jesus answered him, If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me."
John 13:8.
IN matchless condescension our Lord had girt Himself as a servant, and
was washing the feet of the disciples. Peter, struck with such a
spectacle, would not allow his Lord to act as a menial, and flatly
refused to have his feet washed by his Master. But he changed his mind
at once when he was told that a refusal to receive this act of kindness
from his Lord would be a virtual rejection of all part in Him, "If I do
not wash you, you have no part with Me." I do not think our Lord here
was thinking so much of the literal washing, as of that which the
outward ablution was meant to represent. This is clear when we remember
that our Lord replied to Peter concerning this washing, "What I do you
know not now. But you shall know hereafter."
Now as to the literal washing, Peter knew all about it, and there was
nothing to be explained except its inner meaning, and spiritual
teaching. This it was that Peter did not then know, and was afterwards
to learn. Our Lord, therefore, evidently referred not so much to the
actual foot-washing, as to the spiritual washing, which is absolutely
essential to all His people. Remember, too, that the mere cleansing of
the feet did not involve union to Christ, for the feet of Judas were
washed, and our Lord did not at all mean that Judas should imagine that
he had any part with the Lord whom he was resolved to betray.
The traitor was numbered among the disciples, and therefore he partook
of the outward ordinance, but it did not convey to him any spiritual
interest in Christ Jesus. Therefore we conclude that the foot-washing
was only secondarily important. Yet we deny not that our Lord did mean
so much about this mere outward washing, that had Peter obstinately
refused to yield to it, he would have proved himself to have had no
true loyalty of heart, and consequently no part in Christ.
Any act of direct and intentional rebellion against Christ's authority,
obstinately and knowingly continued in, would be a sure token that the
person guilty of it was no true partaker with Christ. How shall I be
His servant if I willfully reject any one of His commands? How can I
consider myself to be truly a Christian while my will is rebellious,
and refuses to submit to the express orders of my Lord? Let us consider
this as professors, and practice instant obedience. Never let us
obstinately refuse obedience to a command because it seems to us to be
nonessential or trivial. We are not to be judges but servants. No
motive can excuse disobedience.
Let us ask for Divine Grace that as soon as ever we see a sin to be sin
we may shun it, and as soon as we perceive a duty to be a duty we may
at once practice it, and never be guilty of any willful rebellion,
since that might prove us to be without Christ. However, I still
believe that Christ's main teaching in my text referred not to the
washing with water, but to the cleansing of our spiritual nature by His
precious blood and by His Eternal Spirit. In this sense read again the
words, "If I do not wash you, you have no, part with Me."
I. First suffer me to occupy your thoughts a few minutes with THE GREAT
OBJECT OF OUR DESIRE. Our great object is to have a part in Jesus
Christ. I am addressing myself, for the most part, to those who
regularly hear the Word, and who have a respect for the name of Jesus,
and a longing to be saved with His salvation. I hope there is not one
among us who would consider it a barren honor to have a part with
Christ, nor one who would think it to be a small calamity to be
deprived of his part with Jesus the Son of God.
Brethren, you and I desire to have part in the merit of His
righteousness. We have no righteousness of our own, but we desire that
He should be the Lord our Righteousness, that in His righteousness
arrayed we should not be found naked in the day of the great wedding
feast, but with the wedding garment on may sit down to the marriage
supper. We desire to have a part in His death. Jesus died that He might
make atonement for guilt, and we desire a part in His atoning sacri-
fice. We are guilty. Our heart yearns to be washed in the blood, to be
cleansed by that expiation, and to stand before the Lord accepted in
the Beloved.
We hope that the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world will
give us a part in His sin-removing power. We believe in His
Resurrection, and our prayer is that we may have part in it–because He
rose we also may rise, and may forever, both in body and in soul, enjoy
eternal blessedness. Our faith has seen the Crucified One ascending to
the skies, and we desire a part in His ascension, to share in the
blessings which He received for rebellions men when He led captivity
captive. Yes, and before long to tread that same starry way, and enter
into the rest where He is, and behold the Glory which God has given to
Him.
We aspire to share in His intercession. Before the Father's Throne He
presents His ever-accepted supplication, and we trust that He pleads
for us that blessings numberless may descend upon us unworthy ones. We
were wretched, indeed, if we had not a persuasion that we share a part
in the pleadings of our great High Priest. We trust our name is
engraved on one of the precious stones of His breastplate, and is so
borne before God. Moreover, we know that Christ sits at the right hand
of God as King, all things being delivered into His hands, and we
desire to have a part with Him in His kingdom, to be partakers of the
peace which His scepter brings–yes, and to be ourselves made kings to
reign with Him.
Moreover, we expect His second advent. In the same manner as He went up
to Heaven, in that same manner will He descend, with the trump of the
archangel and the voice of God, in His own proper Person actually and
really, not in myth and phantom, but in very deed. As He is gone from
us, so shall He come again, and then will He take to Himself all power,
and reign from the river even unto the ends of the earth. We hope to
participate in the glory of His appearing and kingdom.
Whatever the Millennium may be, whatever the splendor of the latter
day, our aspiration is that we may have a part with Christ in all these
things. We would not shun His Cross, for we desire His crown. We would
not desert Him in His humiliation, for we hope to attend Him in His
triumph. We would cheerfully go forth without the camp and bear the
reproach for His sake, for we hope to stand among the camp of the
faithful ones when the crowns of immortality shall be distributed. Our
soul's deepest desire is that we may have a part with Christ.
My dear Brethren, I hope most of us here present know what it is to
have a part in Christ, for we were elect in Him from before the
foundation of the world. We have been make partakers of His Spirit, and
have been brought into union with Him. We have submitted ourselves to
His government. We are looking to Him for our salvation. We have a part
with Him as members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones–a part
with Him as branches in the vine, as stones in the temple. We are
serving under His banner in the same holy war, and laborers in the same
sacred service. We have a part with Him as His friends and as His
chosen whom He has admitted into the most familiar communion with
Himself.
We are much deceived if this is not the case. But if it, indeed, is so,
we feel that the blessed fact is altogether due to Divine Grace, and it
could never have been so if we had not first been washed. If we have
not as yet participated in the blessings which come to us through
Christ, we know, this morning, for the text tells us, that we must be
washed before we can have a part with Him. Brethren, we desire to be
sons as He is a Son. We wish to be heirs as He is an Heir. We pant to
be accepted as He is accepted. We aspire to be, before long, glorified
as He is glorified. This is a blessing worthy of the utmost intensity
of desire, and it is a blessing which we must obtain or we shall sink
miserably down to everlasting de-struction–since to be without Christ
is to be without hope.
II. After these few words upon what it is to have a part with Jesus, I
come to notice, in the second place, THE ESSENTIAL QUALIFICATION FOR
OBTAINING AND ENJOYING A PART WITH CHRIST. It is essential that He
should wash us. Observe then, that the qualification is not one of
merit on our part, it is one of mercy on His part. If He had said,
"Except you obtain a superior degree of holiness, you have no part in
Me," we might have become dispirited, desponding, and even despairing.
But the very chief of sinners may find comfort in such a word as this.
Here is nothing of merit but all of mercy. Whatever is your sin, O
Sinner, Christ can wash you! The only qualification for having a part
in all Covenant blessings is that you as a sinner are washed by Jesus.
There is no specification of something to be given on our part. It is
something to be received. It is not demanded that we act as servants to
Christ and wash His feet, but that He in tender condescension should be
servant to us and wash our feet. If there were a matter of giving
mentioned, O you poor and needy, you who are spiritually bankrupt,
there might be reason for you to mourn! But since the essential, the
great sine qua non is one of
mercy alone, you may be comforted. You have but to come in all your
filth and all your unworthiness and be washed, and this one thing shall
give you part and lot in Christ.
But what is meant by this washing, which is the essential qualification
for a man to have part with Christ? I understand it to mean one thing,
namely, purification through the Lord Jesus–which one thing, however,
will be best understood if we describe it as four things.
First, no man has any part in Christ who does not receive the first
all-essential washing in the precious blood, by which all sin is once
and forever put away. The moment a sinner believes in Jesus Christ, his
iniquities are seen as laid on Christ the Substitute, and the Believer
himself is free from sin. Though he may have been up to now black as an
Ethiopian, yet is he washed in the fountain filled from the Redeemer's
veins, and he stands before God without spot or wrinkle, or any such
thing. There is such a blessed fact as the instantaneous reception of a
perfect pardon through faith in Jesus Christ, and this happens the
moment a sinner truly looks to the great atoning Sacrifice.
If you rely on the Substitute, and the matchless expiation which He
made for human guilt, your sins, which are many, are all forgiven you.
If He does not wash you, you have no part in Him–but if His blood
atones for you, He is yours. If you do not receive His perfect,
unrivalled, Godlike blood-washing, you are no Christian. Whatever is
your profession, whatever your supposed experience, whatever your
reformation, whatever you may have attempted or accom-plished–if you
have never come as a guilty one, and seen your sin laid upon the
bleeding Son of God, you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond
of iniquity–you have neither part nor lot in this matter. Without
faith in the Atonement you can have no part in Christ.
There follows a second cleansing, which is, in some respects, but a
branch of the first, namely, daily pardon for sin through faith in
Jesus. As day by day we fall into sin, we are taught to pray each day,
"Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against
us." And there is provision made in Christ Jesus for this daily pardon,
since besides being the Paschal Lamb, our Lord is the morning and
evening Lamb for daily guilt. This is what Christ meant, especially
when He washed the disciples' feet, for He told them that He did not
wash their head and their hands, because they had been washed. And,
therefore, as being clean, they needed not to wash anything but their
feet.
We who have once been pardoned have no need to be pardoned again in the
sense in which we were at first. But we do have need in another sense,
and in another respect, to seek a daily forgiveness of recurring sin.
To use a simile which may, perhaps, explain what I mean–the priest of
God, when first consecrated, was washed from head to foot, and so
baptized into the service of the sanctuary. But later, each time he
went to offer sacrifice, he washed his feet and his hands in the brazen
laver. No need to give the complete immersion on each occasion–that
had been given at first–and he was ceremonially purged from pollution,
and made a priest unto God.
But accidental defilement, incidental to everyday life, had to be
cleansed away, not to make the man a priest, but to keep him in proper
condition for the right discharge of his priestly office. Even so,
every Believer is made a priest unto God, and does not need to be made
a priest again, but to be daily cleansed from everything that might
prevent him from the best discharge of his sacred duties. Permit me the
use of another simile–here is a blackamoor, black from head to foot.
But he is washed in a miraculous bath, and so made white, white as
snow. The man will never want another washing to remove his natural
blackness, that is gone forever.
But, my Brethren, he may still need frequent washings, for as a white
man he will constantly need the removal of stains incident to his being
in this world. A sinner does not need, again, the first washing to be
repeated, for that has put him into a new position towards God–but he
needs a washing as a justified man to maintain his conscience in peace,
and his heart pure for service. The leper, once purged under the Law,
was clean and might go into the congregation of the Lord's House. Yet
as a clean man and as admitted into the congregation, he had the
ordinary need to wash which was incidental to every Israelite.
Or to put it yet in another form–I, a criminal, am forgiven. All my
crimes against the great Judge of all the earth are blotted out. I need
no second acquittal. The acquittal which was given me when I first
believed in Christ included all my sins, past, present, and to come. As
before the bar of God I am clean, and need no further washing–but now
being made a child, I stand not at His bar, but at His table, and
alas–I commit sins as a child! Sins which will not condemn me, for I
am not under the Law but under Grace, but sins which require me as a
child to go to my Father, and say to Him
each day, "My Father in Heaven, forgive me my daily trespasses, as I
forgive them that trespass against me." This it is which you must
receive every day, and if you do not receive it, you have no part in
Christ.
If you think you do not sin at all, and have not, therefore, any need
of washing, you have no part in Christ. If you fancy that you do not
require this daily washing of the feet, take it for granted that you
are too proud to understand yourself and that you have not been humbled
as you ought to be. All those who are in Christ feel that they need
each day that He should come and wash their feet. Though they are clean
every whit, yet still they need their feet to be washed by
Him.
A third thing included in this feet-washing, I believe, is the
continual sanctification which faith in Jesus Christ carries on within
us by the power of the Holy Spirit. If a man professes to be a
Christian and is not in his walk and conversation holier than other
men, that man's profession is vain. There are some who seem to think
that we are to come to Christ as sinners, and then after having
believed in Him are to live as we did before.
My Brethren, it is not so. Christ saves His people from their sins.
When you hear the complaints of God's servants concerning their
temptations and their indwelling sins, you are not to conclude that sin
has dominion over them, or that they have not overcome sin, or that
they are not the men they once were. No, my Brethren, I believe the
holier a man becomes, the more he mourns over the unholiness which
remains in him. But he is in very truth a far better man–he is a
spiritual and holy man. If Jesus washes you not, so that you become
godly and upright, you may depend upon it, you have no part in Him.
If He does not wash that tongue, and cleanse away those angry, or idle,
or filthy words. If He does not wash those hands, and render them
impossible to perform a dishonest or unchaste act. If He does not wash
your feet and render it impossible they should be able to carry you to
the haunts of vice and criminal amusement–you have no part in Him. It
is all worthless for unconverted persons to be baptized and come to His
Table, for if He has not sanctified you in some measure He has not
justified you.
If you are not a changed man, neither are you a saved man. And if you
do not aspire after holiness, neither need you hope that you shall have
a part in the Heaven of the blessed. "If I wash you not, you have no
part with Me." It includes then, you see, the first pardon, the
successive pardons of each day, and the sanctifying work by which He
cleanses us with the washing of water by the Word.
Once more, I think, in this foot-washing, our Savior meant to get forth
the daily communion which the true Christian has with Christ. It was a
very singular thing for a disciple to be sitting there and for the
Master to be washing his feet. It was an astounding fact, a wonder, a
miracle, a Divine Grace which Peter could hardly think possible. But
every Christian's life must be a series of similar wonders. Each day he
will have to obtain from his Lord some things for which it really seems
as if he ought not to have dared to ask. They appear too good and too
great for him to receive.
I know, and you know what it is to go to the Lord Jesus Christ about
little things, about household cares, about daily trials, about the
troubles of our spirit, the distractions of our mind. It is a mark of a
child to be able to do so. It is, in fact, a continuance of the
foot-washing which our Lord gave to Peter. Washing feet is not a great
or essential act. A man may live, though his feet after a journey may
not be cooled by the refreshing stream from the pitcher. It is a small
act, a grateful and refreshing act, and just such things Jesus Christ
must continue to do for you and for me, if we are His people. We shall,
in times of need, find Jesus in our chamber still clothed with the
towel and bearing the basin–ready still to wait on us and administer
loving refreshments.
And we shall often wonder, "What? Did He really help me in such a thing
as that, and did I dare to take such a case as that to Him?" Unbelief
will say, "I dare not do that again. Lord, You shall never wash my
feet. I cannot, I dare not make a servant of You for such common things
as these. I will leave the great matters of salvation with You, but I
will not come to You each day for ordinary things." But, Beloved,
unless we do so–unless we live this life of reception of great Grace
for little occasions. Unless we live receiving wonders of loving
kindness which we feel we have no right to receive–marvels of mercy
surpassing all expectation. Unless, I say, our life is made up of
tender mercies of which we are utterly unworthy–Jesus is not washing
our feet–and we have no part with Him.
Put these four things together, and I think you have caught the thought
of our Master. It is very blessed to think that the very first portion
of the least Believer is to be washed, and this is the most essential
thing of all. Though we may not as yet wear those brighter Graces which
are the ornaments of the Christian life, and cannot as yet rejoice that
we are
full-grown men in Christ–yet if we are only little babes whose chief
portion is to be washed, we have sure evidence of a part with Jesus.
We may be too little to do much service. We may be too weak to achieve
great victories. But if our Lord has but taken us to Himself, and
washed us, we have a part with Him. The most essential thing, you see,
is that which the feeblest and the newest born of all the heavenly
family possesses. Washing is for every trembling sinner who trusts in
Christ–and it is as good proof of a part in Christ as the highest
degree of Grace.
III. But I must pass on now to notice, in the third place, WHY THIS
WASHING IS SO ESSENTIAL. And I answer,
first, unless Christ washes us we have no part in Him because the
claims of our Lord require it. Suppose a man shall say, "I have no need
of washing." Brethren, it is clear that he has no part in Christ,
because Christ came on purpose to cleanse His people from their sins.
He came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. The whole
have no need of a physician–only they that are sick.
If a man does not take Jesus to be his Savior, he may say what he likes
about Him, but he does not even know the meaning of His name. May not a
very sincere person admire Christ's Character, and talk well of Him?
Yes, and we shall be glad that he is able to go so far in the right
way. But let not such a man deceive himself with the hope that he will
be a partaker of any of the blessings which Christ brings unless he
acknowledges that for which Christ is the Christ or the anointed
One–namely, to bring the Gospel of salvation to the unworthy.
One of old said, "Aut Caesar aut nullus"–he would be either Caesar or
nobody. And so Jesus Christ will be either acknowledged the anointed
Savior, or He will be nothing to you. If you will not take Him to be an
Expiation for your sins, and the true Refiner of your life, you refuse
Him altogether. Mere admiration of the physician gives no part in his
healing power. The loudest praises of light give not vision to blind
men. Jesus is either the Savior or nothing. For this He lived. For this
He died. Alas, for those who will not receive Him in this Character! In
the long run you shall always find that, despite their soft speeches,
they have not received the true Christ of God.
He who rejects Jesus as an atoning Sacrifice is sure to doubt His
Godhead, and so to reject His grander nature. The deniers of the
Atonement, who are supposed to be admirers of the example of Christ,
generally turn out to be the greatest enemies to vital Christianity.
There are no more real enemies of Christ than those who deny the
doctrine of the Cross. If they do not accept Christ to wash them, they
soon prove that they have no part in Him. Unless men need cleansing
from sin, and unless His blood, alone, can cleanse them, Our Lord came
on a frivolous errand–He descended to this world to perform an
unnecessary work–and He was foolish enough to shed His blood with the
most absurd of motives.
If men need to be washed, then He came in Divine wisdom and
philanthropy, and He lived and He died with an object worthy of His
Divine mind–and His life was no mistake. But if men do not need
cleansing, Christ's death was a mistake, and His whole life, I dare to
say it, was a piece of base imposture–for He was evermore professing
Himself to be the Savior of sinners, and the Pardoner of sin. He spoke
of giving rest to the weary, and of saving the lost–if He could not
save, or if men did not require saving–the life of Christ was a
mistake, and His mission an imposition. Jesus Christ is nothing, His
very name is ridiculous–if there are none to save, and if He is not a
Savior anointed.
You have no part in Christ, then, however much you applaud Him, unless
you are washed by Him. You have rejected that for which He lived, and
for which He died–you have despised that which He considers to be His
noble lifework, and for the joy of which He gave Himself up to death,
if you refuse to be washed by Him. Someone, perhaps, may say, "I
believe I need washing, but I am confident I can purify myself. I have
bad habits, and undesirable infirmities, but I can master the habits
and can conquer the infirmity. I believe a man ought to be holy and
become like God, and by diligent perseverance I conceive that I can do
it."
Do it, then, Sir. I challenge you to do it, but you certainly have no
part in Christ. Whatever you may think of Christ, you can have no part
in Him, for He comes on purpose to save His people from their sins. His
very name is Jesus the Savior–for that same reason was He born–and if
you can do it yourself, you are a rival to Him–you are an Antichrist.
You will owe Him nothing, and you shall have no part in Him. Ah, see
then, and mark it well–unless we are washed, we ignore the claims of
Christ–we cast a slur upon the great labor of His life, and we rob Him
of His main Glory.
Furthermore, the Lord Jesus Christ is Himself so infinitely pure, so
altogether holy, both as God and Man, that when we come to Him we must
first be cleansed by Him before He can enter into fellowship with us.
There is a fellowship with us as sinners which He graciously adopts,
for He receives sinners and eats with them. But into fellowship with
His
deep thoughts, His blessed purposes, and His Divine Nature, He brings
no man till first He has washed Him in His blood. If you refuse Him,
then, as the Refiner who shall purify the sons of Levi, and take away
their dross and sin, and then present them to Himself as much fine
gold, you have refused all part in Christ.
Again, the blessings which are in Christ are so spiritual that till we
are cleansed we cannot enjoy them. Who can see God but those who are
first made pure in heart? Who can have peace with God but those who are
justified by faith? The blessings of the Covenant are not like oil and
wine, which the ungodly man can rejoice in–neither are they like
silver and gold, which the carnal heart can laugh over. But they are
blessings, pure and refined, which the natural man knows not–which
only the man renewed by the Spirit of God can ever prize–for to others
they are far above and out of sight. You must be born again. You must
be washed. You must be renewed in the spirit of your minds or else
Heaven, itself, would not be a Heaven to you–and the things of the
kingdom of God you could not know–its joys you could not enter into.
Your lack of washing disqualifies you.
Moreover, man's nature is such that if he did but know it, it is
impossible for him to have part with Christ without washing. Peter did
not see on his feet what Christ could see there. I mean not on the
flesh of his feet, but on what they represent, namely, his daily life.
Christ could see in Peter blots and blurs, and spots and defilement
which made Him indeed say, "Alas, My poor Follower, you can have no
part with Me unless I wash you. Poor Peter, if you did know yourself,
you would see how impossible it is for Me to give you a portion with Me
till first I have cleansed you." So, Brethren, if we had a sight of
ourselves, a true sight in God's own light–instead of starting back
from Christ the Purifier, we would cry to Him incessantly, "Wash me, O
Lord, purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean–wash me, and I shall
be whiter than snow."
For all these reasons, then, the washing by our Master becomes a
necessity. You cannot have a part in Christ unless you are washed by
Him.
IV. Just for a moment or two I shall ask you to think of some THINGS
WHICH HAVE BEEN PUT FORWARD AS
SUBSTITUTES for being washed by Jesus Christ.
Peter had such a love for his Master, and such an admiration for Him
that he very humbly said, "Do You wash my feet?" Now would not Peter's
humble reverential estimation of Christ stand him in good place? Might
he not be accepted even though his feet were not washed? Ah, no! "If I
wash you not, you have no part in Me." If any of you feel your
un-worthiness, and mourn it, and are kept back from Christ by the
thought that you are not fit to be saved–will this humility, this
supposed humility–save you? My Hearer, the answer is NO. Unless you
have faith in Christ, and He washes you, you have no part in Him.
No repentance, no remorse, no chastenings of your spirit, no humblings
of your soul–if they exist apart from a living faith in Him–can give
you any part in Him. O that you would give up this ruinous humility and
trust in Jesus to cleanse you! For unless you do, though you humble
yourself from morning to morning, and water the earth with your tears,
and make your bed to swim with them–yet shall you have no part in
Christ. Peter had performed distinguished service for his Master. He
had gone with the other Apostles and preached the Gospel, and cast out
devils. And he was one of those who returned and said, "Lord, even the
devils are subject to us"–would not this do? Would not these
achievements prove that Peter had part in Christ?
He preached so boldly, he faced the crowd so nobly–would not that
suffice? No, my dear Hearers. Though any of us should possess tongues
of men and of angels, and give our bodies to be burned–yet if Christ
washes us not, we have no part in Him. We must not hope that the noble
service can stand in the place of the washing by the expiatory
Atonement of Christ.
But Peter had enjoyed very remarkable views of Christ's Glory. He was
one of the three who went up the Mount of Transfiguration, and there
saw the Lord in splendor. And at other times with the other two
favorites of the Master, he had been admitted to sights denied to
common eyes–would not all this prove his part in Jesus? I sometimes
hear men and women boasting out of measure of the "coming Glory." And I
know they give their chief attention to the prophecies of that Glory. I
would not deny them all that they are likely to get from such studies.
But I would remind them that it is not as glorified as the fact that
Jesus puts away sin. He atoned for it as Christ Crucified, and as such
He is our hope. Though a man bathe day after day in the very light of
the Millennium, and though he understand all mysteries–yet if Jesus
washes him not, if he has not justification through the blood, and
holiness through
the work of the Spirit–it profits him nothing. Visions of Glory,
however transporting they may be, give you no part in
Him.
But Peter had walked on water once when his Master bade him come to
Him! Though he did, at last, begin to sink, yet for awhile he trod the
waves, and found the water marble beneath his feet. Did not that prove
him to possess a part in Christ? No, my Brethren, not if Christ washed
him not. If you had faith to remove mountains, yet if you had not this
blood-washing, this daily washing, you would have no part in Christ.
But this man Peter had received deep instruction! Did not his Master
say, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood have not
revealed it unto you"? Yes, but I add that though you possessed all
knowledge, and could interpret all mysteries, yet if Jesus washes you
not, you have no part in Him.
It is not the power to occupy the pulpit. It is not the power to cast
out a devil. It is not the power to work a miracle. It is not the
power, even, to shake Heaven or earth that can prove you to have a part
in Christ–it is the simply going down humbly to the fountain filled
with blood and being washed there, which is the indispensable
qualification–and nothing else can stand in the place of this. Peter,
no doubt, was full of zealous enthusiasm. He could say, "Though all
should deny You, yet will not I. I will go with You to prison and to
death." But the greatest imaginable zeal does not prove a man to have a
part in Christ if he is not truly washed.
I do implore you, my dear Hearers, to do what I anxiously wish to do
myself, namely, to make sure that you have been cleansed in the blood
of Jesus. It is one thing to know about that blood. It is another thing
to have it applied to the conscience. It is one thing to know you ought
daily to be washed. It is quite another thing to get that daily
washing. It is one thing to believe, "I ought to be holy." It is
another thing to have the Holy Spirit dwelling in me to make me holy.
It is one thing to see the faults of others–but quite another thing to
confess my own and to be cleansed from them by the Savior.
Search yourselves, I pray you. You may have but little time to do it
in–therefore be on the alert, and examine yourself! For don't you hear
the sentence, full of love and full of pity, and yet as stern as the
thunderclaps which pealed from Sinai's Smoking summit–"If I wash you
not, you have no part in Me"? If He does not justify you. If He does
not daily forgive you. If He does not daily sanctify you. If He does
not daily perform condescending deeds of tenderness and kindness
towards you, you have no part in Him.
V. So let us close with LESSONS OF WISDOM upon which I linger but a
minute or two. The lesson of wisdom which comes first is this–let no
supposed humility keep any of you from believing in Jesus Christ. The
way of Grace is miracle from beginning to end. Stagger not, therefore,
to begin with accepting a miracle of Grace. You say, "I cannot believe
that Christ could forgive such a Hell-deserving sinner as I am. I have
not any claims on Him. I have been such a wretch. I cannot think that
simply on my trusting Him, He, out of His abundant mercy, will forgive
my sins."
My dear Friend, if you cannot believe that to begin with–it is but the
commencement miracle–there are still greater things than these! "But I
am so unworthy!" I know you are, it is all true–you are much more
unworthy than you have any idea of. You do not deserve to live. You do
not deserve to be out of Hell. But since God is gracious, and He bids
you trust Christ and you shall live, do not be damned because you are
too proudly humble to be saved! You tell me I speak sarcastically. I
tell you, rather, I speak the Truth of God. It is Satan who deceives
you by making you believe that there is any humility in doubting the
mercy of God in Christ Jesus!
What if you are the worst sinner out of damnation? If God tells you He
will save you upon your believing and being baptized, why, Man, believe
and be baptized and be saved! And may God the Holy Spirit lead you to
do that now. What have you to do with saying it is too good a thing? If
God chooses to give it, who are you to say it is too good? You must be
washed by Christ or else perish! O do not stand back because it seems
too good for you to receive! You must be washed, I say, or perish! Take
the good that God provides you and be grateful for it.
What if God Himself came down from Heaven and put on human flesh and
suffered and died that you might not suffer and die? I grant you it is
a miracle that makes the very seraphim astonished and causes the whole
universe to tremble with amazement. But why do you draw back from it
and say, "Because it is so great I will not receive it"? Do you refuse
the air because a bounteous God has made it so abundant? Do you refuse
to drink of the river because it is so deep and broad? Will you refuse
God's mercy because that mercy is so illimitable, so vast, so Divine? O
do not! I say again, damn not yourself under pretense of humility–but
come as you are, and accept the mercy which is freely presented to you
in
Christ Jesus, in the Gospel which He has bid us preach. Remember, "He
that believes and is baptized, shall be saved. He that believes not,
shall be damned."
A further lesson of wisdom is this–as you must not let a supposed
humility keep you back, so let no other kind of feeling keep you from
Christ. The feeling may seem to be very right and very proper, but if
it prevents your being saved, it is a bad feeling. I know your human
nature may excuse it and say, "Why, this is commendable for a man to
feel his sin so great! Is it not even praiseworthy?" I answer, nothing
is commendable which makes a man think that God cannot forgive him.
Feel your sin to be as great as you will, but do not, therefore,
slander God as though He were unwilling to forgive you.
Your feeling may look pretty in the darkness of your ignorance, but in
the brightness of the eternal light, any feeling that keeps you away
from the Cross and away from your Father God is a damnable feeling, and
therefore away with it! Believe at once! I charge you to believe in the
name of Jesus of Nazareth! I, His servant charge you in His
name–believe Him! As He spoke to the winds and they were hushed, and
to the waves and they were stilled, so in His name I speak to you all!
I say trust Him and you shall find peace for your spirit and joy for
your soul, both now and forever.
The last word shall be this–remember, my dear Friends, what you are if
you remain unwashed. And remember what you will be if you are washed.
If you remain unwashed you have no part in Him. The past unforgiven,
the present unchanged, the future unsanctified. There remains for you,
when the dread summons comes that shall separate your soul from your
body, nothing that can comfort, nothing that can afford a ray of hope.
Convicted before the bar of God of ten thousand offenses against His
righteous Law, convicted of mad, insane rebellion against God in having
refused the Gospel of His dear Son, you must be driven from His
Presence. And I warn you that within the cover of His Book there is not
so much as a single jot or tittle that breathes anything like
consolation to a spirit that has once been condemned of God after
death.
Men have tried to contort this Bible and make it say something that
might encourage a soul to reject Christ. But there is here nothing but
a fearful looking for ofjudgment and of fiery indignation which shall
devour the unbeliever. It is now or never with you! I beseech you–look
to Jesus Christ and live! To be washed! How simple! Nothing is asked of
you but to take what Christ has made ready for you. To be washed! How
necessary! To be washed now! How easy! O cast not away the promise of
God through unbelief, but accept the washing, lest you cast yourself
into eternal condemnation!
If you believe in Jesus now, you shall be cleansed, your life shall
become new. The preaching of morality helps but little. Men have been
preached at with morality till they have become drunkards and swearers.
Vice laughs at the preaching of morality. But the preaching of Christ
Crucified and the Gospel of Substitution is efficacious–as many here
are testifying by their renewed lives and changed behavior.
Trust Christ, then, and as your present life will be changed, your
future life will be unboundedly blessed. When your turn shall come to
depart out of the world unto the Father, you shall be with Jesus where
He is–and you shall behold His Glory. Oh, then, be washed and have
part in all the splendor that is to be revealed! Be washed now, and His
shall be the glory. Amen.
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Martha And Mary