The Heart of The Gospel
A Sermon
(No. 1910)
Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, July 18th, 1886, by
C. H. SPURGEON,
At the [10]Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you
by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he
hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him."–2 Corinthians v 20,21.
THE heart of the gospel is redemption, and the essence of redemption is
the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ. They who preach this truth
preach the gospel in whatever else they may be mistaken; but they who
preach not the atonement, whatever else they declare, have missed the
soul and substance of the divine message. In these days I feel bound to
go over again the elementary truths of the Gospel. In peaceful times we
may feel free to make excursions into interesting districts of truth
which lie far afield; but now we must stay at home, and guard the
hearths and homes of the church by defending the first principles of
the faith. In this age there have risen up in the church itself men who
speak perverse things. There be many that trouble us with their
philosophies and novel interpretations, whereby they deny the doctrines
they profess to teach, and undermine the faith they are pledged to
maintain. It is well that some of us, who know what we believe, and
have no secret meanings for our words, should just put our foot down
and maintain our standing, holding forth the word of life, and plainly
declaring the foundation truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Let me give you a parable. In the days of Nero there was great
shortness of food in the city of Rome, although there was abundance of
corn to be purchased at Alexandria. A certain man who owned a vessel
went down to the sea coast, and there he noticed many hungry people
straining their eyes toward the sea, watching for the vessels that were
to come from Egypt with corn. When these vessels came to the shore, one
by one, the poor people wrung their hands in bitter disappointment, for
on board the galleys there was nothing but sand which the tyrant
emperor had compelled them to bring for use in the arena. It was
infamous cruelty, when men were dying of hunger to command trading
vessels to go to and fro, and bring nothing else but sand for
gladiatorial shows, when wheat was so greatly needed. Then the merchant
whose vessel was moored by the quay said to his shipmaster, "Take thou
good heed that thou bring nothing back with thee from Alexandria but
corn; and whereas, aforetime thou hast brought in the vessel a measure
or two of sand, bring thou not so much as would lie upon a penny this
time. Bring thou nothing else, I say, but wheat: for these people are
dying, and now we must keep our vessels for this one business of
bringing food for them." Alas! I have seen certain mighty galleys of
late loaded with nothing but mere sand of philosophy and speculation,
and I have said within myself, "Nay, but I will bear nothing in my ship
but the revealed truth of God, the bread of life so greatly needed by
the people." God grant us this day that our ship may have nothing on
board it that may merely gratify the curiosity, or please the taste;
but that there may be necessary truths for the salvation of souls. I
would have each one of you say: "Well, it was just the old, old story
of Jesus and his love, and nothing else." I have no desire to be famous
for anything but preaching of the gospel. There are plenty who can
fiddle to you the new music; it is for me to have no music at any time
but that which is heard in heaven,–"Unto him that loved us, and washed
us from our sins in his own blood, to him be glory for ever and ever!"
I intend, dear friends, to begin my discourse with the second part of
my text, in which the doctrine of Substitution is set forth in these
words–"He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him." This is the basis and
power of those appeals which it is our duty to make to the consciences
of men.
I have found, my brethen, by long experience, that nothing touches the
heart like the cross of Christ; and when the heart is touched and
wounded by the two-edged sword of the law, nothing heals its wounds
like the balm which flows from the pierced heart of Jesus. The cross is
life to the spiritually dead. There is an old legend which can have no
literal truth in it, but if it be regarded as a parable it is then most
instructive. They say that when the Empress Helena was searching for
the true cross they digged deep at Jerusalem and found the three
crosses of Calvary buried in the soil. Which out of the three crosses
was the veritable cross upon which Jesus died they could not tell,
except by certain tests. So they brought a corpse and laid it on one of
the crosses, but there was neither life nor motion. When the same dead
body touched another of the crosses it lived; and then they said, "This
is the true cross." When we see men quickened, converted, and
sanctified by the doctrine of the substitutionary sacrifice, we may
justly conclude that it is the true doctrine of atonement. I have not
known men made to live unto God and holiness except by the doctrine of
the death of Christ on man's behalf. Hearts of stone that never beat
with life before have been turned to flesh through the Holy Spirit
causing them to know this truth. A sacred tenderness the obstinate when
they have heard of Jesus crucified for them. Those who have lain at
hell's dark door, wrapped about with a sevenfold death-shade, even upon
them hath a great light shined. The story of the great Lover of the
souls of men who gave himself for their salvation is still in the hand
of the Holy Ghost the greatest of all forces in the realm of mind.
So this morning I am going to handle, first, the great doctrine, and
then afterwards, and secondly, as God shall help me, we shall come to
the great argument which is contained in the 20th verse: "Now then we
are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we
pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."
1. First, then, with as much brevity as possible I will speak upon THE
GREAT DOCTRINE. The great doctrine, the greatest of all, is this, that
God, seeing men to be lost by reason of their sin, hath taken that sin
of theirs and laid it upon his only begotten Son, making him to be sin
for us, even him who knew no sin; and that in consequence of this
transference of sin he that believeth in Christ Jesus is made just and
righteous, ya, is made to be the righteousness of God in Christ. Christ
was made sin that sinners might be made righteousness. That is the
doctrine of the substitution of our Lord Jesus Christ on the behalf of
guilty men.
Now consider, first, who was made sin for us? The description of our
great Surety here given is upon one point only, and it may more than
suffice us for our present meditation. Our substitute was spotless,
innocent, and pure. "He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no
sin." Christ Jesus, the Son of God, became incarnate, and was made
flesh, and dwelt here among men; but though he was made in the likeness
of sinful flesh, he knew no sin. Though upon him sin was laid, yet not
so as to make him guilty. He was not, he could not be, a sinner: he had
no personal knowledge of sin. Throughout the whole of his life he never
committed an offence against the great law of truth and right. The law
was in his heart; it was his nature to be holy. He could say to all the
world, "Which of you convinceth me of sin?" Even his vacillating judge
enquired, "Why, what evil hath he done?" When all Jerusalem was
challenged and bribed to bear witness against him, no witnesses could
be found. It was necessary to misquote and wrest his words before a
charge could be trumped up against him by his bitterest enemies. His
life brought him in contact with both the tables of the law, but no
single command had he transgressed. As the Jews examined the Paschal
lamb before they slew it, so did scribes and Pharisees, and doctors of
the law, and rulers and princes, examine the Lord Jesus, without
finding no offence in him. He was the Lamb of God, without blemish and
without spot.
As there was no sin of commission, so was there about our Lord no fault
of omission. Probably, dear brethen, we that are believers have been
enabled by divine grace to escape most sins of commission; but I for
one have to mourn daily over sins of omission. If we have spiritual
graces, yet they do not reach the point required of us. If we do that
which is right in itself, yet we usually mar our work upon the wheel,
either in the motive, or in the manner of doing it, or by the
self-satisfaction with which we view it when it is done. We come short
of the glory of God in some respect or other. We forget to do what we
ought to do, or, doing it, we are guilty of lukewarmness,
self-reliance, unbelief, or some other grievious error. It was not so
with our divine Redeemer. You cannot say that there was any feature
deficient in his perfect beauty. He was complete in heart, in purpose,
in thought, in word, in deed, in spirit. You could not add anything to
the life of Christ without its being manifestly an excrescence. He was
emphatically an all-round man, as we say in these days. His life is a
perfect circle, a complete epitome of virtue. No pearl has dropped from
the silver string of his character. No one virtue has overshadowed and
dwarfed the rest: all perfections combine in perfect harmony to make in
him one surpassing perfection.
Neither did our Lord know a sin of thought. His mind never produced an
evil wish or desire. There never was in the heart of our blessed Lord a
wish for an evil pleasure, nor a desire to escape any suffering or
shame which was involved in his service. When he said, "Father, if it
be possible, let this cup pass from me," he never desired to escape the
bitter potion at the expense of his perfect lifework. The "if it be
possible," meant, "if it be consistent with full obedience to the
Father, and the accomplishment of the divine purpose." We see the
weakness of his nature shrinking, and the holiness of his nature
resolving and conquering, as he adds, "nevertheless, not as I will, but
as thou wilt." He took upon him the likeness of sinful flesh, but
though that flesh often caused him weariness of body, it never produced
in him the weakness of sin. He took our infirmities, but he never
exhibited an infirmity which had the least of blameworthiness attached
to it. Never fell there an evil glance from those blessed eyes; never
did his lips let drop a hasty word; never did those feet go on an ill
errand, nor those hands move towards a sinful deed; because his heart
was filled with holiness and love. Within as well as without our Lord
was unblemished. His desires were as perfect as his actions. Searched
by the eyes of Omniscience, no shadow of fault could be found in him.
Yea, more, there were no tendencies about our Substitute towards evil
in any form. In us there are always those tendencies; for the taint of
original sin is upon us. We have to govern ourselves and hold ourselves
under stern restraint, or we should rush headlong to destruction. Our
carnal nature lusteth to evil, and needs to be held in as with bit and
bridle. Happy is that man who can master himself. But with regard to
our Lord, it was his nature to be pure, and right, and loving. All his
sweet wills were towards goodness. His unconstrained life was holiness
itself: he was "the holy child Jesus." The prince of this world found
in him no fuel for the flame which he desired to kindle. Not only did
no sin flow from him, but there was no sin in him, nor inclination, nor
tendency in that direction. Watch him in secret, and you find him in
prayer; look unto his soul, and you find him eager to do and suffer the
Father's will. Oh, the blessed character of Christ! If I had the
tongues of men and of angels I could not worthily set forth his
absolute perfection Justly may the Father be well pleased with him!
Well may heaven adore him!
Beloved, it was absolutely necessary that any one who should be able to
suffer in our stead should himself be spotless. A sinner obnoxious to
punishment by reason of his own offences, what can he do but bear the
wrath which is due to his own sin? Our Lord Jesus Christ as man was
made under the law: but he owed nothing to that law, for he perfectly
fulfilled it in all respects. He was capable of standing in the room,
place, and stead of others, because he was under no obligations of his
own. He was only under obligations towards God because he had
voluntarily undertaken to be the surety and sacrifice for those whom
the Father gave him. He was clear himself, or else he could not have
entered into bonds for guilty men.
Oh, how I admire him, that being such as he was, spotless and thrice
holy, so that even the heavens were not pure in his sight, and he
charged his angels with folly, yet he condescended to be made sin for
us! How could he endure to be numbered with the transgressors and bear
the sin of many? It may be no misery for a sinful man to live with
sinful men; but it would be a heavy sorrow for the pure-minded to dwell
with a company of abandoned and licentious wretches. What an
overwhelming sorrow it must have been to the pure and perfect Christ to
tabernacle among the hypocritical, the selfish, and the profane! How
much worse that he himself should have to take upon himself the sins of
those guilty men. His sensitive and delicate nature must have shrunk
from even the shadow of sin, and yet read the words and be astonished:
"He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin." Our perfect Lord
and Master bare our sins in his own body on the tree. He, before whom
the sun itself is dim and the pure azure of heaven is defilement, was
made sin. I need not put this in fine words: the fact is itself too
grand to need any magnifying by human language. To gild refined gold,
or paint the lily, were absurd; but much more absurd would it be to try
to overlay with flowers of speech the matchless beauties of the cross.
It suffices in simple rhyme to say–
"Oh, hear that piercing cry!
What can its meaning be?
'My God! my God! oh! why hast thou
In wrath forsaken me?'
"Oh 'twas because our sins
On him by God were laid;
He who himself had never sinn'd,
For sinners, sin was made."
This leads me on to the second point of the text, which is, what was
done with him who knew no sin? He was "made sin." It is a wonderful
expression: the more you weigh it the more you will marvel at its
singular strength. Only the Holy Ghost might originate such language.
It was wise for the divine Teacher to use very strong expressions, for
else the thought might not have entered human minds. Even now, despite
the emphasis, clearness, and distinctness of the language used here and
elsewhere in Scripture there are found men daring enough to deny that
substitution is taught in Scripture. With such subtle wits it is
useless to argue. It is clear that language has no meaning for them. To
read the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, and to accept it as relating to the
Messiah, and then to deny his substitutionary sacrifice is simply
wickedness. It would be vain to reason with such beings; they are so
blind that if they were transported to the sun they could not see. In
the church and out of the church there is a deadly animosity to this
truth. Modern thought labours to get away from what is obviously the
meaning of the Holy Spirit, that sin was lifted from the guilty and
laid upon the innocent. It is written, "The Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all." This is as plain language as can be used; but if
any plainer was required, here it is,–"He hath made him to be sin for
us."
The Lord God laid upon Jesus, who voluntarily undertook it, all the
weight of human sin. Instead of its resting on the sinner, who did
commit it, it was made to rest upon Christ, who did not commit to it;
while the righteousness which Jesus wrought out was placed to the
account of the guilty, are treated as righteous. Those who by nature
are guilty, are regarded as righteous, while he who by nature knew no
sin whatever, was treated as guilty. I think I must have read in scores
of books that such a transference is impossible; but the statement has
had no effect upon my mind. I do not care whether it is impossible or
not with learned unbelievers: it is evidently possible with God, for he
has done it. But they say it is contrary to reason. I do not care for
that, either: it may be contrary to the reason of those unbelievers,
but it is not contrary to mine; and if I am to be guided by reason, I
prefer to follow my own. The atonement is a miracle, and miracles are
rather to be accepted by faith than measured by calculation. A fact is
the best of arguments. It is a fact that the Lord hath laid on Jesus
the iniquity of us all. God's revelation proves the fact, and our faith
defies human questioning! God saith it, and I believe it; and believing
it, I find life and comfort in it. Shall I not preach it? Assuredly I
will.
"E'er since by faith I saw the stream
His flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die."
Christ was not guilty, and could not be made guilty; but he was treated
as if he were guilty, because he willed to stand in the place of the
guilty. Yea, he was not only treated as a sinner, but he was treated as
if he had been sin itself in the abstract. This is an amazing
utterance. The sinless one was made to sin.
Sin pressed our great Substitute very sorely. He felt the weight of it
in the Garden of Gethsemane, where he "sweat as it were great drops of
blood falling to the ground." The full pressure of it came upon him
when he was nailed to the accursed tree. There in the hours of darkness
he bore infinitely more than we can tell. We know that he bore
condemnation from the mouth of a man, so that is written, "He was
numbered with the transgressors." We know that he bore shame for our
sakes. Did not your hearts tremble last Sunday evening when our text
was, "Then did they spit in his face?" It was a cruel scorn that
exhausted itself upon his blessed person. This, I say, we know. We know
that he bore pains innumerable of body and mind: he thirsted, he cried
out in the agony of desertion, he bled, he died. We know that he poured
out his soul unto death, and yielded up the ghost. But there was at the
back, and beyond all this, an immeasurable abyss of sufferings":
probably to us they are unknowable sufferings. He was God as well as
man, and the Godhead lent an omnipotent power to the manhood, so that
there was compressed within his soul, and endured by it, an amount of
anguish of which we can form no conception. I will say no more: it is
wise to veil what it is impossible to depict. This text both veils and
discovers his sorrow, as it says, "He made him to be sin." Look into
the words. Perceive their meaning if you can. The angels desire to look
into it. Gaze into this terrible crystal. Let your eyes search deep
into this opal, within whose jewelled depth there are flames of fire.
The Lord made the perfectly innocent one to be sin for us: that means
more humiliation, darkness, agony, and death than you can conceive. It
brought a kind of distraction and well-nigh a destruction to the tender
and gentle spirit of our Lord. I do not say that our substitute endured
a hell, that were unwarrantable. I will not say that he endured either
the exact punishment for sin, or an equivalent for it; but I do say
that what he endured rendered to the justice of God a vindication of
his law more clear and more effectual than would have been rendered to
it by the damnation of the sinners for whom he died. The cross is under
many aspects a more full revelation of the wrath of God against human
sin than even Tophet, and the smoke of torment which goeth up for ever
and ever. Who would know God's hate of sin must see the Only Begotten
bleeding in body and bleeding in soul even unto death: he must, in
fact, spell out each word of my text, and read its innermost meaning.
There, my brethen, I am ashamed of the poverty of my explanation, and I
will therefore only repeat the full and sublime language of the
apostle–"He hath made him to be sin for us." It is more than "He hath
put him to grief"; it is more than "God hath forsaken him"; it is more
than "The chastisement of our peace was upon him"; it is the most
suggestive of all descriptions–"He hath made him sin for us." Oh depth
of terror, and yet height of love!
So I pass on to notice in the third place, who did it? The text saith,
"He hath made him to be sin for us"; that is, God himself it was who
appointed his dear Son to be made sin for guilty men. The wise ones
tell us that this substitution cannot be just. Who made them judges of
what is right and just. I ask them whether they believe that Jesus
suffered and died at all? if they believe that he did, how do they
account for the fact? Do they say that he died as an example? Then I
ask, is it just for God to allow a sinless being to die as an example?
The fact of our Lord's death is sure, and it has to be accounted for.
In the appointment of the Lord Jesus Christ to be made sin for us,
there was first of all a display of the Divine Sovereignty. God here
did what none but he could have done. It would not have been possible
for all of us together to have laid sin upon Christ; but it was
possible for the great Judge of all, who giveth no account of his
matters, to determine that so it should be. He is the fountain of
rectitude, and the exercise of his divine prerogative is always
unquestionable righteousness. That the Lord Jesus, who offered himself
as a willing surety and substitute, should be accepted as surety and
substitute for guilty man was in the power of the great Supreme. In his
Divine Sovereignty he accepted him, and before that sovereignty we bow.
If any question it, our only answer is, "Nay but, O man, who art thou
that repliest against God?"
The death of our Lord also displayed divine justice. It pleased God as
the judge of all, that sin should not be forgiven without the exaction
of the punishment which had been so righteously threatened to it, or
such other display of justice as might vindicate the law. They say that
this is not God of love. I answer, it is God of love, pre-eminently so.
If you had upon the bench to-day a judge whose nature was kindness
itself, it would behove him as a judge to execute justice, and if he
did not, he would make his kindness ridiculous; indeed, his kindness to
the criminal would be unkindness to society at large. Whatever the
judge may be personally, he is officially compelled to do justice. And
"shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? " You speak of the
Fatherhood of God. Enlarge as you please upon that theme, even till you
make a heresy of it; but still God is the great moral Governor of the
universe, and it behoves him to deal with sin in such a way that it is
seen to be an evil and a bitter thing. God cannot wink at wickedness. I
bless his holy name, and adore him that he is not unjust in order to be
merciful, that he does not spare the guilty in order to indulge his
gentleness. Every transgression and disobedience has its just
recompense of reward. But through the sacrifice of Christ he is able
justly to pardon. I bless his holy name that to vindicate his justice
he determined that, while a free pardon should be provided for
believers, it should be grounded upon an atonement which satisfied all
requirements of the law.
Admire also in the substitutionary sacrifice the great grace of God.
Never forget that he whom God made to be sin for us was his own Son;
ay, I go further, it was in some sense his own self; for the Son is one
with the Father. You may not confound the persons, but you cannot
divide the Son of God from the Father as to forget that God was in him
reconciling the world unto himself. It is the Father's other self who
on the cross in human form doth bleed and die. "Light of light, very
God of very God": it is this Light that was eclipsed, that Godhead
which purchased the church with his own blood. Herein is infinite love!
You tell me that God might have pardoned without atonement. I answer,
that finite and fallible love might have done so, and thus have wounded
itself by killing justice; but the love which both required and
provided the atonement is indeed infinite. God himself provided the
atonement by freely and fully giving up himself in the person of his
Son to suffer in consequence of human sin.
What I want you to notice here is this, if ever your mind should be
troubled about the propriety or rightness of a substitutionary
sacrifice, you may at once settle the matter by remembering that God
himself "hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin." If God did
it, it is well done. I am not careful to defend an act of God: let the
man who dares accuse his Maker think what he is at. If God himself
provided the sacrifice, be you sure that he has accepted it. There can
be no question ever raised about it, since Jehovah made to meet on him
our iniquities. He that made Christ to be sin for us, knew what he did,
and it is not for us to begin to say, "Is this right, or is this not
right? " The thrice holy God hath done this, and it must be right. That
which satisfies God may well satisfy us. If God is pleased with the
sacrifice of Christ, shall not we be much more pleased? Shall we not be
delighted, entranced, emparadised, to be saved by such a sacrifice as
God himself appoints, provides, and accepts? "He hath made him to be
sin for us."
The last point is, what happens to us in consequence? "That we might be
made the righteousness of God in him." Oh this weighty text! No man
living can exhaust it. No theologian lived, even in the palmiest day of
theology, who could ever get to the bottom of this statement.
Every man that believes in Jesus is through Christ having taken his sin
made to be righteousness before God. We are righteous through faith in
Christ Jesus, "justified by faith." More than this, we are made not
only to have the character of "righteous," but to become the substance
called "righteousness." I cannot explain this, but it is no small
matter. It means no inconsiderable thing when we are said to be "made
righteousness." What is more, we are not only made righteousness, but
we are made "the righteousness of God. "Herein is a great mystery. The
righteousness which Adam had in the garden was perfect, but it was the
righteousness of man: ours is the righteousness of God. Human
righteousness failed; but the believer has a divine righteousness which
can never fail. He not only has it, but he is it: he is "made the
righteousness of God in Christ." We can now sing,
"With my Saviour's vesture on,
Holy as the Holy One."
How acceptable with God must those be who are made by God himself to be
"the righteousness of God in him"! I cannot conceive of anything more
complete.
As Christ was made sin, and yet never sinned, so are we made
righteousness, though we cannot claim to have been righteous in and of
ourselves. Sinners though we be, and forced to confess it with grief,
yet the Lord doth cover us so completely with the righteousness of
Christ, that only his righteousness is seen, and we are made the
righteousness of God in him. This is true of all the saints, even of as
many as believe on his name. Oh, the splendor of this doctrine! Canst
thou see it, my friend? Sinner though thou be, and in thyself defiled,
deformed, and debased, yet if thou wilt accept the great Substitute
which God provide for in the person of his dear Son, thy sins are gone
from thee, and righteousness has come to thee. Thy sins were laid on
Jesus, the scapegoat: they are thine no longer, he has put them away. I
may say that his righteousness is imputed unto thee; but I go further,
and say with the text, "Thou art made the righteousness of God in him."
No doctrine can be more sweet than this to those who feel the weight of
sin and the burden of its curse.
II. So now, gathering all up, I have to close with the second part of
the text, which is not teaching, but the application of teaching,–A
GREAT ARGUMENT. "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God
did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled
to God."
Oh, that these lips had language, or that this heart could speak
without them! Then would I plead with every unconverted, unbelieving
soul within this place, and plead as for my life. Friend, you are at
enmity with God, and God is angry with you; but on his part there is
every readiness for reconciliation. He has made a way by which you can
become his friend–a very costly way to himself, but free to you. He
could not give up his justice, and so destroy the honour of his own
character; but he did give up his Son, his Only Begotten, and his
Well-Beloved; and that Son of his had been made sin for us, though he
knew no sin. See how God meets you ! See how willing, how anxious he is
that there should be reconciliation between you and God to-day it is
not from want of kindness on his part; it is from want of willingness
on yours. The burden of your ruin must lie at your own door: your blood
must be on your own skirts.
Now observe what we have to say to you to-day is this: we are anxious
that you should be at peace with God, and therefore we act as
ambassadors for Christ. I am not going to lay any stress upon the
office of ambassador as honourable or authoritative, for I do not feel
that this would have weight with you: but I lay all the stress upon the
peace to which we would fain have you reconciled also. I once knew him
not, neither did I care for him. I lived well enough without him, and
sported with trifles of a day, so as to forget him. He brought me to
seek his face, and seeking his face I found him. He has blotted out my
sins and removed my enmity. I know that I am his servant, and that he
is my friend, my Father, my All. And now I cannot help trying in my
poor way to be an ambassador for him with you. I do not like that any
of you should live at enmity with my Father who made you; and that you
should be wantonly provoking him by preferring evil to good. Why should
you not be at peace with one who so mush wants to be at peace with you?
Why should you not love the God of love, and delight in him who is so
kind to you? What he hath done for me he is quite willing to do for
you: he is a God ready to pardon. I have preached his gospel now for
many years, but I never met with a sinner yet that Christ refused to
cleanse when he came to him. I never knew a single case of a man who
trusted Jesus, and asked to be forgiven, confessing his sin and
forsaking it, who was cast out. I say I never met with one man whom he
has restored to purity, and drunkards whom he has delivered from their
evil habit, and with men guilty of foul sins who have become pure and
chaste through the Lord Jesus. They have always told me the same
story–"I sought the Lord, and he heard me; he hath washed me in his
blood, and I am whiter than snow." Why should you not be saved as well
as these?
Dear friend, perhaps you have never thought of this matter, and this
morning you did not some here with any idea of thinking of it; but why
should you not begin? You came just to hear a well-known preacher; I
pray you forget the preacher, and think only of yourself, your God and
your Saviour. It must be wrong for you to live without a thought of
your Maker. To forget him is to despise him. It must be wrong for you
to refuse the great atonement: you so refuse it if you do not accept it
at once. It must be wrong for you to stand out against your God; and
you do stand out against him if you will not be reconciled to him.
Therefore I humbly play the part of an ambassador for Christ, and I
beseech you believe in him and live.
Notice how the text puts it: "We are ambassadors for Christ, as though
God did beseech you by us." This thought staggers me. As I came along
this morning I felt as if I could bury my head in my hands and weep as
I thought of God beseeching anybody. He speaks, and it is done; myriads
of angels count themselves happy to fly at his command; and yet man has
so become God's enemy that he will not be reconciled to him. God would
make him his friend, and spends the blood of his dear Son to cement
that friendship; but man will not have it. See the great God turns to
beseeching his obstinate creature! his foolish creature! In this I feel
a reverent compassion for God. Must he beseech a rebel to be forgiven?
Do you hear it? Angels, do you hear it? He who is the King of kings
veils his sovereignty, and stoops to beseeching his creature to be
reconciled to him! I wonder not that some of my brethen start back from
such an idea, and cannot believe that it could be so: it seems so
derogatory to the glorious God. Yet my text saith it, and it must be
true–"As though God did beseech you by us." This makes it awful work
to preach, does it not? I ought to beseech you as though God spoke to
you through me, looking at you through these eyes, and stretching out
his hands through these hands. He saith, "All day long I have stretched
forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people." He speaks
softly, and tenderly, and with paternal affection through these poor
lips of mine, "as though God did beseech you by us.
Furthermore notice that next line, which if possible has even more
force in it: "We pray you in Christ's stead." Since Jesus died in our
stead we, his redeemed ones, are to pray others in his stead; and as he
poured out his heart for sinners in their stead, we must in another way
pour out our hearts for sinners in his stead. "We pray you in Christ's
stead." Now if my Lord were here this morning how would he pray you to
come to him? I wish, my Master, I were more fit to stand in thy place
at this time. Forgive me that I am so incapable. Help me to break my
heart, to think that it does not break as it ought to do, for these men
and women who are determined to destroy themselves, and, therefore,
pass thee by, my Lord, as though thou were but a common felon, hanging
on a gibbet! O men, How can you think so little of the death of the Son
of God? It is the wonder of time, the admiration of eternity. O souls,
why will you refuse eternal life? Why will ye die? Why will ye despise
him by whom alone you can live? There is one gate of life, that gate is
the open side of Christ; why will ye not enter, and live? "Come unto
me," saith he; "Come unto me." I think I hear him say it: "Come unto me
all that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my
yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and
ye shall find rest unto your souls." I think I see him on that last
day, the great day of the feast, standing and crying, "If any man
thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." I hear him sweetly declare,
"Him that cometh to me I will no wise cast out." I am not fit to pray
you in Christ's stead, but I do pray you with all my heart. You that
hear my voice from Sunday to Sunday, do come and accept the great
sacrifice, and be reconciled to God. You that hear me but this once, I
would like you to go away with this ringing in your ears, "Be ye
reconciled to God." I have nothing pretty to say to you; I have only to
declare that God has prepared a propitiation, and that now he entreats
sinners to come to Jesus, that through him they may be reconciled to
God.
We do not exhort you to some impossible effort. We do not bid you do
some great thing; we do not ask you for money or price; neither do we
demand of you years of miserable feeling; but only this–be ye
reconciled. It is not so much reconcile yourselves as "be reconciled."
Yield yourselves to him who round you now the bands of a man would
cast, drawing you with cords of love because he was given for you. His
spirit strives with you, yield to his striving. With Jacob you know
there wrestled a man till the breaking of the day; let that man, that
God-man, overcome you. Submit yourselves. Yield to grasp of those hands
which were nailed to the cross for you. Will you not yield to your best
friend? He that doth embrace you now presses you to a heart that was
pierced with the spear on your behalf. Oh, yield thee! Yield thee, man!
Dost thou not feel some softness stealing over thee? Steel not thine
heart against it. He saith, with a Tone most still and sweet. "To-day
if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." Believe and live!
Quit the arch-enemy who has held thee in his grip. Escape for thy life,
look not behind thee, stay not in all the plain, but flee where thou
seest the open door of the great Father's house. At the gate the
bleeding Saviour is waiting to receive thee, and to say, "I was made
sin for thee, and thou art made the righteousness of God in me."
Father, draw them! Father, draw them! Eternal Spirit, draw them, for
Jesus Christ thy Son's sake! Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–2 Corinthians 4 and 5.
HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"–917, 404, 284.