Expiation
A Sermon
(No. 561)
By the
Rev. C. H. SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"Thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin."–Isaiah 53:10.
BOTH Jews and Gentiles knew pretty well what an offering for sin meant.
The Gentiles had been in the habit of offering sacrifices. The Jews,
however, had by far the clearer idea of it. And what was meant by a
sin-offering? Undoubtedly, it was taken for granted by the offerer,
that without shedding blood there was no remission of sin. Conscious of
guilt, and anxious for pardon, therefore he brought a sacrifice, the
blood of which should be poured out at the foot of the altar–feeling
persuaded that without sacrifice there was no satisfaction, and without
satisfaction there was no pardon. Then the victim to be offered was, on
all occasions, a spotless one. The most scrupulous care was taken that
it should be altogether without blemish; for this idea was always
connected with a sin-offering, that it must be sinless in itself; and
being without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, it was held to be a
competent victim to take the offender's place. That done, the victim
being selected, the offerer put his hand upon the sin-offering–and
this indeed was the essence of the whole transaction–putting his hand
on the victim, he confessed his sin, and a transferrence took place, in
type at least, from the offender to the victim. He did, as it were, put
the sin from off his own shoulders on to those of the lamb, or the
bullock, or the he-goat which was now about to be slaughtered. And, to
complete the sin-offering, the priest draws his knife and kills the
victim which must be utterly consumed with fire. I say this was always
the idea of a sin-offering,–that of a perfect victim; without offense
on its own account, taking the place of the offender; the transferrence
of the offender's sin to that victim, and that expiation in the person
of the victim for the sin done by another.
Now, Jesus Christ has been made by God an offering for sin; and oh that
to-night we may be able to do in reality what the Jew did in metaphor!
May we put our hand upon the head of Christ Jesus; as we see him
offered up upon the cross for guilty men, may we know that our sins are
transferred to him, and may we be able to cry, in the ecstasy of faith,
"Great God, I am clean; through Jesus' blood I am clean."
I. In trying now to expound the doctrine of Christ's being an offering
for sin, we will begin by laying down one great axiom; which is, that
SIN DESERVES AND DEMANDS PUNISHMENT.
Certain divines have demurred to this. You are aware, I suppose, that
there have been many theories of atonement; and every new or different
theory of atonement involves a new or different theory of sin. There
are some who say that there is no reason in sin itself why it should be
punished, but that God punishes offenses for the sake of society at
large. This is what is called the governmental theory,–that it is
necessary for the maintenance of good order that an offender should be
punished, but that there is nothing in sin itself which absolutely
requires a penalty. Now, we begin by opposing all this, and asserting,
and we believe we have God's warrant of it, that sin intrinsically and
in itself demands and deserves the just anger of God, and that that
anger should be displayed in the form of a punishment. To establish
this, let me appeal to the conscience–I will not say to the conscience
of a man who has, by years of sin, dwindled it down to the very lowest
degree, but let me appeal to the conscience of an awakened sinner,–a
sinner under the influence of the Holy Spirit. And are we ever in our
right senses, brethren, till the Holy Spirit really brings us into
them? May it not be said of each of us as it was of the prodigal, "He
came to himself?" Are we not beside ourselves till the Holy Spirit
begins to enlighten us? Well, ask this man, who is now really in the
possession of his true senses, whether he believes that sin deserves
punishment; and his answer will be quick, sharp, and decisive. "Deserve
it," saith he, "ay, indeed; and the wonder is that I have not suffered
it. Why, sir, it seems a marvel to me that I am out of hell, and
Wesley's hymn is often on my lips,–
'Tell it unto sinners, tell,
I am, I am out of hell.'"
"Yes, sir," says such a sinner, "I feel that if God should smite me
now, without hope or offer of mercy, to the lowest hell, I should only
have what I justly deserve; and I feel that if I be not punished for my
sins, or if there be not some plan found by which my sin can be
punished in another, I cannot understand how God can be just at all:
how shall he be Judge of all the earth, if he suffer offenses to go
unpunished?" There has been a dispute whether men have any innate
ideas, but surely this idea is in us as early as anything, that virtue
deserves reward, and sin deserves punishment. I think I might venture
to assert that if you go to the most degraded race of men, you would
still find, at least, some traces of this–shall I call it tradition?
or is it not a part of the natural light which never was altogether
eclipsed in man? Man may put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter;
darkness for light, and light for darkness; but this follows him as a
dog at the heels of its master,–a sense that virtue should be
rewarded, and that sin must be punished. You may stifle this voice, if
you will, but sometimes you will hear it; and terribly and decisively
will it speak in your ears to say to you, "Yes, man, God must punish
you; the Judge of all the earth cannot suffer you to go scot free." Add
to this another matter; namely, that God has absolutely declared his
displeasure against sin itself. There is a passage in Jeremiah, the
forty-fourth chapter and the fourth verse, where he calls it "That
abominable thing which I hate." And then, in Deuteronomy, the
twenty-fifth chapter, at the sixteenth verse, he speaks of it as the
thing which is an abomination to him. It must be the character of God,
that he has a desire to do towards his creatures that which is
equitable. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" If there is
anything in them which deserves reward, rest assured he will not rob
them of it; and, on the other hand, he will do the right thing with
those who have offended, and if they deserve punishment, it is
according to the nature and character of a just and holy God that
punishment should be inflicted. And we think there is nothing more
clear in Scripture than the truth that sin is in itself so detestable
to God that he must and will put forth all the vigor of his tremendous
strength to crush it, and to make the offender feel that it is an evil
and a bitter thing to offend against the Most High. Beware, ye who
forget God in this matter, lest he tear you in pieces, and there be
none to deliver you. Sin must be punished.
The other idea, that sin is only to be punished for the sake of the
community, involves injustice. If I am to be damned for the sake of
other people, I demur to it. No, sir: if I am to be punished, Justice
says; at any rate, that it shall be for my own sins, but if I am to be
eternally a castaway from God's presence merely as a sort of trick of
government to maintain the dignity of his law, I cannot understand the
justice of this. If I am to be cast into hell merely that I am to teach
to others the tremendousness of the divine holiness, I shall say there
is no justice in this; but if my sin intrinsically and of itself
deserves the wrath of God, and I am sent to perdition as the result of
this fact, I close my lips, and have nothing to say. I am speechless;
conscience binds my tongue. But if I am told that I am only sent there
as a part of a scheme of moral government, and that I am sent into
torment to impress others with a sense of right, I ask that some one
else should have the place of preacher to the people, and that I may be
one of those whose felicity it shall be to be preached to; for I see no
reason in justice why I should be selected as the victim. Really, when
men run away from the simplicities of the gospel in order to make
Jehovah more kind, it is strange how unjust and unkind they make him.
Sinner, God will never destroy you merely to maintain his government,
or for the good of others. If you be destroyed, it shall be because you
would not come to him that you might have life; because you would rebel
against him; because sin from stern necessity did, as it were, compel
the attribute of divine justice to kindle into vengeance, and to drive
you from his presence for ever. Sin must be punished.
The reverse of this doctrine, that sin demands punishment, may be used
to prove it; for it is highly immoral, dangerous, and opens the
floodgates of licentiousness to teach that sin can go unpunished. O
sirs, it is contrary to fact. Look ye! Oh! if your eyes could see
to-night the terrible justice of God which a being executed now,–if
these ears could but hear it,–if ye could be appalled for a moment
with
" The sullen groans and hollow moans
And shrieks of tortured ghosts,"
you would soon perceive that God is punishing sin! And if sin deserve
not to be punished, what is Tophet but injustice on a monstrous scale?
What is it but an infinite outrage against everything which is honest
and right, if these creatures are punished for anything short of their
own deserts. Go and preach this in hell, and you will have quenched the
fire which is forever to burn, and the worm of conscience will die.
Tell them in hell that they are not punished for sin, and you have
taken away the very sting of their punishment. And then come to earth,
and go, like Jonah went, though with another message than Jonah
carried, through the highways and the broadways, the streets and
thoroughfares of the exceeding great city, and proclaim that sin is not
to be punished for its own intrinsic desert and baseness. But if you
expect your prophecy to be believed, enlarge the number of your jails,
and seek for fresh fields for transportation in the interests of
society; for if any doctrine can breed villains, this will. Say that
sin is not to be punished, and you have unhinged government; you have
plucked up the very gate of our commonweal; you have been another
Samson to another Gaza; and we shall soon have to rue the day. But,
sirs, I need not stop to prove it; it is written clearly upon the
consciousness of each man, and upon the conscience of every one of us,
that sin must be punished. Here are you and I to-night brought into
this dilemma. We have sinned; we all like sheep have gone astray; and
we must be punished for it. It is impossible, absolutely, that sin can
be forgiven without a sacrifice. God must be just, if heaven falls. If
earth should pass away and every creature should be lost, the justice
of God must stand, it cannot by any possibility be suffered to be
impugned. Let this, then, be fully established in our minds.
You need not to be told, as for the first time, that God in his
infinite mercy has devised a way by which justice can be satisfied, and
yet mercy can be triumphant. Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the
Father, took upon himself the form of man, and offered unto Divine
Justice that which was accepted as an equivalent for the punishment due
to all his people.
II. Now, the second matter that I wish to bring under your notice is
this,–THAT THE PROVISION AND ACCEPTANCE OF A SUBSTITUTE FOR SINNERS IS
AN ACT OF GRACE.
It is no act of grace for a person to accept a pecuniary debt on my
behalf of another person. If I owe a man twenty pounds, it is no matter
to him whatever who shall pay the twenty pounds so long as it is duly
paid. You know that you could legally and at once demand a receipt and
an acquittance from any one who is your creditor, so long as his debt
is discharged, though it is discharged by another, and not by you. It
is so in pecuniary matters, but it is not so in penal matters. If a man
be condemned to be imprisoned, there is no law, there is no justice
which can compel the lawgiver to accept a substitute for him. If the
sovereign should permit another to suffer in his stead, it must be the
sovereign's own act and deed. He must use his own discretion as to
whether he will accept the substitute or not; and if he do so, it is an
act of grace. In Gods case, if he had said in the infinite sovereignty
of his absolute will, "I will have no substitute, but each man shall
suffer for himself, he who sinneth shall die," none could have
murmured. It was grace, and only grace which led the divine mind to
say, "I will accept of a substitute. There shall be a vicarious
suffering; and my vengeance shall be content, and my mercy shall be
gratified."
Now, dear friends, this grace of God is yet further magnified not only
in the allowance of the principle of substitution, but in the providing
of such a substitute as Christ–on Christ's part that he should give up
himself, the Prince of Life to die; the King of glory to be despised
and rejected of men; the Lord of angels to be a servant of servants;
and the Ancient of days to become an infant of a span long. Think of
the distance
"From the highest throne in glory
To the cross of deepest woe,"
and consider the unexampled love which shines in Christ's gift of
himself. But the Father gives the Son. "God so loved the world that he
gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life." To give your wealth is something,
if you make yourself poor; but to give your child is something more.
When the patriot mother tears her son from her bosom, and cries, "Go,
my first-born, to your country's wars; there, go and fight until your
country's flag is safe, and the hearths and homes of your native land
are secure," there is something in it; for she can look forward to the
bloody spectacle of her son's mangled body, and yet love her country
more than her own child. Here is heroism indeed; but God spared not his
own Son, his only-begotten Son, but freely delivered him up for us all.
"God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us." I do implore you, do not look upon the sacrifice
of Christ as an act of mere vengeance on the Father's part. Never
imagine, oh! never indulge the idea, that Jesus died to make the Father
complacent towards us. Oh, no, dear friends: Jesus' death is the effect
of overwhelming and infinite love on the Father's part; and every blow
which wounds, every infliction which occasions sorrow, and every pang
which rends his heart, speaks of the Father's love as much as the joy,
the everlasting triumph, which now surrounds his head.
Let us add, however, to this, that, although Jesus Christ's dying as a
substitute does give to him lawful right to all promised privileges,
and does make him, as the covenant head of his people a claimant of the
divine mercy, yet it does not render any of the gifts which we receive
from God the less gifts from God. Christ has died; but still everything
that we receive comes to us entirely as a gratuitous outflow of God's
great heart of love. Never think you have any claim to anything because
Christ purchased it. If you use the word claim at all, let it always be
in so humble and modified a sense that you understand that you are
still receiving, not of debt, but of grace. Look upon the whole
transaction of a substitute, and of Christ becoming the second Adam, as
being a matter of pure, rich, free, sovereign grace, and never indulge
the atrocious thought, I pray you, that there was justice, and justice
only here; but do magnify the love and pity of God in that he did
devise and accomplish the great plan of salvation by an atoning
sacrifice.
III. But now to go a step further, and with as much brevity as
possible. The Lord having established the principle of substitution,
having provided a substitute, and having through him bestowed upon us
gratuitously innumerable mercies, let us observe THAT JESUS IS THE MOST
FITTING PERSON TO BE A SUBSTITUTE, AND THAT HIS WORK IS THE MOST
FITTING WORK TO BE A SATISFACTION.
Let every sinner here who desires something stable to fix his faith
upon, listen to these simple truths, which I am trying to put as
plainly as possible. You do understand me, I trust, that God must
punish sin; that he must punish you for sin unless some one else will
suffer in your stead; that Jesus Christ is the person who did suffer in
the room and place of all those who ever have believed on him who do
believe in him, or ever shall believe in him, –making for those who
believe on him a complete atonement by his substitution in their place.
Now we say that Christ was the best person to be a substitute; for just
consider what sort of a mediator was needed. Most absolutely he must be
one who had no debt of his own. If Christ had been at all under the law
naturally, if it had been his duty to do what it is our duty to do, it
is plain he could only have lived for himself; and if he had any sin of
his own, he could only have died for himself, seeing his obligations to
do and to suffer would have been his just due to the righteousness and
the vengeance of God. But on Christ's part there was no natural
necessity for obedience, much less for obedience unto death. Who shall
venture to say that the Divine Lord, amidst the glories of heaven, owed
to his father anything? "Who shall say it was due to the Divine Father
that Christ should be nailed to the accursed tree, to suffer, bleed,
and die, and then be cast into the grave? None can dare to say such a
thing. He is himself perfectly free, and therefore can he undertake for
others. One man who is drawn for the militia cannot be a substitute for
another person so drawn, because he owes for himself his own personal
service. I must, if I would escape, and would procure a substitute,
find a man who is not drawn, and who is therefore exempt. Such is Jesus
Christ. He is perfectly exempt from service, and therefore can
volunteer to undertake it for our sake. He is the right person.
There was needed, also, one of the same nature with us. Such is Jesus
Christ. For this purpose he became man, of the substance of his mother,
very man, such a man as any of us. Handle him, and see if he be not
flesh and bones. Look at him, and mark if he be not man in soul as well
as in body. He hungers; he thirsts, he fears, he weeps, he rejoices, he
loves, he dies. Made in all points and like unto us, being a man, and
standing exactly in a man's place, becoming a real Adam,–as true an
Adam as was the first Adam, standing quite in the first Adam's
place,–he is a fit person to become a substitute for us.
But please to observe (see if you cannot throw your grappling-hooks
upon this), the dignity of his sacred person made him the most proper
person for a substitute. A mere man could at most only substitute for
one other man. Crush him as you will, and make him feel in his life
every pang which flesh is heir to, but he can only suffer what one man
would have suffered. He could not, I will venture to say, even then
have suffered an equivalent for that eternal misery which the ungodly
deserve; and if he were a mere man, he must suffer precisely the same.
A difference may be made in the penalty, when there is a difference in
the person; but if the person be the same, the penalty must be
precisely and exactly the same in degree and in quality. But the
dignity of the Son of God, the dignity of his nature, changes the whole
matter. A God bowing his head, and suffering and dying, in the person
of manhood, puts such a singular efficacy into every groan and every
pang that it needs not that his pangs should be eternal, or that he
should die a second death. Remember that in pecuniary matters you must
give a quid pro quo, but that in matters of penal justice no such thing
is demanded. The dignity of the person adds a special force to the
substitution; and thus one bleeding Saviour can make atonement for
millions of sinful men, and the Captain of our salvation can bring
multitudes unto glory.
It needs one other condition to be fulfilled. The person so free from
personal service, and so truly in our nature, and yet so exalted in
person, should also be accepted and ordained of God. Our text gives
this a full solution, in that it says, "He shall make his soul an
offering for sin." Christ did not make himself a sin-offering without a
warrant from the Most High: God made him so. "The Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all." It was the sovereign degree of heaven which
constituted Christ the great substitute for his people. No man taketh
this office upon himself. Even the Son of God stoopeth not to this
burden uncalled. He was chosen as the covenant-head in election; he was
ordained in the divine decree to stand for his people. God the Father
cannot refuse the sacrifice which he has himself appointed. "My son,"
said good old Abraham, "God shall provide himself a lamb for a
burnt-offering." He has done so in the Saviour; and what God provides,
God must and will accept.
I wish to-night that I had power to deal with this doctrine as I would.
Poor trembling sinner, look up a moment. Dost thou see him there–him
whom God hath set forth? Dost thou see him in proper flesh and blood
fastened to that tree? See how the cruel iron drags through his tender
hands! Mark how the rough nails are making the blood flow profusely
from his feet! See how fever parches his tongue, and dries his whole
body like a potsherd! Hearest thou the cry of his spirit, which is
suffering more than his body suffers–"My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me?" This is none other than God's only-begotten Son; this is
he who made the worlds; this is the express image of his Father's
person, the brightness of Jehovah's glory! What thinkest thou, man? Is
there not enough there to satisfy God? Truly it has satisfied God: is
there not enough there to satisfy thee? Cannot thy conscience rest on
that? If God's appointed Christ could suffer in thy stead, is it not
enough? What can Justice ask more? Wilt thou now trust Christ with thy
soul? Come, now, sir, wilt thou now fall flat at the foot of the cross,
and rest thy soul's eternal destiny in the pierced hands of Jesus of
Nazareth? If thou wilt, then God has made him to be a sin-offering for
thee; but if thou wilt not, beware, lest he whom thou wouldst not have
to be thy Saviour should become thy Judge, and say, "Depart, thou
cursed one, into everlasting fire in hell!"
IV. We come now to our fourth remark,–THAT CHRIST'S WORK, AND THE
EFFECTS OF THAT WORK, ARE NOW COMPLETE.
Christ becomes a substitute for us. We have seen how fit and proper a
person he was to be such. We hinted that from the dignity of his person
the pains he suffered were a good and sufficient equivalent for our own
suffering on account of sin. But now the joyous truths come up that
Christ's work is finished. Christ has made an atonement so complete
that he never need suffer again. No more drops of blood; no more pangs
of heart; no more bitterness and darkness, with exceeding heaviness,
even unto death, are needed.
"Tis done–the great transaction's done."
The death-knell of the penalty rings in the dying words of the
Saviour,–"It is finished." Do you ask for a proof of this? Remember
that Jesus Christ rose again from the dead. If he had not completed his
work of penalty-suffering, he would have been left in the tomb till
now; our preaching would have been in vain, and your faith would have
been in vain; ye would have been yet in your sins. But Jesus rose.
God's sheriff's officer let him out of "durance vile" because the
account had been discharged, and God's great Court of King's Bench sent
down the mittimus to let the captive go free. More than that: Christ
has ascended upon high. Think you he would have returned thither with
unexpiated sin red upon his garments? Do you suppose he would have
ascended to the rest and to the reward of an accomplished work? What!
sit at his Fathers right hand to be crowned for doing nothing, and rest
until his adversaries are made his footstool, when he has not performed
his Father's will! Absurd! Impossible! His ascension in stately pomp,
amidst the acclamations of angels, to the enjoyment of his Father's
continued smile, is the sure proof that the work is complete.
Complete it is, dear brethren, not only in itself, but, as I said, in
its effects; that is to say, that there is now complete pardon for
every soul which believeth in Christ. You need not do anything to make
the atonement of Christ sufficient to pardon you. It wants no eking
out. It is not as if Christ had put so much into the scale and it was
quivering in the balance; but your sins, for all their gravity, utterly
ceased their pressure through the tremendous weight of his atonement.
He has outweighed the penalty, and given double for all your sins.
Pardon, full and free, is now presented in the name of Jesus,
proclaimed to every creature under heaven, for sins past, for sins
present, and for sins to come; for blasphemies and murders; for
drunkenness and whoredom; for all manner of sin under heaven. Jesus
Christ hath ascended up on high, and exalted he is that he may give
repentance and remission of sin. Ye have no need of shillings to pay
the priests; nor is baptismal water wanted to erect the pardon: there
is no willing, doing, being, or suffering of yours required to complete
the task. The blood has filled the fountain full: thou hast but to wash
and be clean, and thy sins shall be gone forever.
Justification, too, is finished. You know the difference. Pardon takes
away our filth, but then it leaves us naked; justification puts a royal
robe upon us. How no rags of yours are wanted; not a stitch of yours is
needed to perfect what Christ has done. He whom God the Father hath
accepted as a sin offering hath perfected forever thou who are set
apart. Ye are complete in Christ. No tears of yours, no penance, no
personal mortifications, nay, no good works of yours, are wanted to
make yourself complete and perfect. Take it as it is. O sirs! may you
have grace to take it as it is freely presented to you in the gospel.
"He that believeth on him is not condemned;" "There is therefore now no
condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." Trust
Christ–implicitly trust Christ; and all that he did shall cover you,
while all that he suffered shall cleanse you.
Remember, too, that acceptance is finished. There are the Father's
arms, and here are you, a black sinner to-night. I do not know you, but
it may be you have trodden the pavements, or you have gone further than
that, and added drunkenness to shame; you have gone to the lowest vice,
perhaps to robbery,–who knoweth what manner of person may step into
this place?–but the great arms of the Eternal Father are ready to save
you as you are, because the great work of Christ has effected all that
is wanted before God for the acceptance of the vilest sinner. How is it
that the Father can embrace the prodigal? Why! he is fresh from the
swine-trough! Look at him: look at his rags; how foul they are! We
would not touch them with a pair of tongs! Take him to the fire and
burn the filth! Take him to the bath and wash him! That lip is not fit
to kiss; those filthy lips cannot be permitted to touch that holy cheek
of the glorious Father! Ah! but it is not so. While he was yet a great
way off, his father saw him,–rags and poverty and sin and filth and
all,–and he did not wait till he was clean, but ran and fell upon his
neck and kissed him, just as he was. How could he do that? Why, the
parable does not tell us; for it did not run on with the subject to
introduce the atonement. But this explains it,–when God accepts a
sinner, he is, in fact, only accepting Christ. He looks into the
sinner's eyes, and he sees his own dear Son's image there, and he takes
him in. As we have heard of a good woman, who, whenever a poor sailor
came to her door, whoever he might be, would always make him welcome,
because, she said, "I think I see my own dear son who has been these
many years away, and I have never heard of him; but whenever I see a
sailor, I think of him, and treat the stranger kindly for my son's
sake." So my God, when he sees a sinner long for pardon and desirous of
being accepted, thinks he sees his Son in him, and accepts him for his
Son's sake. Do not imagine that we preach a gospel in this place for
respectable, godly people. No: we preach a gospel here for sinners. I
heard, the other day, from one who told me that he believed we were
saved by being perfect, that when we committed sin we at once fell out
of God's mercy. Well now, supposing that were true, it would not be
worth making a large splutter about. It would not be worth angels
singing "Glory to God in the highest" about it, I should think. Any
fool might know that God would accept a perfect man. But this is the
thing of marvel, for which heaven and earth shall ring with the praises
of the Mediator, that Jesus Christ died for the ungodly,–that Jesus
Christ gave himself for their sin; not for their righteousness, not for
their good deeds. If he had looked to all eternity, he could not have
seen anything in us worthy of so great a suffering as that which he
endured; but he did it for charity's sake,–for love's sake.
And now, in his name,–oh that I could do it with his voice and with
his love and with his fervor!–I do beseech you to lay hold upon him.
No matter who you may be, I will not exclude you from the invitation.
Hast thou piled thy sins together till they seem to provoke heaven? Do
thy sins touch the clouds? Yet come, and welcome; for God has provided
a sin-offering. Has man cast thee out? Say, poor woman, does the dreary
river seem to invite thee to the fatal plunge? God has not cast thee
out. O thou who feelest in thine own body the effect of thy sin, till
thou art loathing thyself, and wishing thou hadst never been
born–perhaps thou sayest, like John Bunyan, "Oh that I had been a
frog, or a toad, or a snake, sooner than have been a man, to have
fallen into such sin, and to have become so foul!" Have courage,
sinner; have courage. "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the
unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he
will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon." Do not doubt this message: God has sent it to you. Do not
reject it: you will reject your own life if you do. Turn you at his
rebuke! It is a loving voice which speaks to you, and that would speak,
perhaps, better and more forcibly if it were not choked with love. I do
implore thee, sinner, come to Jesus! If thou art damned it is not for
want of invitation. If thou wilt perish, it is not for want of earnest
pleading with thee. I tell thee, man, there is nothing of thine own
wanted. All this is found in the sin-offering; for thou needest not
find it. There is no merit of thine needed; there is merit enough in
Christ. Is it not the old proverb that you are not to take coals to
Newcastle? Do not take anything to Christ. Come as you are–just as you
are. Nay, tarry not till you go out of this house. The Lord enable you
to believe in Jesus now, to take him now as a complete and finished
salvation for you, though you may be the most sunken and abandoned and
hopeless of all characters. Why did God provide a sin-offering but for
sinners? He could not have wanted to provide it if there was no
necessity. You have a great necessity. You have, shall I say? compelled
him to it. Your sins have nailed Christ's hands to the cross,–your
sins have pierced his heart; and his heart is not pierced in vain, nor
are those hands nailed there for naught. Christ will have you, sinner,
Christ will have you. There are some of God's elect here, and he will
have you. You shall not stand out against him. Almighty love will have
you. He has determined that you shall not do what you have vowed. Your
league with hell is broken to-night, and your covenant with death is
disannulled. The prey shall not be taken from the mighty; the lawful
captive shall be delivered. The Lord will yet fetch you up from the
depths of the sea. Oh! what a debtor to grace you will be! Be a debtor
to that grace to-night. Over head and ears in debt, plunge yourself by
a simple act of trusting in Jesus, and you are saved.
Pray, ye who know how to pray, that this message may be made effective
in the hand of God. And you who have never prayed before, God help you
to pray now. May he now be found of them who sought not for him, and he
shall have the glory, world without end. Amen.