DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MAY 8, 1870,
BY C. H. SPURGEON
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"For what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh,
God sending His o wn Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin,
condemned sin in the flesh." Romans 8:3.
EVER since man has fallen away from God, two things have been highly
desirable. The one, that he should be forgiven all his offenses. The
other, equally if not more important, that he should be led to hate the
sin into which he has fallen and love the purity and holiness from
which he has become alienated. These two disabilities must be removed,
or, looking at the matter from a loftier point of view, these two
purposes of Divine mercy must be accomplished together.
It were impossible to make a man happy unless both be equally and
simultaneously realized. If his sins were forgiven, and yet he loved
sin, his prospects were dark. Over his future the direst portents would
loom. If he ceased to love sin, and yet were lying under the guilt of
it, his present condition would be deeply miserable rather than
happy–his conscience pure and sensitive being tortured with pangs of
remorse.
By what process can the two requirements be met, or the double purpose
be achieved? To use our common words, how can man be both justified and
sanctified, obtain clearance from his guilt in the sight of God, and
then be made holy and meet to appear in His Presence? Human reason
suggests that a law should be given to man which he should keep. This
has been tried, and the law which was given was the best law that could
be framed. The Law of God written on the conscience, of which the Law
given by Moses recorded in the book of Exodus is but a copy, is a
perfect Law. There is not a command in it that could be omitted. There
is not one single arbitrary precept.
The right must be true, the true must be right, and God's Law is never
otherwise than right and true. "Of Law," said the judicious Hooker,
"there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of
God, her voice the harmony of the world. All things do her homage, the
very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempt from her
power." If, therefore, that Law which is promulgated from Heaven should
fail to make men what they should be, the fault will not be in the Law,
but in the man. As the text says, it was "weak through the flesh."
Because of our flesh and our tendency to sin, our weakness and our
defilement of nature, it could not do what, indeed, God never intended
it should do–but what some have thought Law might do–repair the
breach and to renovate the depraved. The principle of Law, which is,
"Do this and you shall be rewarded," or, "Do that and you shall be
punished," never can by any means achieve either of these two purposes.
The Law cannot forgive past sin. It evidently has nothing to do with
that question. The Law says, "The soul that sins, it shall die." It can
execute the sentence, but it can do no more. It ceases to be Law if it
lays aside the sword and does not exact its own penalty.
Yet it has been thought that surely Law might make men love holiness,
albeit experience and observation prove that it never has that effect.
Very often men have needed nothing more than the knowledge of sin to
enamor them to it, and they have loved sin all the better for knowing
it to be sin. The Apostle Paul tells us that he had not known lust if
the Law had not said, "You shall not covet." There was a citizen of
Gaunt who had never been outside the city walls. For some reason or
other the magistrate passed an order that he should not go outside.
Strange to tell, up to the moment that the command had passed, the man
had been perfectly easy and never thought of passing the line. But as
soon as ever he was forbidden to do it, he pined, and sickened, and
even died moaning over the restriction.
If a man sees a thing to be law, he wants to break that law. Our nature
is so evil, that forbid us to do a thing, and at once we want to do the
thing that is forbidden, and in many minds the principle of Law,
instead of leading to purity has even offered opportunities for greater
impurity. Beside, although you may point out the way of uprightness to
a man, and tell him what is right and what is wrong with all the wisdom
and force of counsel and caution, unless you can give him a heart to
choose the right, and a heart to love the true, you have not done much
for him.
This is just the province of Law. It can write out its precepts on the
brazen tablets, and it can brandish its fiery sword, and say, "Do this
or else be punished," but man, carnal man, only wraps himself the more
closely in his self-conceit, and perseveres the more doggedly in his
obstinate rebellion. He defies God, defers to his own reprobate mind,
goes on in sin, and waxes worse and worse, knowing the judgment
threatened, yet committing the transgressions prohibited. And he takes
pleasure in those that do such things as his benefit companions.
Because of the malignity, as well as the infirmity of our flesh, the
mere principle of Law will never do anything to purify or ennoble our
moral nature. It has been tried by eminent teachers and social
reformers.
Dr. Chalmers tells us that in his early ministry he used to preach
morality, and nothing but morality, till, he said, he had hardly a
sober or an honest man left in the parish. The preaching of morality
seemed to lead to immorality. Something more is wanted than merely to
din into men's ears what they ought to be, and what they ought to do.
Something is wanted more effectually to renovate the heart and move the
springs of action. The water is nothing, and if you make it flow it is
bitter. You want an ingredient to be cast into it that will heal its
poison springs, and make them sweet and clear.
Now, in the text, we are told how God interposed to do by His Grace
what His Law could not do. I will read it to you again–"For what the
Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending
His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin
in the flesh." There are here, then, two things. First, what God did.
He sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh for sin. And then,
what was the immediate result of this–He condemned sin in the flesh.
After expounding these matters, I will try, in the third place, to show
you how this bears upon the two desirable things I speak of, namely,
the forgiving of the offender, and the making the offender yearn after
holiness and purity.
I. First, and very briefly, let me tell you WHAT, ACCORDING TO THE
TEXT, GOD DID–He sent His Son. We believe in one God, but though we
understand not the mystery of the Divine Existence, we accept the
propositions declared in Scripture, clearly apprehending the obvious
sense of the terms employed, and heartily assenting to the Truth of the
facts revealed. Thus we believe that the Father is God, and the Son is
God, and the Holy Spirit is God–and we worship these Three as the one
God–the triune God of Israel.
The second Person of that blessed unity in Trinity was sent by the
Father to this earth. He is God the Father's Son, "the Only-Begotten of
the Father." What that means we do not attempt to define–of the matter
of fact, we feel no doubt of the manner thereof–but we can offer no
explanation. We suppose that the relationship implied in the words
"Father" and "Son" is the nearest description that the Divine Mind can
present to our feeble intelligence of that ineffable fellowship. But we
do not assume, therefore, that it explains to us anything, or was
intended to explain anything as the basis of an argument or of a theory
concerning the profound doctrine itself. It is a great mystery.
Indeed, were there no mystery in God, He were no God to us. For how,
then, should we fear Him with the reverence due unto His name? The fact
of there being mysteries should never stagger us, poor worms of a day,
when we have to think or speak of the infinitely glorious Jehovah. So,
it came to pass, that in the fullness of time God sent His Son. He is
called in the text, "His own Son," to distinguish Him from us who are
only His sons by creation, or His sons by regeneration and adoption. He
sent His own Son, and He sent Him in the flesh. Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, was born into this world. He took upon Himself our manhood.
The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and the Apostles declare
that they beheld His Glory, the glory as of the Only-Begotten of the
Father, full of Grace and Truth. The text uses very important words. It
says that God sent His Son "in the likeness of sinful flesh," not in
the likeness of flesh, for that would not be true–but in the same
likeness as our sinful flesh. He was to all intents and purposes like
ourselves, tempted in all points like as we are, though without sin. He
was with all our sinless infirmities, with all our tendencies to
suffer, with everything human in Him except that which comes to be
human through human nature having fallen.
He was perfectly Man. He was like ourselves. And God sent Him in the
likeness of sinful flesh. Though it is eighteen hundred ears ago and
more, the Christmas bells seem to ring on. The joy of His coming is
still in our hearts. He lived here His two or three and thirty years,
but He was sent, the text tells us, for a reason which caused Him to
die. He was sent for sin. This may mean that He was sent to do battle
with sin, or that He was sent because sin was in the world–or, best of
all–He was sent to be a Sin-Offering. He was sent that He might be the
Substitute for sinners.
God's great plan was this–that inasmuch as His justice could not
overlook sin, and sin must be punished, Jesus Christ should come and
take the sin of His people upon Himself, and upon the accursed tree,
the Cross of ignominious note, should suffer what was due on our
behalf. And that through His sufferings the infinite love of God should
stream forth without any contravention of His Infinite Justice. This is
what God did. He sent His Son to Bethlehem. He sent his Son to
Calvary–He sent his Son down to the grave, and He has now recalled Him
unto the excellent Glory where He sits at the right hand of God.
II. Do you ask you now, secondly, WHAT WAS THE IMMEDIATE RESULT OF
THIS? Why, Brethren, the immediate result was that God condemned sin.
Let me show you how He did it. God–I must use language which is for
us, not for Him–must, out of necessity, if He would save men and yet
not violate His Justice, send his Son to condemn sin. For it said,
"This sin is such an evil, such a plague, such a curse, that it cannot
be stamped out of the world unless God Himself comes down among the
sons of men."
His usual Presence among men in the power that sustains nature, it
seemed, was not enough to put out sin. So venomous was the serpent that
there must be born a Seed of the woman that should bruise that
serpent's head. This world of ours was such an Augean stable, that
Omnipotence, itself, must come down and turn the sluices of Divine
perfection right through the hideous heap, or else washed it never
could be. Therefore down from the highest Glory came the Savior, that
He might achieve a task which the Law could not do in that it was weak
through the flesh–but which He in the likeness of sinful flesh
undertook to accomplish.
Moreover, the life of our Lord Jesus Christ on earth condemned sin. You
can often condemn an evil best by putting side by side with it the
palpable contrast–the purity to which it is so thoroughly alien, so
totally opposite. So blameless was the conduct of this most blessed Man
of Nazareth throughout His entire career, that even those who accept
not His Deity do homage to His integrity. We have had in our own day,
and in our midst, we grieve to say, some who have blasphemed our faith
with bitterest words. But even they have paused as if they stood
abashed when they came to survey the Character of Him whose Divinity
and Mission they refused to acknowledge. They have seen about His life
a something that they saw nowhere else, and if they have not adored
they have admired.
There was a condemnation of sin in His very look. The Pharisees felt
it. They could not meet or encounter Him without discovering and
exposing what hypocrites they were. All sorts of men felt it. They
could not fail to see through the purity of His life what crooked,
ugly, deformed lives their own were in comparison with His. And thus
the very existence of Christ, and the example of Christ, condemned sin.
But what shall we, who are His disciples, say to that assemblage of
Divine Grace found only in Him, each sparkling with peerless luster,
and all blending with such exquisite gracefulness that we are at once
moved with awe and touched with love as we contemplate Him?
Such majesty, yet such meekness in His manner. Such solemnity, yet such
tenderness in His speech. So impartial in judgment, yet so forgiving in
temper. So full of zeal, yet so equally full of patience. So keen to
detect malice, yet so slow to resent it. Such a wise Mentor in the
inner circle of His followers, yet such a gentle sympathizing friend.
Say, my Brethren, I think some of us never commit a trespass or betray
an infirmity, but we say, and say it to ourselves, Would Christ have
done this? And the remembrance of His holy, harmless life condemns sin
in our conscience.
God condemned sin still further by allowing it to condemn itself. The
scoff has always been on this wise, "Oh, sin, sin! Well, it is a mere
trifle," and the most of men disdain to allow that their particular
transgressions are at all heinous. "No, we never killed anybody. We
never committed adultery. We are not thieves–ours are only sins of a
common sort. There can be no harm in us." But see now, God seemed to
say, "I will let sin do what it can. I will let sin ripen in this
world. I will let it grow to its perfection. And men shall see from now
on what sin is from that sample."
"What am I aiming at," do you ask? Why, there came into this world a
Man perfectly innocent, harmless, gentle, meek, loving, tender. All His
Words were love. All His actions were kindness. He raised the dead. He
healed the sick. He spoke nothing but peace and goodwill towards men.
And what did sin do? Sin said, "Away with such a Fellow from the earth!
It is not fit that He should live." Sin murdered the perfect Man, as it
would lay violent hands on all who interfere with its evil maxims and
base habits. It would utterly destroy all goodness if it could. It
convicted itself. Ferocious is a wild beast, it is always to be feared
and hated, for it never can be tamed or trusted.
That Man came into this world on an errand, and that errand was one of
disinterested mercy and pure affection. He need not have come. He had
nothing to gain by it. He never did gain anything while here. They
would have made Him a
king, but He would not be a king. His was all disinterested kindness,
benevolence to His bitterest foes. When they nailed His hands to the
wood, they could get nothing vindictive from His lips. He said,
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." He came to save
His enemies. Now, surely sin will not touch such a blessed Being as
this! Surely sin will say, "I hate His holiness, but I reverence His
philanthropy"!
Not so, sin shouted, "Crucify Him! crucify Him!" Sin made a jest of His
prayers, and mocked His tears. As we hold and believe, this Man was no
other than God, God's Son. You know how the willfulness and atrocity of
this sin against Christ is represented to us in the parable of a
certain man that had let out his vineyard unto husbandmen. He sent unto
them his servant that at the time of the crops they should pay a
portion of the produce, but they treated him despitefully, and when he
sent another they beat him, and stoned another.
At last he said, "I will send my son. They will surely reverence my
son." But they said, "This is the heir. Let us kill him, and the
inheritance shall be ours." And so with this very God, they seemed to
say, "Let us kill Him." And though they could not give a death blow to
His Deity, they showed that they would if they could. And red-handed
sin stands out before the world this day as a deicide. It would wreak
its vengeance on Him that inhabits eternity if it could, and hurl
destruction at the Lawgiver, to secure a triumph for its own
lawlessness. The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God," and the
great aim of human nature is to get rid of God in fact, as well as in
faith. This it attempts to do, either by discoursing of Him in an
abstraction, or by setting up blocks of wood and stone in simple
credulity, as a correct representation of His fashion or His
attributes.
To the one true and glorious God men will not pay any allegiance. If
sin had power equivalent to its purpose. Had it means to accomplish its
menace, it would cast down the Throne of the Most High, and assail
Jehovah Himself in the Heaven of His dwelling. Oh, you abominable
thing, Sin! You stand convicted. God shall smite you, you accursed
thing! You have condemned yourself by your own act and deed–even where
your craftiness has been foiled and your desperate prowess has issued
in defeat.
Thus, Brethren, I have shown you that Christ's coming condemned sin,
Christ's life condemned it, and by putting Christ to death, sin
condemned itself. But here comes the peculiar doctrine of our faith.
God condemned sin by bruising Christ, by suffering Him to be put to
death, by deserting Him in the hour of nature's extremity, by
permitting His soul to undergo an agony beyond all conception. Sirs,
our sin–your sin, my sin–the sin of as many as do believe or ever
shall believe in Jesus, was laid on Him, "who His own Self bare our
sins in His own body on the tree." He was the Father's Best-Beloved. He
had never offended, and the Father loved Him. Will He not spare Him?
Will He not spare Him?
Infinite love loved us, and infinite love loved Christ, but infinite
love said, "I cannot pass by sin without punishment. What Justice
demands, must be done." And it was love that made the Father pour forth
the vials of His wrath upon the head of the Only-Begotten Son, till in
the garden He sweat, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to
the ground. Oh, there was an inner sweat, of which those outward drops
were but the faint types! His soul was exceedingly sorrowful even unto
death, and then on the Cross He died.
I have often painted you that scene, but for the present I forbear. His
inward sufferings, His soul-sufferings, were the soul of His
sufferings–
'Twas thus the Lord of Life appeared,
And sighed, and groaned, and prayed, and feared.
Bore all Incarnate God could bear,
With strength enough, and none to spare." Then and there He made
expiation for man's guilt. What a condemnation that was of sin!
Methinks it were as though the righteous Judge of all the earth had
said, "I cannot suffer sin, I cannot pass by sin, even if it lies on
the Innocent One. I must smite even My own Son if sin is imputed to
Him. I cannot and will not clear the guilty. The Judge of all the earth
am I. If My Son should be spared, or My Law should be put on one side,
the thousands of worlds I govern might well be in high revolt against
Me."
Poised was the cause in the impartial scales of Justice, and on His Son
He visited our transgressions. Into His hands the cup of wrath was
given. Against Him the sword of vengeance was unsheathed. Of Him the
uttermost penalty was ex-acted–that we, for whom He stood as
Surety–might be clear by His dying, justified by His rising from the
dead, and from then on accepted in the Beloved.
Now I know it will be said, "But why did not God exercise the sovereign
prerogative of mercy, and at once forgive sin? Why did He not by His
own absolute fiat condone the offense and pardon the offenders?" I
reply, how, then, could God have condemned sin? If sin is only such a
simple misdemeanor as an arbitrary act of God can forgive, then its
evil were not infinite in turpitude, the prolific parent of crimes and
curses numberless. But if there must be an atonement for it, an
Atonement as wonderful as that which I have essayed to preach to you,
then sin descried in the light of that altar-fire where it was
propitiated, appears worse than felonious, worse than any word I can
use, more hideous than any ghastly form I can depict.
Its summary condemnation alone could vindicate the unimpeachable
holiness of the Judge. Someone else may say, "But if the righteous Law
is really so spiritual, and carnal man so weak, why not alter the Law
and adapt it to the exigency?" I reply again, because such a procedure
would not condemn the sin. On the contrary, it would condemn the Law.
It would be an admission that the Law originally was too severe. It
would be making an apology for sinners, and encourage them to sin
greedily with both hands. To relax the prescript and forego the
punishment, were to trifle with sin and make the Law to be a
contemptible thing.
The criminal will ask to have it altered still, and lowered to suit his
basest passions. But would not a part-punishment have sufficed, and
then let the rest be excused? I answer, No! That, too, would have
condemned the Law for having asked a greater punishment than was
absolutely necessary. Whatever was laid down as being the necessary
punishment of sin must be enforced, or else God changes, the statute is
set aside, and the Law breaks down altogether. The only way to condemn
sin to the full is this–let the sin be punished, and if there is one
found who, without a breach of justice, may be permitted to suffer in
the place of another, let him so suffer.
But let care be taken that it is no sham, but a reality. That sin, from
the dignity of the sufferer, from the amount of the suffering, from the
completeness of the atonement, is effectually and thoroughly condemned.
Thus far have I led you. God has sent His Son into the world, and has
thus condemned sin by His Son's life and death.
III. Now, thirdly, I come to the main business of this evening, which
is TO SHOW YOU HOW THIS DOES WHAT THE LAW COULD NOT DO. There were two
desirable things, you will remember, that I started with. The first was
that the offender should be pardoned. You can clearly see how that is
done. If Jesus suffered in my place, from now on it becomes not only
Mercy that absolves me, but Justice that seals my acquittal–
"Since Christ has my discharge procured, And freely in my place,
endured The whole of wrath Divine; Payment God cannot twice demand,
First at my bleeding Surety's hand, And then again at mine."
If Jesus paid the debt, it is paid, and I am clear. There is,
therefore, now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Your
only question, dear Hearers, is–have you a part in the sufferings of
Christ? Was He a Substitute for you? According to this grand old Book,
on which we fix our trust as an Infallible guide in this matter, Jesus
died for every soul that trusts Him. So is it written–"He that
believes, and is baptized, shall be saved." Have you these personal
evidences? Do you without question trust Him? Then you are forgiven.
You are this night absolved. You may rejoice in God through our Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom you have now received the Atonement. Your sins,
past, present, and to come, are all blotted out–
"Here's pardon for transgressions past, It matters not how black their
cast And, O my soul, with wonder view, For sins to come, here's pardon
too."
The red mark is drawn across the bill, it is discharged. The load of
obligation is gone. From its burden you are released. The sin of the
Believer has ceased to be. Christ has been punished in his place. Is
not that simple enough for all of you to understand, and Scriptural
enough for all of you to receive?
But how comes the second necessity to be supplied? How does this tend
from now on to make such a man pure in heart, and produce in his very
soul an aversion and a total abhorrence of sin? This is not difficult
to apprehend if you will give it a little quiet consideration. When the
Holy Spirit comes with power into a man's heart, and renews his nature
(oh,
matchless miracle!)–a miracle that has been worked many times in this
house–at that moment the unhallowed and the impure are made chaste.
The dishonest are made honest, and the ungodly are made to love
God–"for if any man is in Christ he is a new creature."
Such motives as the following now begin to influence his mind–The man
says, "Did God, instead of forgiving my sin without a penalty, make the
anointed Substitute smart for it? Then I reverence the Lawgiver, the
mighty Lawgiver who would not, even though He is Love itself, suffer
His Law to be broken. I reverence that dreadful Judge of all the earth,
who, though I am His child, yet since I had offended, would not spare
me for my sin, but executed the penalty that was due to me upon
Himself.
Himself! For Christ His Son is One with Him, and dear to His Father's
soul. Why, more than that, it makes me feel an intense love to Him.
What? Was He so just, and yet was He so determined to save me, that He
would not spare His only Son, but freely gave Him up to die? O blessed
God, I tremble at Your Justice, which yet I come to admire. But oh,
Your love–what shall I say of it? It wins my love. I must love You, my
God–the Just and yet the Gracious One. I must love You."
Then there comes into the heart an enmity against the sin which caused
the suffering of Christ. "What?" says the heart, "Did sin make my
Redeemer, who gave Himself for me, suffer? Then, away with it! It must
be a foul, vile thing, to put such a blessed One as He to death. I will
not tolerate it." It makes the soul cry, "Revenge" against itself–a
blessed vengeance it decrees against all sin. "Bring out the gallows,
and let sin be hanged. The dearest idol I have known, bring out the
hammer and the axe, and let it be broken in pieces. The choicest
transgression I have ever nurtured in my bosom–I see what a viper it
is, and I shake it into the fire! Away with it! If it grieves my
Christ, and makes Him bleed, my own Beloved Savior–away with it, away
with it!"
And let me tell you, there is another matter that comes in and supplies
the basis for holiness, such a basis as cannot be found anywhere else.
The man says, "Now I am pardoned through the love of Jesus Christ and
the shedding of His precious blood. I have God for my Father, and He is
my Friend. There is no one to part me from Him. My sin was laid on
Another, it has been expiated, and it is gone–I am saved, I am
forgiven." The man is happy. The man is cheerful. The man is joyful,
and what springs up? "Now," says he, "there is that glorious Christ of
God who has worked this for me, and I see Him with the eye of faith. I
see Him in Heaven, and I am His man–body, soul, and spirit. I am not
my own. He has bought me with His blood. I lay myself at His feet. What
He bids me do I will do. What He asks of me I will give. What He
forbids me, it shall be my joy never to touch."
Here breaks forth in the soul an enthusiastic love to the Person of
Jesus Christ, which, as it burns and glows like a refining fire,
becomes a great motive–power to the spirit to pursue holiness in the
power of God. When do the soldiers fight best, Sirs? When you have read
their rules to them as to how they might keep place, and how they must
load their guns, and fire in due order? No! Law does not inflame the
soldier with martial ardor, though it is good in its place. But just
when the battle lingers–take an instance from our own history–just
when the battle was about to turn with the Ironsides, and the Cavaliers
were coming on with one of Rupert's hot charges, ready to break the
line, and the brave old Ironsides were half inclined to turn, up came
the general old Noll, riding on his horse, and they passed the word
along, "It is he, boys! Here he comes!"
And every man grew into a giant at once. They stood like iron columns,
like walls of granite, and the Cavaliers as they came on broke like
waves against rocks, and dashed away, and were heard of no more. It was
the presence of the man that fired each soldier. And so it is now with
us. We believe in Jesus Christ. We know that He is with His Church. He
was dead, but He rose again. He has gone to Heaven, but His spirit is
with us–King of kings, and Lord of lords is He. If He seems to sleep
in the midst of our ship, yet He sleeps with His hands on the helm, and
He will steer the vessel rightly.
And now the love that we bear His name steers our souls to holiness, to
self-denial, to seek after God, to make full proof of the faith and the
fellowship of the Gospel, to seek to become like God, and to be
absorbed into God that He may be All in All. This is what was wanted–a
stimulus potent enough, under God's Grace, to break through the
barriers of sin. What the Law could not do in that it was weak through
the flesh, God has accomplished by sending His own dear Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh for sin. And having condemned sin in the
flesh, He has now removed its guilt, and destroyed its power.
To the best of my ability I have thus set before you a doctrine in
which my own heart finds perfect rest. I would that you all had the
same rest, the same sweet heart's ease in your breasts. Two words of
counsel I must address to you before I close. One is, I do beseech you
to receive this doctrine. It is of God. It is true. They who first bore
witness to it were humble fishermen. Unsophisticated as they were, they
had no motive for inventing it. Indeed, it is a theory which they had
not the brains to invent if they had tried. They nearly all of them
died for it. They never gained honor or emolument by professing or
publishing it, but they endured contumely and persecution, even to the
loss of their lives, for testifying to what they saw and heard.
Ah, since then the Church has had long lines of martyrs. Who could help
hearing the same witness, fortified with the same assurances, whatever
it might cost them, however they might be ridiculed as ignorant,
old-fashioned, and not up to the progress of the age? I pray you accept
this–especially would I address myself to those of you whom I have
preached to for so long, who yet are unsaved. I do not know what forms
of speech to use with some of you, or in what shape to fashion my
appeal. If I thought that coming round to your pews and kneeling down
before you, and entreating you to receive Christ would have any effect
upon you, I would gladly do it.
I have prayed very anxiously that if perhaps my voice should not be the
one that God would bless to your conversion, my brother's voice next
Sunday, or that of someone else on the following Sunday on which I
shall be absent, may have the effect of leading you to Christ. O that
you may but be saved! I will make no terms with God if you will but
accept Christ. I am somewhat of the mind of a dear little girl, who is
now dying, if she has not already departed. She sent a little note in
pencil to her minister, and it was delivered at the Prayer Meeting.
A little Believer in Christ, nine years of age, asks the prayers of the
people for her father, for he is an unbeliever. She was visited by her
minister, and she said to him, "O Sir, I have asked Father to come and
hear you preach. I thought he might get saved, but he mocks at it, and
will not come. But, Sir, he must hear you preach one day, and that is
when I shall be buried, for I shall soon be with Jesus. O Sir! When he
stands at the grave, do be sure to tell him about the love of Christ,
and say that I asked you to do so, for perhaps when I am dead that
might help to break his heart."
Oh, yes! If anything would break your hearts, that were a mercy if it
happened. If the preacher himself were dead, if his interment in the
grave could bring you to the Savior, it were a cheap price to pay. Only
may God save you! May the Holy Spirit renew you! May the Savior wash
you in His precious blood and I shall be well content.
The other word is this. You that profess to be Christians, to believe
what I have told you–take care that you do not give the lie to it. Not
everyone that says, "I am a Christian" is so. No, no. It is a
heathenish nation this, that has had the impudence to call itself
Christian. "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way which leads unto
life, and few there are that find it," is as true today as when Christ
uttered it. To be a Christian in name is worth nothing. To be a
Christian in the power of these truths, having received Christ Jesus
the Lord, and being rooted and built up in Him, and established in the
faith as you have been taught–that is to be a Christian in all good
conscience.
If your lives should be unholy, if you trades people should be
dishonest, if you rich people should be proud and selfish, if you poor
people should be envious, if any of you should be drunken, if you
should be loose in speech, if you should be unclean in deed or in
conversation, men may say–"The preacher has only laid down a theory,
let him show us facts." Well. But I can show facts. I bless God that I
have it in my own soul to say that I believe the most of you do so live
as to prove these things. But even so, there are others of you of whom
I tell you, even weeping, that you are the enemies of the Cross of
Christ. Enemies! Of all enemies the worst of enemies, too, because
while professing to be actuated by them, you live in opposition to the
teachings of Jesus.
O blessed Savior! Wounded worse by Your treacherous friends than by
Your open foes. O holy Faith! More damaged by your professors than by
your antagonists. The Lord grant us to walk and live in holiness, and
in His fear, till the Master shall come, as come He will a second time
without a sin-offering unto salvation. Finally, Brothers and Sisters,
farewell. Let me dismiss you with a blessing.
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Angelic Studies