Number Two-thousand–Healing by the Stripes of Jesus
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JANUARY 1, 1888,
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"By His stripes we are healed." Isaiah 53:5.
BEING one evening in Exeter Hall, I heard our late beloved Brother, Mr.
Mackay, of Hull, make a speech in which he told us of a person who was
under very deep concern of soul and felt that he could never rest till
he found salvation. So, taking the Bible into his hands, he said to
himself, "Eternal life is to be found somewhere in this Word of God;
and if it is here, I will find it, for I will read the Book right
through, praying to God over every page of it, so, perhaps, it may
contain some saving message for me." He told us that the earnest seeker
read on through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and so on–and though Christ
is evidently there –he could not find Him in the types and symbols.
Neither did the holy histories yield him comfort, nor the Book of Job.
He passed through the Psalms, but did not find His Savior there. And
the same was the case with the other books till he reached Isaiah. In
this Prophet he read on till, near the end, and then, in the 53rd
Chapter, these words caught his delighted attention, "By His stripes we
are healed" "Now I have found it," he said. "Here is the healing that I
need for my sin-sick soul and I see how it comes to me through the
sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ! Blessed be His name, I am healed!"
It was well that the seeker was wise enough to search the sacred
volume. It was better, still, that in that volume there should be such
a life-giving Word and that the Holy Spirit should reveal it to the
seeker's heart. I said to myself, "That text will suit me well and,
perhaps, a voice from God may speak through it, yet again, to some
other awakened sinner." May He, who by these words spoke to the
chamberlain of the Ethiopian queen who, also, was impressed with them
while in the act of searching the Scripture, speak, also, to many who
shall hear or read this sermon! Let us pray that it may be so! God is
very gracious and He will hear our prayers.
The object of my discourse is very simple. I would come to the text and
I would come at you! May the Holy Spirit give me power to do both to
the glory of God!
I. In endeavoring to come to the full meaning of the text, I should
remark, first, that GOD, IN INFINITE MERCY, HERE TREATS SIN AS A
DISEASE. "By His stripes"–that is, the stripes of the Lord Jesus–"we
are healed." Through the sufferings of our Lord, sin is pardoned and we
are delivered from the power of evil–this is regarded as the healing
of a deadly malady. The Lord, in this present life, treats sin as a
disease. If He were to treat it once, as sin, and summon us to His bar
to answer for it, we would, at once, sink beyond the reach of hope, for
we could not answer His accusations, nor defend ourselves from His
justice. In great mercy He looks upon us with pity and, for the time
being, treats our ill manners as if they were diseases to be cured
rather than rebellions to be punished. It is most gracious on His part
to do so, for while sin is a disease, it is a great deal more!
If our iniquities were the result of an unavoidable sickness, we might
claim pity rather than censure. But we sin willfully, we choose evil,
we transgress in heart and, therefore, we bear a moral responsibility
which makes sin an infinite evil. Our sin is our crime rather than our
calamity! However, God looks at it in another way, for a season, so
that He may be able to deal with us on hopeful grounds–He looks at the
sickness of sin and not, as yet, at the wickedness of sin. Nor is this
without reason, for men who indulge in gross vices are often charitably
judged by their fellows to be not only wholly wicked, but partly mad.
Propensities to evil are usually associated with a greater or less
degree of mental disease–perhaps, also, of physical disease. At any
rate, sin is a spiritual malady of the worst kind.
Sin is a disease, for it is not essential to manhood, nor an integral
part of human nature as God created it. Man was never more fully and
truly man than he was before he fell. And He who is especially called
"the Son of Man "knew no sin,
neither was guile found in His mouth, yet He was perfectly Man. Sin is
abnormal–a sort of cancerous growth which ought not to be within the
soul. Sin is disturbing to manhood–sin unmans a man. Sin is sadly
destructive to man. It takes the crown from his head, the light from
his mind and the joy from his heart. We may name many grievous diseases
which are the destroyers of our race, but the greatest of these is sin!
Sin, indeed, is the fatal egg from which all other sicknesses have been
hatched. It is the fountain and source of all mortal maladies.
It is a disease because it puts the whole system of the man out of
order. It places the lower faculties in the higher place, for it makes
the body master over the soul. The man should ride the horse, but in
the sinner, the horse rides the man. The mind should keep the animal
instincts and propensities in check, but in many men, the animal
crushes the mental and the spiritual. For instance, how many live as if
eating and drinking were the chief objects of existence? They live to
eat, instead of eating to live! The faculties are thrown out of gear by
sin so that they act fitfully and irregularly–you cannot depend upon
any one of them keeping its place. The equilibrium of the life-forces
is grievously disturbed. Even as a sickness of body is called a
disorder, so is sin the disorder of the soul. Human nature is out of
joint, out of health and man is no longer man–he is dead through sin
even as he was warned of old, "in the day that you eat, thereof, you
shall surely die." Man is marred, bruised, sick, paralyzed, polluted
and rotten with disease–just in proportion as sin has shown its true
character.
Sin, like disease, operates to weaken man. The moral energy is broken
down so as scarcely to exist in some men. The conscience labors under a
fatal consumption and is gradually ruined by a decline. The
understanding has been lamed by evil and the will is rendered feeble
for good, though forcible for evil! The principle of integrity, the
resolve of virtue in which a man's true strength really lies, is sapped
and undermined by wrong-doing. Sin is like a secret flow of blood which
robs the vital parts of their essential nourishment. How near to death,
in some men, is even the power to discern between good and evil! The
Apostle tells us that when we were yet without strength, in due time,
Christ died for the ungodly–and this being without strength is the
direct result of the sickness of sin which has weakened our whole
manhood.
Sin is a disease which, in some cases causes extreme pain and anguish,
but in other instances deadens sensibility. It frequently happens that
the more sinful a man is, the less he is conscious of it. It was
remarked of a certain notorious criminal that many thought him innocent
because, when he was charged with murder, he did not betray the least
emotion. In that wretched self-possession there was, to my mind,
presumptive proof of his great familiarity with crime–if an innocent
person is charged with a great offense, the mere charge horrifies him!
It is only by weighing all the circumstances and distinguishing between
sin and shame that he recovers himself. He who can do the deed of shame
does not blush when he is charged with it. The deeper a man goes in
sin, the less does he admit that it is sin. Like a man who takes opium,
he acquires the power to take larger and larger doses till that which
would kill a hundred other men has but slight effect upon him! A man
who readily lies is scarcely conscious of the moral degradation
involved in being a liar, though he may think it shameful to be called
one. It is one of the worst points of this disease of sin that it
stupefies the understanding and causes a paralysis of the conscience.
By-and-by, sin is sure to cause pain like other diseases which flesh is
heir to–and when its awakening comes, what a start it gives!
Conscience, one day, will awake and fill the guilty soul with alarm and
distress, if not in this world, yet certainly in the next! Then will it
be seen what an awful thing it is to offend against the Law of the
Lord.
Sin is a disease which pollutes a man. Certain diseases render a man
horribly impure. God is the best judge of purity, for He is thrice-holy
and He cannot endure sin. The Lord puts sin away from Him with
abhorrence–and prepares a place where the finally-unclean shall be
shut up by themselves. He will not dwell with them here, neither can
they dwell with Him in Heaven. As men must put lepers apart by
themselves, so Justice must put out of the heavenly world, everything
which defiles. O my Hearer, shall the Lord be compelled to put you out
of His Presence because you persist in wickedness?
And this disease, which is so polluting, is, at the same time, most
injurious to us from the fact that it prevents the higher enjoyment and
employment of life. Men exist in sin, but they do not truly live. As
the Scripture says, such an one is dead while he lives. While we
continue in sin, we cannot serve God on earth, nor hope to enjoy Him,
forever, above. We are incapable of communion with perfect spirits and
with God, Himself–and the loss of this communion is the greatest of
all evils! Sin deprives us of spiritual sight, hearing, feeling and
taste and, thus, deprives us of those joys which turn existence into
life. It brings upon us true death, so that we exist in ruins, deprived
of all which can be called life.
This disease is fatal. Is it not written, "The soul that sins, it shall
die?" "Sin, when it is finished, brings forth death." There is no hope
of eternal life for any man unless sin is put away. This disease never
exhausts itself so as to be its own destroyer. Evil men wax worse and
worse! In another world, as well as in this present state, character
will, no doubt, go on to develop and ripen–and so the sinner will
become more and more corrupt as the result of his spiritual death. O my
Friends, if you refuse Christ, sin will be the death of your peace,
your joy, your prospects, your hopes–and thus the death of all that is
worth having! In the case of other diseases, nature may conquer the
malady and you may be restored, but in this case, apart from Divine
interposition, nothing lies before you but eternal death!
God, therefore, treats sin as a disease because it is a disease! And I
want you to feel that it is so, for then you will thank the Lord for
thus dealing with you. Many of us have felt that sin is a disease and
we have been healed of it. Oh, that others could see what an
exceedingly evil thing it is to sin against the Lord! It is a
contagious, defiling, incurable, mortal sickness!
Perhaps somebody says, "Why do you raise these points? They fill us
with unpleasant thoughts." I do it for the reason given by the engineer
who built the great Menai Tubular Bridge. When it was being erected,
some brother engineers said to him, "You raise all manner of
difficulties." "Yes," he said, "I raise them that I may solve them." So
do we at this time dilate upon the sad state of man by nature–that we
may the better set forth the glorious remedy of which our text so
sweetly speaks!
II. God treats sin as a disease and HE HERE DECLARES THE REMEDY WHICH
HE HAS PROVIDED–"By His stripes we are healed."
I ask you very solemnly to accompany me in your meditations, for a few
minutes, while I bring before you the stripes of the Lord Jesus. The
Lord resolved to restore us and, therefore, He sent His only-begotten
Son, "Very God of very God," that He might descend into this world to
take upon Himself our nature in order to our redemption. He lived as a
Man among men and, in due time, after 30 years or more of service, the
time came when He should do us the greatest service of all, namely,
stand in our place and bear the chastisement of our peace. He went to
Gethsemane and there, at the first taste of our bitter cup, He sweat
great drops of blood. He went to Pilate's Hall and Herod's
Judgement-Seat and there He drank draughts of pain and scorn in our
place! Last of all, they took Him to the Cross and nailed Him there to
die–to die in our place, "the Just for the unjust, to bring us to
God."
The word, "stripes," is used to set forth His sufferings, both of body
and of soul. The whole of Christ was made a Sacrifice for us–His whole
Manhood suffered. As to His body, it shared with His mind in a grief
that never can be described! In the beginning of His passion, when He
emphatically suffered instead of us, He was in agony. And from His
bodily frame a bloody sweat distilled so copiously as to fall to the
ground! It is very rarely that a man sweats blood. There have been one
or two instances of it and they have been followed by almost immediate
death–but our Savior lived–lived after an agony which, to anyone
else, would have proven fatal. Before He could cleanse His face from
this dreadful crimson, they hurried him to the High Priest's hall. In
the dead of night they bound Him and led Him away.
Soon they took Him to Pilate and to Herod. These scourged Him and their
soldiers spat in His face and buffeted Him. They put a crown of thorns
on His head. Scourging is one of the most awful tortures that can be
inflicted by malice. It is to the eternal disgrace of Englishmen that
they should have permitted the "cat" to be used upon the soldier–but
to the Roman, cruelty was so natural that he made his common
punishments worse than brutal! The Roman scourge is said to have been
made of the sinews of oxen twisted into knots–and into these knots
were inserted slivers of bone and hucklebones of sheep, so that every
time the scourge fell upon the bare back, "the plowers made deep
furrows." Our Savior was called upon to endure the fierce pain of the
Roman scourge and this not as the finis of His punishment, but as a
preliminary to crucifixion!
To this they added buffeting and plucking of His facial hair. They
spared Him no form of pain. In all His faintness, through bleeding and
fasting, they made Him carry His Cross until another was forced, by the
forethought of their cruelty, to bear it, lest their Victim should die
on the road. They stripped Him, threw Him down and nailed Him to the
wood. They pierced His hands and His feet. They lifted up the tree,
with Him upon it, and then dashed it down into its place in the ground,
so that all His limbs were dislocated, according to the lament of the
22nd Psalm, "I am poured out like water and all My bones are out of
joint." He hung in the burning sun till the fever dissolved His
strength and He
said, "My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of My bowels. My
strength is dried up like a potsherd; and My tongue cleaves to My jaws;
and You have brought Me into the dust of death."
There He hung, a spectacle to God and men! The weight of His body was
first sustained by His feet, till the nails tore through the tender
nerves–and then the painful load began to drag upon His hands and tear
those sensitive parts of His frame. How small a wound in the hand has
brought on lockjaw? How awful must have been the torment caused by that
dragging iron tearing through the delicate parts of the hands and feet!
Now were all manner of bodily pains centered in His tortured frame! All
the while His enemies stood around, pointing at Him in scorn, thrusting
out their tongues in mockery, jesting at His prayers and gloating over
His sufferings! He cried, "I thirst," and then they gave Him vinegar
mingled with gall!
After a while He said, "It is finished." He had endured the utmost of
appointed grief and had made full vindication to Divine Justice. Then,
and not till then, He gave up the ghost. Holy men of old have enlarged
most lovingly upon the bodily sufferings of our Lord and I have no
hesitation in doing the same, trusting that trembling sinners may see
salvation in these painful "stripes" of the Redeemer. To describe the
outward sufferings of our Lord is not easy–I acknowledge that I have
failed. But His soul-sufferings which were the soul of His sufferings,
who can even conceive, much less express, what they were? At the very
first I told you that He sweat great drops of blood. That was His heart
driving out its life-floods to the surface through the terrible
depression of spirit which was upon Him. He said, "My soul is
exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death."
The betrayal by Judas and the desertion of the 12 grieved our Lord, but
the weight of our sin was the real pressure on His heart. Our guilt was
the olive press which forced from Him the moisture of His life! No
language can ever tell His agony in prospect of His passion–how
little, then, can we conceive the passion, itself? When nailed to the
Cross, He endured what no martyr ever suffered, for martyrs, when they
have died, have been so sustained of God that they have rejoiced amid
their pain, but our Redeemer was forsaken of His Father until He cried,
"My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" That was the most bitter
cry of all, the utmost depth of His unfathomable grief! Yet it was
necessary that He should be deserted because God must turn His back on
sin and, consequently, upon Him who was made sin for us! The soul of
the great Substitute suffered a horror of misery instead of that horror
of Hell into which sinners would have been plunged had He not taken
their sin upon Himself and been made a curse for them. It is written,
"Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree"–but who knows what that
curse means?
The remedy for your sins and mine is found in the substitutionary
sufferings of the Lord Jesus and in these only! These "stripes" of the
Lord Jesus Christ were on our behalf! Do you ask, "Is there anything
for us to do, to remove the guilt of sin?" I answer–There is nothing
whatever for you to do! By the stripes of Jesus we are healed! He has
endured all those stripes and left not one of them for us to bear.
"But must we not believe on Him?" Yes, certainly. If I say of a certain
ointment that it heals, I do not deny that you need a bandage with
which to apply it to the wound! Faith is the linen which binds the
plaster of Christ's reconciliation to the sore of our sin. The linen
does not heal–that is the work of the ointment! So faith does not
heal–that is the work of the Atonement of Christ.
Does an enquirer reply, "But surely I must do something, or suffer
something"? I answer–You must put nothing with Jesus Christ, or you
greatly dishonor Him! In order to your salvation, you must rely only
upon the wounds of Jesus Christ and nothing else! The text does not
say, "His stripes help to heal us," but, "By His stripes we are
healed."
"But we must repent," cries another! Assuredly we must and shall, for
repentance is the first sign of healing! But the stripes of Jesus heal
us–not our repentance. These stripes, when applied to the heart, work
repentance in us–we hate sin because it made Jesus suffer.
When you intelligently trust in Jesus as having suffered for you, then
you discover the fact that God will never punish you for the same
offense for which Jesus died. His justice will not permit Him to see
the debt paid, first, by the Surety, and then, again, by the debtor!
Justice cannot twice demand a recompense. If my bleeding Surety has
borne my guilt, then I cannot bear it. Accepting Christ Jesus as
suffering for me, I have accepted a complete discharge from judicial
liability. I have been condemned in Christ and there is now, therefore,
no condemnation to me anymore. This is the groundwork of the security
of the sinner who believes in Jesus–he lives because Jesus died in his
place–and he is acceptable before God because Jesus is accepted. The
person for whom Jesus is an accepted Substitute must go free–none can
touch
him–he is clear! O my Hearer, will you have Jesus Christ to be your
Substitute? If so, you are free. "He that believes on Him is not
condemned." Thus, "by His stripes we are healed."
III. I have tried to put before you the disease and the remedy. I now
desire to notice the fact that THIS REMEDY IS IMMEDIATELY EFFECTIVE
WHEREVER IT IS APPLIED. The stripes of Jesus do heal men–they have
healed many of us. It does not look as if it could effect so great a
cure, but the fact is undeniable. I often hear people say, "If you
preach up this faith in Jesus Christ as saving men, they will be
careless about holy living." I am as good a witness on that point as
anybody, for I live every day in the midst of men who are trusting to
the stripes of Jesus for their salvation–and I have seen no ill effect
following from such a trust–I have seen the very reverse! I bear
testimony that I have seen the very worst of men become the very best
of men by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ! These stripes heal, in a
surprising manner, the moral diseases of those who seemed past remedy.
The character is healed. I have seen the drunk become sober, the harlot
become chaste, the passionate man become gentle, the covetous man
become liberal and the liar become truthful–simply by trusting in the
sufferings of Jesus! If it did not make good men of them, it would not
really do anything for them, for, after all, you must judge men by
their fruits–and if the fruits are not changed–the tree is not
changed. Character is everything–if the character is not set right,
the man is not saved. But we say it, without fear of contradiction,
that the atoning Sacrifice, applied to the heart, heals the disease of
sin. If you doubt it, try it! He that believes in Jesus is sanctified
as well as justified–by faith he becomes an altogether changed man.
The conscience is healed of its smart. Sin crushed the man's soul. He
was spiritless and joyless, but the moment he believed in Jesus, he
leaped into the Light of God! Often you can see a change in the very
look of the man's face–the cloud flies from the countenance when guilt
goes from the conscience. Scores of times, when I have been talking
with those bowed down with sin's burden, they have looked as though
they were qualifying for an asylum through inward grief. But they have
caught the thought, "Christ stood for me and if I trust in Him, I have
the sign that He did so, and I am clear," and their faces have been lit
up as with a glimpse of Heaven!
Gratitude for such great mercy causes a change of thought towards God
and so it heals the judgment and, by this means, the affections are
turned in the right way and the heart is healed. Sin is no longer
loved, but God is loved and holiness is desired. The whole man is
healed and the whole life changed. Many of you know how light of heart
faith in Jesus makes you–how the troubles of life lose their weight
and the fear of death ceases to cause bondage. You rejoice in the Lord,
for the blessed remedy of the stripes of Jesus is applied to your soul
by faith in Him.
The fact that, "by His stripes we are healed," is a matter in evidence.
I shall take liberty to bear my own witness. If it were necessary, I
could call thousands of persons, my daily acquaintances, who can say
that by the stripes of Christ they were healed, but I must not,
therefore, withhold my personal testimony. If I had suffered from a
dreadful disease and a physician had given me a remedy which had healed
me, I would not be ashamed to tell you all about it–I would quote my
own case as an argument with you to try my physician. Years ago, when I
was a youth, the burden of my sin was exceedingly heavy upon me. I had
fallen into no gross vices and would not have been regarded by anyone
as being especially a transgressor–but I regarded myself as such–and
I had good reason for doing so. My conscience was sensitive because it
was enlightened and I judged that, having had a godly father and a
praying mother, and having been trained in the ways of piety, I had
sinned much against the Light of God and, consequently, there was a
greater degree of guilt in my sin than in that of others who were my
youthful associates, but had not enjoyed my advantages.
I could not enjoy the sports of youth because I felt that I had done
violence to my conscience. I would seek my chamber and there, sit
alone, read my Bible and pray for forgiveness. But peace did not come
to me. Books such as Baxter's, "Call to the Unconverted," and
Doddridge's, "Rise and Progress," I read over and over again. Early in
the morning I would awake and read the most earnest religious books I
could find, desiring to be eased of my burden of sin. I was not always
thus dull, but at times my misery of soul was very great. The words of
the weeping Prophet and of Job were such as suited my mournful case. I
would have chosen death rather than life! I tried to do as well as I
could and to behave myself, but, in my own judgement, I grew worse and
worse. I felt more and more despondent.
I attended every place of worship within my reach, but I heard nothing
which gave me lasting comfort until, one day, I heard a simple preacher
of the Gospel speak from the text, "Look unto Me and be you saved, all
the ends of the earth." When he told me that all I had to do was to
"look" to Jesus–to Jesus the Crucified One–I could hardly believe it!
He
went on and said, "Look, look, look!" He added, "There is a young man,
under the left-hand gallery there, who is very miserable. He will have
no peace until he looks to Jesus"–and then he cried–"Look! Look!
Young man, look!" I did look and, in that moment, relief came to me and
I felt such overflowing joy that I could have stood up and cried,
"Hallelujah! Glory be to God! I am delivered from the burden of my
sin!" Many days have passed since then, but my faith has held me up and
compelled me to proclaim the story of Free Grace and dying Love. I can
truly say–
"Ever since by faith I saw the stream
Your flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming lo ve has been my theme,
And shall be till I dee."
I hope to sit up in my bed in my last hours and tell of the stripes
that healed me! I hope some young men, yes, and old men before me, will
at once try this remedy–it is good for all characters and all
ages–"By His stripes we are healed." Thousands upon thousands of us
have tried and proved this remedy! We speak what we know and testify
what we have seen. God grant that men may receive our witness through
the power of the Holy Spirit!
I want a few minutes' talk with those who have not tried this marvelous
heal-all. Let us come to close quarters. Friend, you are, by nature, in
need of soul-healing as much as any of us. And one reason why you do
not care about the remedy is because you do not believe that you are
sick. I saw a peddler one day, as I was walking. He was selling
walking-sticks. He followed me and offered me one of the sticks. I
showed him mine–a far better one than any he had to sell– and he
withdrew at once. He could see that I was not likely to be a purchaser.
I have often thought of that when I have been preaching–I show men the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus, but they show me their own–and all
hope of dealing with them is gone. Unless I can prove that their
righteousness is worthless, they will not seek the righteousness which
is of God by faith. Oh, that the Lord would show you your disease and
then you would desire the remedy!
It may be that you do not care to hear of the Lord Jesus Christ. Ah, my
dear Friends! You will have to hear of him one of these days, either
for your salvation or your condemnation! The Lord has the key of your
heart and I trust He will give you a better mind and, whenever this
shall happen, your memory will recall my simple discourse and you will
say, "I do remember! Yes, I heard the preacher declare that there is
healing in the wounds of Christ."
I pray you do not put off seeking the Lord–that would be great
presumption on your part and a sad provocation to Him. But, should you
have put it off, I pray you do not let the devil tell you it is too
late. It is never too late while life lasts. I have read in books that
very few people are converted after they are 40 years of age. My solemn
conviction is that there is but little truth in such a statement! I
have seen as many people converted at one age as at another in
proportion to the number of people who are living at that age. Any
first Sunday in the month you may see the right-hand of fellowship
given to from 30 to 80 people who have been brought in during the
month–and if you take stock of them, there will be found to be a
selection representing every age–from childhood up to old age! The
precious blood of Jesus has power to heal long-rooted sin! It makes old
hearts new! If you were a thousand years old, I would exhort you to
believe in Jesus and I would be sure that His stripes would heal you!
Your hair is nearly gone, old Friend, and furrows appear on your brow,
but come along! You are rotting away with sin, but this medicine meets
desperate cases! Poor, old, tottering pensioner, put your trust in
Jesus, for by His stripes the old and the dying are healed!
Now, my dear Hearers, you are, at this moment, either healed or not.
You are either healed by Divine Grace, or you are still in your natural
sickness. Will you be so kind to yourselves as to enquire which it is?
Many say, "We know what we are." But certain, more thoughtful ones,
reply, "We don't quite know." Friend, you ought to know and you should
know! Suppose I asked a man, "Are you a bankrupt or not?" and he said,
"I really have no time to look at my books and, therefore, I am not
sure." I would suspect that he could not pay 20 shillings in the
pound–wouldn't you? Whenever a man is afraid to look at his books, I
suspect that he has something to be afraid of. So, whenever a person
says, "I don't know my condition and I don't care to think much about
it," you may pretty safely conclude that things are wrong with him.
You ought to know whether you are saved or not. "I hope I am saved,"
says one, "but I do not know the date of my conversion." That does not
matter at all! It is a pleasant thing for a person to know his
birthday, but when persons are not sure of the exact date of their
birth, they do not, therefore, infer that they are not alive! If a
person does not know when he was converted, that is no proof that he is
not converted. The point is, do you trust Jesus Christ? Has that trust
made a new man of you? Has your confidence in Christ made you feel that
you have been forgiven? Has that made you
love God for having forgiven you and has that love become the
mainspring of your being so that out of love to God you delight to obey
Him? Then you are healed! If you do not believe in Jesus, you can be
sure that you are still unhealed– and I pray you look at my text until
you are led by Grace to say–"I am healed, for I have trusted in the
stripes of Jesus."
Suppose, for a moment, you are not healed–let me ask the question,
"Why are you not?" You know the Gospel– why are you not healed by
Christ? "I don't know," says one. And, my dear Friend, I beseech you
not to rest until you do know!
"I can't get at it," somebody says. The other day a young girl was
putting a button on her father's coat. She was sitting with her back to
the window and she said, "Father, I can't see; I am in my own light."
He said, "Ah, my daughter, that is where you have been all your life!"
This is the position of some of you spiritually. You are in your own
light–you think too much of yourselves! There is plenty of light in
the Sun of Righteousness, but you get in the dark by putting self in
the way of that Sun. Oh, that your self might be put away! I read a
touching story the other day as to how one found peace. A young man had
been, for some time, under a sense of sin, longing to find mercy, but
he could not reach it. He was a telegraph clerk and, being in the
office one morning, he had to receive and transmit a telegram. To his
great surprise, he spelt out these words–"Behold the Lamb of God,
which takes away the sin of the world." A gentleman out for a holiday
was telegraphing a message in answer to a letter from a friend who was
in trouble of soul.
It was meant for another, but he that transmitted it received Eternal
Life as the words came flashing into his soul!
dear Friends, get out of your own light and, at once, "Behold the Lamb
of God, which takes away the sin of the world"! I cannot telegraph the
words to you, but I would put them before you so plainly and distinctly
that everyone in trouble of soul may know that they are meant for him.
There lies your hope–not in yourself, but in the Lamb of God! Behold
him and as you behold him, your sin shall be put away and by His
stripes you shall be healed!
If, dear Friend, you are healed, this is my last word to you–then get
out of diseased company. Get away from the companions that have
infected you with sin! Come out from among them! Be you separate and
touch not the unclean thing. If you are healed, praise the Healer and
acknowledge what He has done for you! There were ten lepers healed, but
only one returned to praise the healing hand. Do not be among the
ungrateful nine. If you have found Christ, confess His name! Confess it
in His own appointed way–"He that believes and is baptized shall be
saved." When you have thus confessed Him, speak out for Him. Tell what
Jesus has done for your soul and dedicate yourself to the holy purpose
of proclaiming abroad the message by which you have been healed!
1 met this week with something that pleased me–how one man, being
healed, may be the means of blessing to another. Many years ago I
preached a sermon in Exeter Hall which was printed and entitled,
"Salvation to the Uttermost." A friend, who lives not very far from
this place, was in the city of Para, in Brazil. There he heard of an
Englishman in prison who had, in a state of drunkenness, committed a
murder, for which he was confined for life. Our friend went to see him
and found him deeply penitent, but quietly restful and happy in the
Lord. He had felt the terrible wound of blood-guiltiness in his soul,
but it had been healed and he felt the bliss of pardon. Here is the
story of the poor man's conversion as I have it–
"A young man, who had just completed his contract with the gas-works,
was returning to England, but before doing so he called to see me and
brought with him a parcel of books. When I opened it, I found that they
were novels, but, being able to read, I was thankful for anything.
After I had read several of the books, I found a sermon (No. 84),
preached by C. H. Spurgeon, in Exeter Hall, on June 8th , 1856, from
the words, 'Therefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost,'
etc., (Heb. 7:25). In his discourse, Mr. Spurgeon referred to Palmer,
who was then lying under sentence of death in Stafford Jail and, in
order to bring home this text to his hearers, he said that if Palmer
had committed many other murders, if he repents and seeks God's
pardoning love in Christ, even he will be forgiven! I then felt that if
Palmer could be forgiven, so might I. I sought and, blessed be God, I
found! I am pardoned, I am free! I am a sinner saved by Grace! Though a
murderer, I have not yet sinned 'beyond the uttermost,' blessed be His
holy name!" It made me very happy to think that a poor condemned
murderer could thus be converted. Surely there is hope for every hearer
and reader of this sermon, however guilty he may be!
If you know Christ, tell others about Him. You do not know what good
there is in making Jesus known, even though all you can do is to give a
tract, or repeat a verse. Dr. Valpy, the author of a great many class
books, wrote the following simple lines as his confession of faith–
"In peace let me resign my breath, And Your salvation see. My sins
deserve eternal death, But Jesus died for me."
Valpy is dead and gone, but he gave those lines to dear old Dr. Marsh,
the Rector of Beckenham, who put them over his study mantel. The Earl
of Roden came in and read them. "Will you give me a copy of those
lines?" said the good earl. "I shall be glad," said Dr. Marsh, and he
copied them. Lord Roden took them home and put them over his mantel.
General Taylor, a Waterloo hero, came into the room and noticed them.
He read them over and over again, while staying with Earl Roden, till
his Lordship remarked, "I say, friend Taylor, I should think you know
those lines by heart." He answered, "I do know them by heart. Indeed,
my very heart has grasped their meaning." He was brought to Christ by
that humble rhyme!
General Taylor handed those lines to an officer in the army who was
going out to the Crimean War. He came home to die. And when Dr. Marsh
went to see him, the poor soul, in his weakness said, "Good Sir, do you
know this verse which General Taylor gave to me? It brought me to my
Savior, and I die in peace." To Dr. Marsh's, surprise, he repeated the
lines–
"In peace let me resign my breath, And Your salvation see. My sins
deserve eternal death, But Jesus died for me."
Only think of the good which four simple lines may do! Be encouraged,
all of you who know the healing power of the wounds of Jesus! Spread
this Truth of God by all means. Never mind how simple the language.
Proclaim it! Proclaim it everywhere and in every way–even if you
cannot do it in any other way than by copying a verse out of a
hymnbook! Proclaim that by the stripes of Jesus we are healed! May God
bless you, dear Friends! Pray for me that this sermon of mine, which is
numbered, TWO-THOUSAND, may be a very fruitful one.