Our Magnificent Savior

Our Magnificent Savior

(No. 3554)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 1917.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JANUARY 28,1872.

"He shall see of the travail of His soul, and be satisfied. By His
knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify many, for He shall bear
their iniquities."

Isaiah 53:11.

EVERY word of the text is peculiarly full of meaning. There are
passages of Scripture which are like the rooms of a royal palace which
may not have in them gold and silver, though there are precious things.
But this text is the strongroom of the King's house–the richest,
rarest treasures are here! When we preach the Doctrine of our text, we
are preaching the very marrow of all theology–the very pith of the
Gospel–the essential oil of the good news which brings salvation! I
shall not, tonight, therefore, have any time to give you illustrations,
nor shall we have any time for anything like oratory–but simply to
speak right on, in explaining the deep Truths of God which lie before
us. May God open our ears and may every heart receive the Truth which
is able to save your souls, for I may truly say when preaching upon
this text, "Incline your ears and come unto me. Hear, and your soul
shall live," for we are upon the main business of your souls, and
treating upon that which God sets forth as the only way of redemption
for the sons of men!

There are two points in the text. You observe there are two persons.
There is the Lord Christ, and there are the many. We will take these
two persons in order and you will perceive in a moment that these are
both represented in a threefold character. And our first point will be
the Lord Jesus in His threefold Character. And the second will be the
many in their threefold character. To begin, then, where all
mustbegin–

I. OUR BLESSED LORD HIMSELF IN HIS THREEFOLD CHARACTER.

You have Him here in a threefold Character. First, the Servant–"My
righteous Servant." Secondly, the Sin-Bearer–"He shall bear their
iniquities." Thirdly, the Justifer–"He shall justify many."

To begin, then–Christ, the Servant–"My righteous Servant." Be
astonished, O you heavens! He that distributes crowns and thrones and
is, "God Over All, Blessed Forever," designs to become a Servant! He
came into this world and "was made in fashion as a Man and, being found
in fashion as a Man, He became obedient"–obedient to His Father's
will, "obedient even unto death."

Think of Christ for a few minutes and you perceive that first, He is a
Servant unto God. In a certain sense He became the Servus servorum–the
Servant of servants–washing our feet and wiping them with a towel. But
now in the text He is represented as serving God. Whereas we were
servants that ran away from our Master, Christ came to take our place!
Whereas we were disobedient servants, He came to fulfill our obedience
for us–took our position of service of which we had proved ourselves
to be unworthy. He served His Father and did His will. According to the
verse which precedes the text, He served God not only with His body,
but–with His soul–and yet again in the verse in which our text is
found, "He shall see of the travail of His soul." The service that
Christ rendered to God was partly that of His body, for He suffered
weariness in the diligent obedience to His Father's will. But His mind
went with it–every power and every passion of His Nature was sweetly
obedient to the Divine Will! The zeal which He had for God's Glory ate
up not only His body, but His very soul! He served God, as alas, we do
not as we should–with all His heart, and soul, and strength!

And note He was an ardent Servant, for the text speaks of the travail
of His soul. Read it as the labor of His soul, as if He threw His soul
so fully into it that His soul labored in the service of God! Or read
it, if you will, as travail, and you know the meaning of that word,
which we will cover with a veil. The whole of His powers and faculties
were full of pain that He might serve His God. He suffered in His
service and He served in His suffering–not only with all the power He
had, but bowing the fullness of His strength into the service which He
rendered unto God. In the text He is called a righteous Servant, as if
He had rendered an account unto God, and God had found it in every jot
and tittle to be correct–a righteous Servant, fulfilling all
righteousness, carefully doing so–a righteous Servant without any need
to add a word about some little slips or failings, for in Him was no
sin–no sin in His life and no sin in Himself. The prince of this world
searched Him, but he found nothing in Him–He was without the slightest
offense–"holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners." Christ,
then, as a Servant to God was an accepted Servant. We know He was, for
God Himself calls Him, "My righteous Servant." Now think–I will not
enlarge further–think, Beloved, of this. This is your Lord, whom
angels worship, become an obedient Servant unto God for your sake and
discharging His work so as to get the reward of, "Well done, good and
righteous Servant!" His merits are yours, Believer! All that He has
done is yours! You are "accepted in the Beloved." The Lord receives you
for Jesus' sake and in Christ He is well-pleased with you. There is a
sweet Truth of God to begin with! Roll it under your tongue as a dainty
morsel. "He is My righteous Servant."

But the text takes Christ in His second Character and we must be brief
on each–as the Sin-Bearer. "He shall bear their iniquity." The most
wonderful thing in all this Book of wonders is this–that God should
become Man and then, as Man, should bear the sin of His people. We have
heard, sometimes, foolish persons ask, "Where is the Doctrine of
Substitution in Scripture?" to which I would answer, "Where is it not?"
Take it out of the Scriptures and there is positively nothing left! It
is the main and cardinal Doctrine of Revelation that Christ stood in
the sinner's place! And throughout this Chapter it is the wonderful
teaching, over and over, and over and over again. "The chastisement of
our peace was upon Him." "He was numbered with the transgressors." "He
bore the sin of many," or, as in our text, "He shall bear their
iniquity." It does not say, "He shall bear the punishment of their
iniquity"–that is true and follows as a matter of course–but the
iniquities of His people were in very truth laid upon Him! And as in
type upon the scapegoat, the sins of Israel were laid, so in truth, and
not in type, nor metaphor, nor figure, but in very deed and of a
truth–the sins of God's people were transferred from them and laid
upon the head of Christ, the Son of God, who stood in their place.
Words cannot be more plain! "He shall bear their iniquities." When did
He bear their iniquities? I answer, in a certain sense He bore them
from of old, for He was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the
world–but in actual fact He bore them through His painful life. Read
these words–"Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;
yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." That
thirst, that hunger, those pangs He felt often throughout His life of
weariness and woe–those were caused by sin being laid upon Him! It was
not possible that He should be perfectly happy while sin was upon
Him–it would have been impossible for Him to have been unhappy had not
sin been imputed to Him.

He bore our sins, next, at the judgment seat of Pilate and of Herod. I
beg you to follow the words of the text, "He was oppressed, and He was
afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not
His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment; and who shall
declare His generation? For He was cut off out of the land of the
living." And why? "For the transgression of My people was He stricken."
He was numbered with the transgressors when He stood at Pilate's bar.
He was condemned to die a malefactor's death and on the Roman records
there stood the name of Jesus of Nazareth, condemned to die because He
had been accused of saying that there was another King, and that
another Kingdom was about to be set up. He was bearing our sins before
Pilate's bar.

But especially upon the tree, for there we have it, "When You shall
make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed." "He, His own
Self, bore our sins in His own body up to the tree," and on the tree,
always being a Sin-Bearer up to that moment when He said, "It is
finished"–for then He bore sin no longer. He cast it all away into His
own sepulcher! Into the wilderness of forgetfulness did He hurl it–and
now the sin of His people cannot be found! It has ceased to be. Christ
has "finished transgression." He has made an end of sin and brought in
everlasting righteousness for His people.

Now let us pause here a little and think over this wondrous mystery.
The way in which God is pleased to save us from our sin is by laying
our sins on His own Son and making Him suffer for those sins as if
those sins had been His own! Why, do you think, did He choose such a
method? Was is not thus? First, thus He satisfied His own Justice. Why,
Brothers and Sisters, if we had lain in Hell forever, yet Divine
Justice would not have been fully justified, for after thousands of
years of suffering, there would still remain an eternity of debt due to
God's Justice, and the debt would not be paid! And let me say, if God
had annihilated all the sinners that ever lived in one stroke, He would
not have so honored His Justice as He did when He took sin and laid it
on His Son–and His Son bore Divine Wrath which was due to that sin!
For now there has been rendered unto Divine Justice a full equivalent,
a complete recompense for all the dishonor which it suffered– and I
know of no other conceivable way by which such a recompense could have
been rendered–

"He to the utmost farthing paid

Whatever His people owed."

He suffered what they should have suffered, and now God's Law stands in
all its integrity. It has not dismissed the penalty. The penalty has
been executed! The sword has awakened against the Shepherd, although
the stroke was due to the flock!

Moreover, God, in choosing Christ to suffer in our place has been
pleased to lay help upon One that is mighty, upon One that is mighty to
save. O my Soul, delight in the thought that Christ was my Substitute!
If I had been told that an angel had done his best to save me, I would
feel unsafe. If I had been told that all the holy men in all the world
had striven to save me, I would have felt insecure. But if the very
Christ of God, Himself, the Eternal One, has deigned to bear my
iniquities, why, then, should I fear? The mighty Savior, the Almighty
Savior, can surely put away my sins! There is help laid upon One that
is mighty!

The Lord also laid our sins upon Christ because it was Christ's desire
that it should be so. Do you remember how He said, "I have a baptism to
be baptized with"? It was the baptism of His sufferings! "And how am I
straitened till it is accomplished!" And long before that He had said,
"Lo, I come; in the volume of the Book it is written of Me, I delight
to do Your will, O God, yes, Your Law is in My heart." And then He
adds, "Sacrifice and offering You would not, but a body have You
prepared Me." And He longed to come, and in that body, bear His
people's sins! And in that body prove that He had a love for them which
many waters could not quench, and floods could not drown, for down into
the deeps He would go with His beloved Church and never come up again
until He could bring her up with Him, as He has done, to the praise of
the Glory of His Grace! Therefore, you see, God is honored, His Grace
is honored, we, ourselves, are comforted by have a mighty Savior, and
Christ's own longings are contented by having sin laid upon Him.

Moreover, Beloved, the forgiveness of sin, through laying it upon
Christ, is made to show to all mankind and to all other created
intelligences the tremendous evil of sin. Here were a people whom God
desired to save, but He could not. His Justice did, as it were, tie the
hands of His Mercy. Sin was so hateful to Him that He could not blot it
out and forget it. He must punish it and I know not of any way by which
He could have shown His abhorrence of sin so greatly as when He bruised
His own Son! A man may show his indignation about a crime in many ways,
but surely in none so much as when he sees that crime upon his son, and
he says, "No, I cannot reveal my love to you. While that crime is upon
you, you must suffer for it," and–

"Heaven's Eternal Darling bleeds."

Because sin was laid on Him and the Father would not smile! He cried,
"My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" A greater Abraham
unsheathed His knife to slay a greater Isaac, and no angel intervened!
The Savior died the death! These are words that we speak. Do we know
their meaning? When you are racked with pain, you begin to guess the
pain the Savior suffered and, perhaps, when we are, ourselves, in the
pains of death, we shall begin to have a little more fellowship with
Jesus. But all for our sakes the blessed Lord bore the Wrath of God
that God might show that sin, even when laid upon His Son by
imputation, was so horrible to Him that He would not let Him escape! He
must be bruised. "It pleased the Father to bruise Him; He has put Him
to grief."

And don't you think, Beloved, that God chose this way of pardoning sin
to show His great love as well as His great abhorrence of sin? Behold
how He loves us! What manner of love is this that God has shown to
us–that when we were yet enemies, He gave His Son to die for us? There
is one sweet reason that Jesus gives why He died for His people. You
remember it. He loved His Church and gave Himself for it, that He might
present it to Himself, "without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing."
There is no washing for His Church like the washing in His blood! Even
if you, Believer, should wash your face in your tears, you would stain
your face in the washing! But washed in the blood of Jesus, there
remains no trace or speck of sin! Surely the very angels are not so
comely as the Church is, now that Christ has cleansed her. The heavens
are not pure in His sight and He charged His angels with folly–but the
blood-washed Church is pure and no folly is charged on her! Her
righteousness is the righteousness of her Creator, and her purity is
the holiness of God, Himself!

Surely the Lord was pleased to adopt this way of pardon for one other
reason–that you and I might have strong consolation and that, having
strong consolation, we might also have strong reason for devoting
ourselves to Christ's service/There are those who think that pardon
through atoning blood will make men live in sin. They little know what
is in the heart of the redeemed, for, being bought with such a price,
we would be perfect if we could! So much has been done for us that if
we could do for Christ ten thousand times more than we have ever done,
we would only rejoice to do it, cost what it may! You know when a man
is under burden of sin, he cannot serve his God well, because, he says,
"I would serve Him but my sins are so many." But when his sins are laid
on Christ, then he says, "Now I can give all my strength to the Glory
of God. I have no sin to fret about, now–it is laid on Jesus. There is
nothing, now, to make me dread an angry God, for the anger of God is
turned away and in Jesus Christ I am a justified man." This I might
enlarge, but I must not. You see Christ as the Sin-Bearer, bearing our
sins on the Cross.

Now the third aspect under which He appears is this–He is seen in the
text as a Justifer. "By His knowledge shall My righteous Servant
justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities." Christ is Himself
just, and yet the Justifier. Jesus Christ needed not to have worked out
a righteousness! He needed not to have become Man! He needed not to
have been obedient to the Father. "God Over All, Blessed Forever." He
has, therefore, a righteousness to give away–one which He does not
need for Himself. This is the root and bottom of it–He has a
righteousness which He does not need for Himself and He, therefore,
gives it to us and becomes the Lord, Our Righteousness! And every soul
to whom Jesus gives His righteousness is righteous at once! This is
God's way of making men righteous, not by their own deeds, but by the
deeds of Jesus. He imputes to us what Christ has done! He takes the
righteousness of the Lord Christ and gives it to the sinner, blots out
the sinner's sin and makes the sinner righteous in a moment before His
sight! The text says He shall do this to many–not to all, for, alas,
tens of thousands die condemned–but to many. Blessed word is that! Why
not to me? If it is God's decree that Christ shall justify many, why
should not I be one among them? And if He will justify all who know
Him–(by His knowledge shall He justify them)–O my Soul, study Christ!
Endeavor to be His disciple! Sit at His feet! Learn of Him! Know Him,
for then He will justify you and make you just in the sight of God!

Remember, Beloved, that this is the reward that Christ has for His
death. "He shall see of the travail of His soul." How? Why, "by His
knowledge shall He justify many"! It is Christ's delight to take a
sinner and to make him just. This is the spoil which He divides with
the strong! Because He poured out His soul unto death and was numbered
with the transgressors, and bore the sin of many, He makes men just!
And this is His sure reward–He asks no better–He who believes on Him
who justifies the ungodly is saved by that belief! This is Christ's
Glory, Christ's delight, the fullness of Christ's satisfaction–that He
justifies many! Oh, that He might get that satisfaction in this house
tonight that many poor condemned souls might know Him and be made just
by Him! Then would His heart leap for joy! The joy that was set before
Him when He died would then come to Him!

I have thus briefly set forward Christ in His threefold capacity–a
Servant, a Sin-Bearer and a Justifier. Now, with brevity, we are to
look at–

II. THE MANY IN THEIR THREEFOLD CHARACTER.

And in the text we see them, first, as needing Justification. Secondly,
as receiving knowledge. And thirdly, as justified. Now we begin,
tonight, this second head where God began with us. We see the many
needing Justification. Christ would not have come to justify the
just–they do not need it. The whole have no need of a physician.
Suppose a man is brought up before a court of justice. He is justified,
or reckoned to be just, if he is proved not guilty. But we, before the
court of God, are all guilty! Therefore, Justification cannot come in
that way to us. Our only hope of Justification lies in this–God says,
"That man's sins I laid upon Christ. I punished Christ for that man. He
is not guilty. Christ was obedient in that man's behalf. Christ's
obedience is that man's obedience. He is just in Christ's
Righteousness. I take him not as what he is, but as what his Sponsor
is, even Christ! What his Surety is, what his Substitute is." As, for
instance, in the old ballot days, when men had to go to war, if the
number was called out and a substitute was provided, the person
providing the substitute was said, by the law, to discharge his duty to
his country. I believe that some time ago in the Northern States a
person who had found a substitute to go to fight in the South, heard
after a while that his substitute was dead. On a second drawing being
made, this man was drawn, but he said, "No, I am dead. Number so-and-so
went to the war and is dead. That is me. My substitute is dead." So
when God's justice calls to me, a sinner, I do not answer to it! Why?
Christ answered on my behalf long ago and died for me! I am dead with
Christ. "I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me." There is no legal
charge that can be brought because Christ has stood in my place, been
punished in my place, been reckoned as if He were I, and now, this day,
I am reckoned as if I were in Christ's place, even as He was reckoned
to be in my place. You see where we begin, then. We begin needing
Justification, for we have, first of all, the sin of our first parents.
"All we like sheep have gone astray." We have, next, our own sins. "We
have turned, everyone, to his own way." We have many sins of omission
and of commission. "The Lord has laid on Him our iniquities." Whether
they are iniquities of excess or of shortcoming, they are both laid
upon Jesus Christ's head. We were guilty–we were so guilty, that by
ourselves considered, we were under condemnation! "He that believes not
is condemned already," and if we had remained as we were, we were heirs
of wrath, even as others! And our sin deserved the same punishment as
others.

O you who are guilty, hear tonight what good news there is in this for
you! Christ came to justify the ungodly. The Redeemer died for those
who have no righteousness of their own. "Scarcely for a righteous man
will one die; perhaps for a good man some would even dare to die. But
God commends His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for the ungodly." Christ came to bring a righteousness to
those who have none–to save the sinful, the vile, the
Hell-deserving–He came to give them His Righteousness, and to take
upon Himself their sins. Oh, the wonders of Divine Grace–that whereas
we need Justification, we are the very people He came to justify!

And now note, in the second place, these people in their second stage.
They are instructed–they are made to know. The text says, "By His
knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify many." That is to
say–(you may read it as you have it in our version, if you like, but
you will understand it better if you read it–and it will be quite as
correct –thus)– "by the knowledge of Him shall My righteous Servant
justify many. "That is to say, when the soul knows Christ, knows Him,
believes Him, learns Him and trusts Him, then it is justified! You see
there are no doingsin the process–there are no feelings in the matter.
It is knowing, which is another word for believing–for we know Him
when we believe Him! And we inevitably believe Him when we truly and
really know Him. The heart understands Christ through hearing–and
through the hearing of Him, it comes to believe Him! And when the heart
knows Christ and believes Him, it is then justified. But suppose the
text means this, "By His knowledge"–(that is, the knowledge which He
gives)–"He justifies many." That knowledge is contained in His
Word–it fell from His own lips–you have heard it tonight! We have
preached it to you! It is not the knowledge Moses brought–it is the
knowledge that Christ brought. "Whoever believes on Him is not
condemned." May it be knowledge to your soul by His teaching it to your
soul! By His Divine Spirit, He teaches to profit. But, dear Hearer, do
see this–the whole way of my getting the result of Christ's Sacrifice
is by knowing and believing–not by doing! We are justified by faith,
and not by the works of the Law. "By the works of the Law shall no
flesh be justified." "By the Law is the knowledge of sin." "Grace and
peace come by Jesus Christ," and they come to us through believing or
through knowing–by knowing Him, by being made to know, through Him,
that we are justified!

And please notice the peculiar Character in which Christ is known to
the justified. They know Him as God's Servant and they know Him as
bearing their iniquities. Some persons think a great deal of Christ in
His Glory, and of Christ in His Second Advent. God forbid that I should
have you forget Him in those Characters, or in any other! But the
soul-saving aspect of Christ is not His Glory, nor His Second Advent,
but Christ the Servant and Christ the Sin-Bearer. It is from the Cross
that the words come, "Look unto Me, and be you saved, all you ends of
the earth." "I, if I am lifted up"–not on the Throne, but on the
Cross–"I, if I am lifted up, will draw all men unto Me." "God forbid
that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Let
who will preach Christ exalted, "we preach Christ Crucified, to the
Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness, but unto us who
are saved, the Wisdom of God and the Power of God." Do let me make this
very clear, for, perhaps, some soul might get the Light of God tonight!
You have many sins upon you, Man. You can never get them off by any
doings of your own! No obedience, or tears, or anything else which you
can do, can make one spot of sin stir an inch! You are black as night,
black as Hell, and you cannot make yourself white! But here it is–if
you will know Jesus, if you will hear of Jesus, if you will believe on
Him–believe what He teaches. If you will believe that He is God's sent
Servant, that He is the Propitiation for sin, that He is the
Sin-Bearer– and if you will trust Him with your sin, and with your
soul–you are saved! No spot of sin remains on you! This moment you are
saved, for He shall justify, that is, make just, and that is an
instantaneous work! A man may have been a condemned sinner five minutes
ago, but the moment that he knows Christ, he is a justified soul! By
that very knowledge, or, as I have said, by that faith, by that simple
dependence on the Christ whom he has learned to know, the man is just
and he may go on his way rejoicing!

So I shall close with that third aspect of the many. It is said, "He
shall justify them. "What a grand word it is! "He shall justify them."
He shall make them just. It is a forensic, legal term. He shall make
them just before the Court of God. Now notice in the text the sins
mentioned were real. The bearing of sin by Christ was real. Therefore
the Justification in the text is real. You see that thief on the cross?
What a wretch he is! He has been guilty of every crime. His sins are
real. But he believes in Jesus, Jesus the dying Savior, and his sins
are forgiven! Now listen. That thief is a just man. "Why," you say, "He
has done no just action." I grant you that. He would if he could. He is
now willing to confess the Master, for he speaks a word of rebuke to
the thief on the other side of the Cross. But I do not say he is just
because of that He is just because of nothing that he has done, but he
is just because he believes in the dying Savior! And you, poor Sinner,
though you have never done a good work in your life, though you deserve
to be damned to all eternity, though you have lived in everything that
is vile, if you, this night, trust your soul to Jesus, and know Him,
Jesus justifies you and you are really just!

And, what is more, you are forever just. You have a Justification that
will never wear out, a Righteousness that will outlast time itself! The
tooth of decay shall never harm it, nor rust corrupt it, nor moth
consume it. You are just and just forever! Do you understand me? I will
make it plain, and put it in words that cannot be misunderstood. The
soul that believes in Jesus is so justified that none can even lay
anything to his charge. "Why," says one, "the man has been a very
guilty man and lived a horrible life." So had Paul. He had been a
foaming persecutor, raging against God's saints. But listen to
Paul–"Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?" Is not he
afraid to say that? No, because he goes on to say, "It is God who
justifies." Suppose the judge says in court, "That man is clear." It is
no use anybody getting up and saying, "Let me come into the witness
box–I have something against him." You are out of order, Sir. The
judge says he is clear and that is enough. God says of the guiltiest
soul, "I laid that man's sins on Christ. I punished Christ for that man
and that man is clear." And if God says you are clear, who shall lay
anything to your charge? Listen again. A Believer cannot be condemned.
Do you doubt it? Paul shall speak again "Who is he that condemns?" Why,
Paul, you have done much that you deserve to be condemned for! Oh, but
here it is. "It is Christ who died; yes, rather, that is risen again,
who sits at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us."
He means this–"How can you condemn me? Christ was condemned for me! He
died. He rose again. That proved that I, myself, am not condemned! He
had paid the debt, otherwise He had not been allowed to rise! He has
gone into Heaven to plead for me, and He will be the Judge. And if He
died for me, do you think that He who alone can condemn will condemn
those whom He died for? Will He cast away His own chosen–condemn a
limb of His own body and reject out of His own mouth the very soul to
whom He said, 'I have forgiven you, and blotted out your sin.'"? It
cannot be!

The Believer, then, cannot be accused. He cannot be condemned and,
consequently, he cannot be punished. What shall he be punished for?
"For his sins," says one. He has not any! He has not any–they were
laid on Christ! "He shall bear their iniquities." Can a sin be in two
places at once? If my sins are on Christ, they cannot be on me. If God
has laid the weight of my guilt on Christ and Christ bore it and made
an end of it, then I am clear of it as though I never sinned! Glory be
to God for such a Gospel as this–to think that a soul, condemned and
lost by nature, should be made completely clean through the purging of
the great atoning Sacrifice of our dear Lord and Master! For, mark you,
there is more than that, for when Christ justifies a man, He not only
blots out his sin, but he is a just man, and the man is treated
henceforth as if he were justNow the just shall be rewarded–the just
shall have the favor of God! The just shall enter Heaven–and so shall
you, poor guilty Sinner! If you trust Christ, that Righteousness of
Christ becomes yours! I could preach all night upon such a subject, but
I should weary you. I should not weary myself in thinking it over,
though, nor should you in meditating upon it! It is enough to make
Heaven ring again and again with melody! I am sure it is God's Gospel,
for nobody could have invented it–a plan so just to God, so safe to
man!

And I am all the more sure it is God's Gospel because there are many
that hate it! They cannot bear it! How can they? They are righteous in
themselves and hope to enter Heaven by their own works! They go about
to establish their own righteousness, but this is as it always has
been. As it was in Paul's day, so it is now–and this only confirms our
confidence in the Gospel that we preach! Believing this, I can go to my
bed and fall asleep in peace, not caring whether I wake again or not
this side Heaven. Believing this, doubts and fears prevail not, for my
soul flies to the atoning Sacrifice, again, and tells the devil that my
sins are no longer mine, but Christ's, or rather that they were imputed
to Him, and laid upon Him and that He was punished for them in my
place, and I am clear for Christ has suffered for me! Believe this,
dear Heart–believe it! You have never heard a better Gospel! You have
heard it better preached–but never better news came to your ears than
this! And until you get to Heaven, you will never hear music that can
beat this–the music of a Savior's wounds, groans and death in a poor
sinner's place! I know what you will do if you believe it. You will go
home glad of heart and the moment you get home you will say, "I am a
saved soul, for I have done with my former sins."

"'Now for the love I bear His name,

What was my gain I count my loss,

My former pride I call my shame,

And nail my glory to His Cross. Oh, you will have done with your old
companions! The love of Christ will constrain you. Nothing cleanses the
Augean stable of human nature like a stream of love and blood made to
run through it! When Christ's sacrifice comes to a soul, it casts out
sin and Satan, sets the man working at once–and none can work so
vigorously as those who feel that they owe all to the Grace of God, who
feel that they have nothing to do to save themselves–they are saved!
That work is all done forever! And now, out of gratitude, they give
their whole life, and soul, and strength to spread abroad the Gospel of
Jesus, now, and make God's names famous, even to the end of time! God
bless you, dear Hearers. May this all be yours, for Christ's sake.
Amen.