The Blood
A Sermon
(No. 228)
Delivered on Sabbath Morning, December 12th, 1858, by the
REV. C.H. SPURGEON
at the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.
"When I see the blood, I will pass over you."–Exodus 12:13.
GOD'S PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS SAFE. "All the saints are in his hand;" and the
hand of God is a place for safety, as well as a place of honour.
Nothing can hurt the man who has made his refuge God. "Thou hast given
commandment to save me," said David; and every believing child of God
may say the same. Plague, famine, war, tempest,–all these have
received commandment of God to save his people. Though the earth should
rock beneath the feet of man, yet the Christian, may stand fast, and
though the heavens should be rolled up, and the firmament should pass
away like a scroll that is burned by fervent heat, yet need not a
Christian fear; God's people shall be saved: if they cannot be saved
under the heavens, they shall be saved in the heavens; if there be no
safety for them in the time of trouble upon this solid earth, they
shall be "caught up together with the Lord in the air, and so shall
they be ever with the Lord," and ever safe.
Now, at the time of which this Book of Exodus speaks, Egypt was exposed
to a terrible peril. Jehovah himself was about to march through the
streets of all the cities of Egypt. It was not merely a destroying
angel, but Jehovah himself; for thus it is written, "I will pass
through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first-born
in the land of Egypt, both man and beast." No one less than I AM, the
great God, had vowed to "cut Rahab" with the sword of vengeance.
Tremble, ye inhabitants of the earth, for God has come down among you,
provoked, incensed, and at last awakened from his seeming sleep of
patience. He has girded on his terrible sword, and he has come to smite
you. Quake for fear, all ye that have sin within you, for when God
walks through the streets, sword in hand, will he not smite you all?
But hark! the voice of covenant mercy speaks, God's children are safe,
even though an angry God be in the streets. As they are safe from the
rod of the wicked, so are they safe from the sword of justice–always
and ever safe; for there was not a hair of the head of an Israelite
that was so much as touched; Jehovah kept them safe beneath his wings.
While he did rend his enemies like a lion, yet did he protect his
children, every one of them. But, beloved, while this is always true,
that God's people are safe, there is another fact that is equally true,
namely, that God's people are only safe through the blood. The reason
why God spares his people in the time of calamity is, because he sees
the blood-mark on their brow. What is the basis of that great truth,
that all things work together for good to them that love God? What is
the cause that all things so produce good to them, but this, that they
are bought with the precious blood of Christ? Therefore it is that
nothing can hurt them, because the blood is upon them, and every evil
thing must pass them by. It was so that night in Egypt. God himself was
abroad with his sword; but he spared them, because he saw the
blood-mark on the lintel and on the two sideposts. And so it is with
us. In the day when God in his fierce anger shall come forth from his
dwelling place, to affright the earth with terrors and to condemn the
wicked, we shall be secure, if covered with the Saviour's
righteousness, and sprinkled with his blood, we are found in him.
Do I hear some one say, that I am now coming to an old subject? This
thought struck me when I was preparing for preaching, that I should
have to tell you an old story over again; and just as I was thinking of
that, happening to turn over a book, I met with an anecdote of Judson
the missionary to Burmah. He had passed through unheard-of hardships,
and had performed dangerous exploits for his Master. He returned, after
thirty years' absence, to America. "Announced to address an assembly in
a provincial town, and a vast concourse having gathered from great
distances to hear him, he rose at the close of the usual service, and,
as all eyes were fixed and every year attent, he spoke for about
fifteen minutes, with much pathos, of the precious Saviour, of what he
had done for us, and of what we owed to him; and he sat down, visibly
affected. "The people are very much disappointed," said a friend to him
on their way home; "they wonder you did not talk of something else."
"Why what did they want?" he replied: "I presented, to the best of my
ability, the most interesting subject in the world." "But they wanted
something different–a story" "Well, I am sure I gave them a story–the
most thrilling one that can be conceived of." "But they had beard it
before. They wanted something new of a man who had just come from the
antipodes." "Then I am glad they have it to say, that a man coming from
the antipodes had nothing better to tell than the wondrous story of the
dying love of Jesus. My business is to preach the gospel of Christ; and
when I can speak at all, I dare not trifle with my commission. When I
looked upon those people to-day, and remembering where I should next
meet them, how could I stand up and furnish food to vain
curiosity–tickle their fancy with amusing stories, however decently
strung together on a thread of religion? That is not what Christ meant
by preaching the gospel. And then how could I hereafter meet the
fearful charge, I gave you one opportunity to tell them of ME; you
spent it in describing your own adventures!'" So I thought. Well, if
Judson told the old story after he had been thirty years away, and
could not find anything better, I will just go back to this old
subject, which is always new and always fresh to us–the precious blood
of Christ, by which we are saved.
First, then, the blood; secondly, its efficacy; thirdly, the one
condition appended to it;–"When I see the blood;" and fourthly, the
practical lesson.
I. First, then, THE BLOOD ITSELF. In the case of the Israelites it was
the blood of the Paschal Lamb. In our case, beloved, it is the blood of
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world.
1. The blood of which I have solemnly to speak this morning, is, first
of all, the blood of a divinely appointed victim. Jesus Christ did not
come into this world unappointed. He was sent here by his Father. This
indeed is one of the underlying ground-works of the Christian's hope.
We can rely upon Jesus Christ's acceptance by his Father, because his
Father ordained him to be our Saviour from before the foundation of the
world. Sinner! when I preach to thee the blood of Christ this morning,
I am preaching something that is well pleasing to God; for God himself
did choose Christ to be the Redeemer; he himself set him apart from
before the foundation of the world, and he himself, even Jehovah the
Father, did lay upon him the iniquity of us all. The sacrifice of
Christ is not brought to you without warrant; it is not a something
which Christ did surreptitiously and in secret; it was written in the
great decree from all eternity, that he was the Lamb slain from before
the foundation of the world. As he himself said, "Lo I come; in the
volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will O
God." It is God's will that the blood of Jesus should be shed. Jesus is
God's chosen Saviour for men; and here, when addressing the ungodly,
here, I say, is one potent argument with them. Sinner! You may trust in
Christ, that he is able to save you from the wrath of God, for God
himself has appointed him to save.
2. Christ Jesus, too, like the lamb, was not only a divinely appointed
victim, but he was spotless. Had there been one sin in Christ, he had
not been capable of being our Saviour; but he was without spot or
blemish–without original sin, without any practical transgression. In
him was no sin, though he was "tempted in all points like as we are."
Here, again, is the reason why the blood is able to save, because it is
the blood of an innocent victim, a victim the only reason for whose
death lay in us, and not in himself. When the poor innocent lamb was
put to death, by the head of the household of Egypt, I can imagine that
thoughts like these ran through his mind. "Ah" he would say, as he
struck the knife into the lamb, "This poor creature dies, not for any
guilt that it has ever had, but to show me that I am guilty, and that I
deserved to die like this." Turn, then, your eye to the cross, and see
Jesus bleeding there and dying for you. Remember,
"For sins not his own, he died to atone;"
Sin had no foothold in him, never troubled him. The prince of this
world came and looked, but he said, "I have nothing in Christ; there is
no room for me to plant my foot–no piece of corrupt ground, which I
may call my own." O sinner, the blood of Jesus is able to save thee,
because he was perfectly innocent himself, and "he died the just for
the unjust, to bring us to God."
But some will say, "Whence has the blood of Christ such power to save?"
My reply is, not only because God appointed that blood, and because it
was the blood of an innocent and spotless being, but because Christ
himself was God. If Christ were a mere man, my hearers, you could not
be exhorted to trust him; were he ever so spotless and holy, there
would be no efficacy in his blood to save; but Christ was "very God of
very God;" the blood that Jesus shed was Godlike blood. It was the
blood of man, for he was man like ourselves; but the divinity was so
allied with the manhood, that the blood derived efficacy from it. Can
you imagine what must be the value of the blood of God's own dear Son?
No, you cannot put an estimate upon it that should so much as reach to
a millionth part of its preciousness. I know you esteem that blood as
beyond all price if you have been washed in it; but I know also that
you do not esteem it enough. It was the wonder of angels that God
should condescend to die; it will be the wonder of all wonders, the
unceasing wonder of eternity, that God should become man to die. Oh!
when we think that Christ was Creator of the world, and that on his
all-sustaining shoulders did hang the universe, we cannot wonder that
his death is mighty to redeem, and that his blood should cleanse from
sin. Come hither saints and sinners; gather in and crowd around the
cross, and see this man, overcome with weakness, fainting, groaning,
bleeding, and dying. This man is also "God over all, blessed for ever,"
Is there not power to save? Is there not efficacy in blood like that?
Can you imagine any stretch of sin which shall out-measure the power of
divinity–any height of iniquity that shall overtop the topless steeps
of the divine? Can I conceive a depth of sin that shall be deeper than
the infinite? or a breadth of iniquity that shall be broader than the
Godhead? Because he is divine, he is "able to save to the uttermost,
them that come unto God by him." Divinity appointed, spotless, and
divine, his blood is the blood whereby ye may escape the anger and the
wrath of God.
4. Once more; the blood of which we speak today, is blood once shed for
many for the remission of sin. The paschal lamb was killed every year;
but now Christ hath appeared to take away sin by the offering up of
himself and there is now no more mention of sin, for Christ once for
all hath put away sin, by the offering of himself. The Jew had the lamb
every morning and every evening, for there was a continual mention of
sin; the blood of the lamb could not take it away. The lamb availed for
to-day, but there was the sin of to-morrow, what was to be done with
that? Why, a fresh victim must bleed. But oh, my hearer, our greatest
joy is, that the blood of Jesus has been once shed, and he has said,
"It is finished." There is no more need of the blood of bulls or of
goats, or of any other sacrifice; that one sacrifice hath "perfected
for ever them that are sanctified." Trembling sinner! come to the cross
again; thy sins are heavy, and many; but the atonement for them is
completed by the death of Christ. Look then to Jesus, and remember that
Christ needs nothing to supplement his blood. The road between God and
man is finished and open; the robe to cover thy nakedness is complete,
without a rag of thine; the bath in which thou art to be washed is
full, full to the brim, and needs nothing to be added thereunto. "It is
finished!" Let that ring in thy ears. There is nothing now that can
hinder thy being saved, if God hath made thee willing now to believe in
Jesus Christ. He is a complete Saviour, full of grace for an empty
sinner.
5. And yet I must add one more thought, and then leave this point. The
blood of Jesus Christ is blood that bath been accepted. Christ died–he
was buried; but neither heaven nor earth could tell whether God had
accepted the ransom. There was wanted God's seal upon the great Magna
Charta of man's salvation, and that seal was put, my hearer, in that
hour when God summoned the angel, and bade him descend from heaven and
roll away the stone. Christ was put in durance vile in the prison house
of the grave, as a hostage for his people. Until God had signed the
warrant for acquittal of all his people, Christ must abide in the bonds
of death. He did not attempt to break his prison; be did not come out
illegally, by wrenching down the bars of his dungeon; he waited: he
wrapt up the napkin, folding it by itself: he laid the grave-clothes in
a separate place; he waited, waited patiently; and at last down from
the skies, like the flash of a meteor, the angel descended, touched the
stone and rolled it away; and when Christ came out, rising from the
dead in the glory of his Father's power, then was the seal put upon the
great charta of our redemption. The blood was accepted, and sin was
forgiven. And now, soul, it is not possible for God to reject thee, if
thou comest this day to him, pleading the blood of Christ. God
cannot–and here we speak with reverence too–the everlasting God
cannot reject a sinner who pleads the blood of Christ: for if he did
so, it were to deny himself, and to contradict all his former acts. He
has accepted blood, and he will accept it; he never can revoke that
divine acceptance of the resurrection; and if thou goest to God, my
hearer, pleading simply and only the blood of him that did hang upon
the tree, God must un-God himself before he can reject thee, or reject
that blood.
And yet I fear that I have not been able to make you think of the blood
of Christ. I beseech you, then, just for a moment try to picture to
yourself Christ on the cross. Let your imagination figure the motley
crew assembled round about that little hill of Calvary. Lift now your
eyes, and see the three crosses put upon that rising knoll. See in the
centre the thorn-crowned brow of Christ. Do you see the hands that have
always been full of blessing nailed fast to the accursed wood! See you
his dear face, more marred than that of any other man? Do you see it
now, as his head bows upon his bosom in the extreme agonies of death?
He was a real man, remember. It was a real cross. Do not think of these
things as figments, and fancies, and romances. There was such a being,
and he died as I describe it. Let your imagination picture him, and
then sit still a moment and think over this thought: "The blood of that
man, whom now I behold dying in agony, must be my redemption; and if I
would be saved, I must put my only trust in what he suffered for me,
when he himself did bear our sins in his own body on the tree.'" If God
the Holy Spirit should help you, you will then be in a right state to
proceed to the second point.
II. THE EFFICACY OF THIS BLOOD. "When I see the blood I will pass over
you."
1. The blood of Christ hath such a divine power to save, that nothing
but it can ever save the soul. If some foolish Israelite had despised
the command of God, and had said, "I will sprinkle something else upon
the doorposts," or, "I will adorn the lintel with jewels of gold and
silver," he must have perished; nothing could save his household but
the sprinkled blood. And now let us all remember, that "other
foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, Jesus Christ," for
"there is none other name given among men whereby we must be saved." My
works, my prayers, my tears, cannot save me; the blood, the blood
alone, has power to redeem. Sacraments, however well they may be
attended to, cannot save me. Nothing but thy blood, O Jesus, can redeem
me from the guilt of sin. Though I should give rivers of oil, and ten
thousand of the fat of fed beasts; yea, though I should give my
first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my
soul, all would be useless. Nothing but the blood of Jesus has in it
the slightest saving-power. Oh! you that are trusting in your infant
baptism, your confirmation, and your Lord's Supper, you are trusting in
a lie. Nothing but the blood of Jesus can save. I care not how right
the ordinance, how true the form, how scriptural the practice, it is
all a vanity to you if you rely in it. God forbid I should say a word
against ordinances, or against holy things; but keep them in their
places. If you make then the basis of your soul's salvation, they are
lighter than a shadow, and when you need them most you shall find them
fail you. There is not, I repeat it again, the slightest atom of
saving-power anywhere but in the blood of Jesus. That blood has the
only power to save, and aught else that you rely upon shall be a refuge
of lies. This is the rock, and this is the work that is perfect; but
all other things are day dreams; they must be swept away in the day
when God shall come to try our work of what sort it is. THE BLOOD
stands out in solitary majesty, the only rock of our salvation.
2. This blood is not simply the only thing that can save, but it must
save alone. Put anything with the blood of Christ, and you are lost;
trust to anything else with this and you perish. "It is true," says
one, that the Sacrament cannot save me, but I will trust in that, and
in Christ too." You are a lost man, then. So jealous is Christ of his
honour, that anything you put with him, however good it is, becomes,
from the fact of your putting it with him, an accursed thing. And what
is it that thou wouldst put with Christ? Thy good works? What! wilt
thou yoke a reptile with an angel–yoke thyself to the chariot of
salvation with Christ? What are thy good works? Thy righteousnesses are
"as filthy rags;" and shall filthy rags be joined to the spotless
celestial righteousness of Christ? It must not, and it shall not be.
Rely on Jesus only, and thou canst not perish; but rely on anything
with him, and thou art as surely damned as if thou shouldst rely upon
thy sins. Jesus only–Jesus only–Jesus only–this is the rock of our
salvation.
And here let me stop, and combat a few forms and shapes which our
self-righteousness always takes. "Oh," says one, "I could trust in
Christ if I felt my sins more." Sir, that is a damning error. Is thy
repentance, thy sense of sin, to be a part-Saviour? Sinner! the blood
is to save thee, not thy tears, Christ's death, not thy repentance.
Thou art bidden this day to trust in Christ; not in thy feelings, not
in thy pangs on account of sin. Many a man has been brought into great
soul distress, because he has looked more at his repentance than at the
obedience of Christ–
"Could thy tears for ever flow,
Could thy zeal no respite know;
All for sin could not atone,
Christ must save and Christ alone."
"Nay," says another, "but I feel that I do not value the blood of
Christ as I ought, and therefore I am afraid to believe." My friend,
that is another insiduous form of the same error. God does not say,
"When I see your estimate of the blood of Christ, I will pass over you;
no, but when I see the blood." It is not your estimate of that blood,
it is the blood that saves you. As I said before, that magnificent,
solitary blood, must be alone.
"Nay," says another, "but if I had more faith then I should have hope."
That, too, is a very deadly shape of the same evil. You are not to be
saved by the efficacy of your faith, but by the efficacy of the blood
of Christ. It is not your believing, it is Christ's dying. I bid you
believe, but I bid you not to look to your believing as the ground of
your salvation. No man will go to heaven if he trusts to his own faith;
you may as well trust to your own good works as trust to your faith.
Your faith must deal with Christ not with itself. The world hangs on
nothing; but faith cannot hang upon itself, it must hang on Christ.
Sometimes, when my faith is vigorous, I catch myself doing this. There
is joy flowing into my heart, and after awhile I begin to find that my
joy suddenly departs. I ask the causes, and I find that the joy came
because I was thinking of Christ; but when I begin to think about my
joy, then my joy fled. You must not think of your faith but of Christ.
Faith comes from meditation upon Christ. Turn, then, your eye, not upon
faith but upon Jesus. It is not your hold of Christ that saves you; it
is his hold of you. It is not the efficacy of your believing in him; it
is the efficacy of his blood applied to you through the Spirit.
I do not know how sufficiently to follow Satan in all his windings into
the human heart, but this, I know, he is alway strying to keep back
this great truth–the blood, and the blood alone has power to save.
"Oh," says another, "if I had such-and-such an experience then I could
trust." Friend, it is not thine experience, it is the blood. God did
not say, "When I see your experience," but "When I see the blood of
Christ." "Nay," says one, "but if I had such-and-such graces, I could
hope." Nay, but he did not say, "When I see your graces," but "When I
see the blood." Get grace, get as much as you can of faith, and love,
and hope, but oh, do not put them where Christ's blood ought to be. The
only pillar of your hope must be the Cross, and aught else that you put
to buttress up the cross of Christ is obnoxious to God, and ceases to
have any virtue in it, because it is an anti-Christ. The blood of
Christ, then alone, saves; but anything with it, and it does not save.
3. Yet again we may say of the blood of Christ, it is all-sufficient.
There is no case which the blood of Christ cannot met; there is no sin
which it cannot wash away. There is no multiplicity of sin which it
cannot cleanse, no aggravation of guilt which it cannot remove. Ye may
be double-dyed like scarlet, ye may have lain in the lye of your sins
these seventy years, but the blood of Christ can take out the stain.
You may have blasphemed him almost as many times as you have breathed,
you may have rejected him as often as you have heard his name; you may
have broken his Sabbath, you may have denied his existence, you may
have doubted his Godhead, you may have persecuted his servants, you may
have trampled on his blood; but all this the blood can wash away. You
may have committed whoredoms without number, nay, murder itself may
have defiled your hands, but this fountain filled with blood can wash
all the stains away. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all
sin. There is no sort of a man, there is no abortion of mankind, no
demon in human shape that this blood cannot wash. Hell may have sought
to make a paragon of iniquity, it may have striven to put sin, and sin,
and sin together, till it has made a monster in the shape of man, a
monster abhorred of mankind, but the blood of Christ can transform that
monster. Magdalen's seven devils it can cast out, the madness of the
demoniac it can ease, the deep-seated leprosy it can cure, the wound of
the maimed, yea, the lost limb it can restore. There is no spiritual
disease which the great Physician cannot heal. This is the great
Catholicon, the medicine for all diseases. No case can exceed its
virtue, be it never so black or vile; all-sufficient, all-sufficient
blood.
4. But go further. The blood of Christ saves surely. Many people say,
"Well, I hope I shall be saved through the blood of Christ;" and
perhaps, says one here, who is believing in Christ, "Well, I hope it
will save." My dear friend, that is a slur upon the honour of God. If
any man gives you a promise, and you say, "Well, I hope he will fulfil
it;" is it not implied that you have at least some small doubt as to
whether he will or not. Now, I do not hope that the blood of Christ
will wash away my sin. I know it is washed away by his blood; and that
is true faith which does not hope about Christ's blood, but says, "I
know it is so; that blood does cleanse. The moment it was applied to my
conscience it did cleanse, and it does cleanse still." The Israelite,
if he was true to his faith, did not go inside, and say, I hope the
destroying angel will pass by me;" but he said, "I know he will; I know
God cannot smite me; I know he will not. There is the blood-mark there,
I am secure beyond a doubt; there is not the shadow of a risk of my
perishing. I am, I must be saved." And so I preach a sure gospel this
morning: "Whosoever believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ shall not perish
but have everlasting life." "I give unto my sheep eternal life," said
he, "and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of
my hand." O, sinner, I have not the shadow of a doubt as to whether
Christ will save you if you trust in his blood. O no, I know he will. I
am certain his blood can save; and I beg you, in Christ's name, believe
the same; believe that that blood is sure to cleanse, not only that it
may cleanse, but that it must cleanse, "whereby we must be saved," says
the Scripture. If we have that blood upon us we must be saved, or else
we are to suppose a God unfaithful and a God unkind; in fact, a God
transformed from everything that is God-like into everything that is
base.
5. And yet again, he that hath this blood sprinkled upon him is saved
completely. Not the hair of the head of an Israelite was disturbed by
the destroying angel. They were completely saved; so he that believeth
in the blood is saved from all things. I like the old translation of
the chapter in the Romans. There was a martyr once summoned before
Bonner; and after he had expressed his faith in Christ, Bonner said
"You are a heretic and will be damned." "Nay" said he, quoting the old
version, "There is therefore now no damnation to them that believe in
Christ Jesus." And that brings a sweet thought before us; there is no
damnation to the man who has the blood of Christ upon him; he cannot be
condemned of God anyhow. It were impossible. There is no such a thing;
there can be no such thing. There is no damnation. He cannot be damned;
for there is no damnation to him that is in Christ Jesus. Let the blood
be applied to the lintel, and to the door-post, there is no
destruction. There is a destroying angel for Egypt, but there is none
for Israel. There is a hell for the wicked, but none for the righteous.
And if there is none, they cannot be put there. If there is no
damnation they cannot suffer it. Christ saves completely; every sin is
washed, every blessing ensured, perfection is provided, and glory
everlasting is the sure result.
I think then, I have dwelt sufficiently long upon the efficacy of his
blood; but no tongue of seraph can ever speak its worth. I must go home
to my chamber, and weep because I am powerless to tell this story, and
yet I have laboured to tell it simply, so that all can understand; and
I pray, therefore, that God the Spirit may lead some of you to put your
trust simply, wholly, and entirely, on the blood of Jesus Christ.
III. This brings us to the third point, upon which I must be very
brief, and the third point is–THE ONE CONDITION. What says one "Do you
preach a conditional salvation?" Yes I do, there is the one condition
"Where I see the blood I will pass over you." What a blessed condition!
it does not say, when you see the blood, but when I see it. Thine eye
of faith may be so dim, that thou canst not see the blood of Christ.
Ay, but God's eye is not dim: He can see it, yea he must see it; for
Christ in heaven is always presenting his blood before his Father's
face. The Israelite could not see the blood; he was inside the house;
he could not see what was on the lintel and the doorpost; but God could
see it; and this is the only condition of the sinner's salvation–God's
seeing the blood; not your seeing it. O how safe, then, is every one
that trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not his faith that is the
condition, not his assurance; it is the simple fact, that Calvary is
set perpetually before the eyes of God in a risen and ascended Saviour.
"When I see the blood, I will pass over you." Fall on your knees then
in prayer, ye doubting souls, and let this be your plea:–"Lord, have
mercy upon me for the blood's sake. I cannot see it as I could desire,
but Lord thou seest it, and thou hast said, When I see it, I will pass
over you.' Lord, thou seest it this day, pass over my sin, and forgive
me for its dear sake alone."
IV. And now, lastly, WHAT IS THE LESSON. The lesson of the text is to
the Christian this. Christian, take care that thou dost always
remember, that nothing but the blood of Christ can save thee. I preach
to myself to-day what I preach to you. I often find myself like
this:–I have been praying that the Holy Spirit might rest in my heart
and cleanse out an evil passion, and presently I find myself full of
doubts and fears, and when I ask the reason, I find it is this:–I have
been looking to the Spirit's work until I put the Spirit's work where
Christ's work ought to be. Now, it is a sin to put your own works where
Christ's should be; but it is just as much a sin to put the Holy
Spirit's work there. You must never make the Spirit of God an
anti-Christ, and you virtually do that when you put the Spirit's work
as the groundwork of your faith. Do you not often hear Christian men
say, "I cannot believe in Christ to-day as I could yesterday, for
yesterday I felt such sweet and blessed enjoyments." Now, what is that
but putting your frames and feelings where Christ ought to be.
Remember, Christ's blood is no more able to save you in a good frame
than in a bad frame. Christ's blood must be your trust, as much when
you are full of joy as when you are full of doubt. And here it is that
your happiness will be in danger, by beginning to put your good frames
and good feelings in the room of the blood of Christ. O, brethren, if
we could always live with a single eye fixed on the Cross, we should
always be happy; but when we get a little peace, and a little joy, we
begin to prize the joy and peace so much, that we forget the source
whence they come. As Mr. Brooks says, "A husband that loves his wife
will, perhaps, often give her jewels and rings; but suppose she should
sit down and begin to think of her jewels and rings so much that she
should forget her husband, it would be a kind husband's business to
take them away from her so that she might fix her affections entirely
on him." And it is so with us. Jesus gives us jewels of faith and love,
and we get trusting to them, and he takes them away in order that we
may come again as guilty, helpless sinners, and put our trust in
Christ. To quote a verse I often repeat–I believe the spirit of a
Christian should be, from his first hour to his last, the spirit of
these two lines:–
"Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to thy cross I cling."
That is the lesson to the saint.
But another minute; there is a lesson here to the sinner. Poor,
trembling, guilty self-condemned sinner, I have a word from the Lord
for thee. "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us," that is you and me,
"cleanseth us from all sin." That "us" includes you, if now you are
feeling your need of a Saviour. Now that blood is able to save you, and
you are bidden simply to trust that blood, and you shall be saved. But
I hear you say, "Sir," you said, "If I feel my need. Now I feel that I
do not feel, I only wish I did feel my need enough." Well do not bring
your feelings then, but trust only in the blood. If you can rely simply
on the blood of Christ, whatever your feelings may be, or may not be,
that blood is able to save. But you are saying, "How am I to be saved?
What mush I do?" Well there is nothing that you can do. You must leave
off doing altogether, in order to be saved. There must be a denial of
all your doings. You must get Christ first, and then you may do as much
as you like. But you must not trust in your doings. Your business is
now to lift up your heart in prayer like this:–"Lord, thou hast shown
me something of myself, show me something of my Saviour." See the
Saviour hanging on the cross, turn your eye to him, and say, "Lord, I
trust thee I have nothing else to trust to, but I rely on thee; sink or
swim, my Saviour, I trust thee." And as surely sinner, as thou canst
put thy trust in Christ, thou art as safe as an apostle or prophet. Not
death nor hell can slay that man whose firm reliance is at the foot of
the cross. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."
"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; he that believeth
not shall be damned." He that believeth shall be saved, be his sins
never so many; he that believeth not shall be damned, be his sins never
so few, and be his virtues never so many. Trust in Jesus now! Sinner,
trust in Jesus only.
"Not all the blood of beasts
On Jewish altars slain
Could give the guilty conscience peace,
Or wash away the stain.
But Christ, the heavenly Lamb,
Takes all our sins away;
A sacrifice of nobler name
And richer blood than they."