The Great Arbitration Case
A SERMON PREACHED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE,
NEWINGTON.
"Neither is there any mediator between us, that might lay his hand upon
us both."
Job 9:33.
THE Patriarch Job, when reasoning with the Lord concerning his great
affliction, felt himself to be at a disadvantage and declined the
controversy, saying, "He is not a man, as I am, that I should answer
Him and we should come together in judgment." Yet feeling that his
friends were cruelly misstating his case, he still desired to spread it
before the Lord, but wished for a mediator, a middleman, to act as
umpire and decide the case. In his mournful plight he sighed for an
arbitrator who, while dealing justly for God, would, at the same time,
deal kindly with poor flesh and blood, being able to lay his hand upon
both. And, dear Friends, what Job desired to have the Lord has provided
for us in the Person of His own dear Son, Jesus Christ! We cannot say
with Job that there is no mediator who can lay his hand upon both of us
because there is now, "one Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ
Jesus." In Him let us rejoice, if indeed we have an interest in Him!
And if we have not yet received Him, may almighty Grace bring us, even
now, to accept Him as our Advocate and Friend.
There is an old quarrel between the thrice holy God and His sinful
subjects, the sons of Adam. Man has sinned–he has broken God's Law in
every part of it and has wantonly cast off from him the allegiance
which was due to his Maker and his King. There is a suit against man
which was formally instituted at Sinai and must be pleaded in the Court
of King's Bench before the Judge of the quick and the dead. God is the
great Plaintiff against His sinful creatures who are the defendants. If
that suit is carried into court, it must go against the sinner. There
is no hope whatever that at the last tremendous day any sinner will be
able to stand in judgment if he shall leave the matter of his debts and
obligations towards his God unsettled until that dreadful hour.
Sinner, it would be well for you to "agree with your adversary quickly,
while you are in the way," for if you are once delivered up to the
great Judge of all the earth there is not the slightest hope that your
suit can be decided otherwise than to your eternal ruin! "Weeping and
wailing and gnashing of teeth," will be the doom adjudged you forever,
if your case as before the living God shall ever come to be tried at
the fiery Throne of absolute Justice. But the infinite Grace of God
proposes an arbitration–and I trust there are many here who are not
anxious to have their suit carried into court–but are willing that the
appointed Mediator should stand between them and God and lay His hand
upon both and propose and carry out a plan of reconciliation! There is
hope for you, bankrupt Sinner, that you may yet be at peace with God!
There is a way by which your debts may yet be paid! That way is a
blessed arbitration in which Jesus Christ shall stand as the Mediator!
Let me begin by describing the essentials of an arbitrator, or
mediator. Then let me take you into the Arbitrator's court and show you
His proceedings. And then for a little while, if there is enough time,
let us dwell upon the happy success of our great Daysman.
I. First ofall, let me describe what are THE ESSENTIALS OF AN UMPIRE,
AN ARBITRATOR, OR A DAYSMAN. The first essential is that both parties
should be agreed to accept him. Let me come to you, you Sinner against
whom God has laid His suit, and put the matter to you. God has accepted
Christ Jesus to be His Umpire in His dispute. He appointed Him to the
office and chose Him for it before He laid the foundations of the
world. He is God's Fellow, equal with the Most High and can put His
hand upon the Eternal Father without fear, because He is dearly beloved
of the Father's heart. He is "very God of very God," and is in no
respect inferior to "God over all, blessed forever."
But He is also a man like yourself, Sinner. He once suffered, hungered,
thirsted and knew the meaning of poverty and pain. No, He went
farther–He was tempted as you have been–and farther still, He
suffered the pangs of death as you, poor mortal man, will one day have
to do! Now, what do you think? God has accepted Him–can you agree with
God in this matter and agree to take Christ to be your Mediator, too?
Does foolish enmity possess you, or does Grace reign and lead you to
accept Emmanuel, "God With Us," as Umpire in this great dispute?
Let me say to you that you will never find another so near akin to you,
so tender, so sympathetic, and with such a heart of compassion towards
you! Love streamed from His eyes in life and poured from His wounds in
death. He is "the express Image" of Jehovah's Person and you know that
Jehovah's name is "Love." "God is Love," and Christ is Love. Sinner,
has Divine Grace brought you to your senses? Will you accept Christ?
Are you willing that He should take this case into His hands and
arbitrate between you and God? If God accepts Him, and you accept Him,
too, then He has one of the first qualifications for being a mediator.
But, in the next place, both parties must be fully agreed to leave the
case entirely in the arbitrator's hands. If the arbitrator does not
possess the power of settling the case, then pleading before him is
only making an opportunity for wrangling–without any chance of coming
to a peaceful settlement. Now God has committed "all power" into the
hands of His Son. Jesus Christ is the Ambassador of God and has been
invested with full ambassadorial powers. He comes commissioned by His
Father and can say in all that He does towards sinners that His
Father's heart is with Him. If the case is settled by Him, the Father
is agreed.
Now, Sinner, does Grace move your heart to do the same? Will you agree
to put your case into the hands of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the
Son of Man? Will you abide by His decision? Will you have it settled
according to His judgment, and shall the verdict which He gives stand
absolute and fast with you? If so, then Christ has another essential of
an arbitrator. But if not, remember, though He may make peace for
others, He will never make peace for you! Understand this–that until
the Grace of God has made you willing to trust the case in Jesus'
hands, there can be no peace for you and you are willfully remaining
God's enemy by refusing to accept His dear Son.
Further, let us say that to make a good arbitrator or umpire, it is
essential that he be an apt person. If the case were between a king and
a beggar, it would not seem exactly right that another king should be
the arbitrator, nor another beggar. But if there could be found a
person who combined the two–who was both prince and beggar–then such
a man could be selected by both! Our Lord Jesus Christ precisely meets
the case! There is a very great disparity between the Plaintiff and the
defendant, for how great is the gulf which exists between the eternal
God and poor fallen man? How is this to be bridged? Why by none except
by One who is God and who at the same time can become man!
Now the only Being who can do this is Jesus Christ. He can put His hand
on you, stooping down to all your infirmity and your sorrow–and He can
put His other hand upon the Eternal Majesty–and claim to be co-equal
with God and co-eternal with the Father! Do you not see, then, His
fitness? Surely it were the path of wisdom, Sinner, to accept Him at
once as the Arbitrator in the case! See how well He understands it! I
should not do to be an arbitrator in legal cases because, though I
should be anxious to do justice, yet I should know nothing of the law
of the case. But Christ knows your case and the law concerning it
because He has lived among men and has passed through and suffered the
penalties of Justice. There cannot surely be a better skilled or more
judicious Mediator than our blessed Redeemer!
Yet there is one more essential of an umpire, and that is that he
should be a person desirous to bring the case to a happy settlement. If
you appoint a quarrelsome arbitrator he may delight to "set dogs by the
ears." But if you elect one who is anxious for the good of both and
wishes to make both friends, then he is just the very man, though, to
be sure, he would be one man in a thousand–very precious when
found–but very hard to discover. Oh that all lawsuits could be decided
by such men!
In the great case which is pending between God and the sinner, the Lord
Jesus Christ has a sincere anxiety both for His Father's Glory and for
the sinner's welfare–that there should be peace between the two
contending parties. It is the life and aim of Jesus Christ to make
peace. He delights not in the death of sinners and He knows no joy
greater than that of receiving prodigals to His bosom and of bringing
lost sheep back again to the fold. You cannot tell how high the
Savior's bosom swells with an intense desire to make to Himself a great
name as a peacemaker. Never had warrior such ambition to make war and
to win victories as Christ has to end war and to win the bloodless
triumphs of peace! From the heights of Heaven He came leaping like a
young roe down to the plains of earth. From earth He leaped into the
depths of the grave. Then up again at a bound He sprang to earth and up
again to Heaven.
And still He rests not, but presses on in His mighty work to ingather
sinners and to reconcile them unto God– making Himself a propitiation
for their sins. You see, then, Sinner, how the case is. God has
evidently chosen the most fitting Arbitrator. That Arbitrator is
willing to undertake the case and you may well repose all confidence in
Him. But if you shall live and die without accepting Him as your
Arbitrator, and the case goes against you–you will have none to blame
but yourself. When the everlasting damages shall be assessed against
you in your soul and body forever, you shall have to curse only your
own folly for having been the cause of your ruin!
May I ask you to speak candidly? Has the Holy Spirit so turned the
natural bent and current of your will that you have chosen Him because
He has first chosen you? Do you feel that Christ, this day, is standing
before God for you? He is God's Anointed–is He your elected? God's
choice pitches upon Him–does your choice agree? Remember, where there
is no will towards Christ, Christ as yet exercises no saving power.
Christ saves no sinner who lives and dies unwilling. He makes unwilling
sinners willing before He speaks a word of comfort to them. It is the
mark of our election, as His people, that we are made willing in the
day of God's power. Lay your hope where God has laid your help, namely,
on Christ, mighty to save! You cannot have an Arbitrator except both
sides are agreed. Do you say, "Yes, yes, with all my soul I choose
Him"? Then let us proceed.
II. And now I shall need, by your leave, to TAKE YOU INTO THE COURT
WHERE THE TRIAL IS GOING ON
AND SHOW YOU THE LEGAL PROCEEDINGS BEFORE THE GREAT DAYSMAN. "The Man,
Christ Jesus," who is "God over all, blessed forever," opens His court
by laying down the principles upon which He intends to deliver judgment
and those principles I will now try to explain and expound.
They are two-fold. First, strict justice. And secondly, fervent love.
The Arbitrator has determined that, let the case go as it may, there
shall be full justice done, justice to the very extreme–whether it is
for or against the defendant. He intends to take the Law in its
sternest and severest aspect and to judge according to its strictest
letter. He will not be guilty of partiality on either side. If the Law
says that the sinner shall die, the Arbitrator declares that He will
judge that the sinner shall die. And if, on the other hand, the
defendant can plead and prove that he is innocent, He intends to
adjudge to him the award of innocence, namely ETERNAL LIFE. If the
sinner can prove that he has fairly won it, he shall have his due.
Either way, whether it is in favor of the Plaintiff or of the
defendant, the condition of judgment is to be strict justice.
But the Arbitrator also says that He will judge according to the second
rule, that of fervent love. He loves His Father and therefore He will
decide on nothing that may taint His honor or disgrace His crown. He so
loves God, the Eternal One, that He will suffer Heaven and earth to
pass away sooner than there shall be one blot upon the Character of the
Most High. On the other hand, He so loves the poor defendant, man, that
He will be willing to do anything rather than inflict penalty upon him
unless Justice shall absolutely require it. He loves man with so great
a love that nothing will delight Him more than to decide in his favor
and He will be but too glad if He can be the means happily establishing
peace between the Plaintiff and the defendant.
How these principles are to meet will be seen by and by. At present He
lays them down very positively. "He that rules among men must be just."
An Arbitrator must be just or else He is not fit to hold the scales in
any suit. On the other hand, He must be tender, for His name, as God,
is Love. And His nature as Man is gentleness and mercy. Both parties
should distinctly consent to these principles. How can they do
otherwise? Do they not commend themselves to all of you? Let Justice
and Love unite if they can.
Having thus laid down the principles of judgment, the Arbitrator next
calls upon the Plaintiff to state His case. Let us listen while the
great Creator speaks–may God give me Grace to reverently state it in
His name–as one poor sinner stating God's case against us all. "Hear,
O heavens and give ear, O earth–for the Lord has spoken–I have
nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against Me.
The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib–but Israel does
not know, My people do not consider. Ah, sinful nation, a people filled
with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters–they
have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto
anger, they are gone away backward."
The Eternal God charges us, and let me confess at once, most justly and
most truly charges us, with having broken all His Commandments–some of
them in act, some of them in word–all of them in heart and thought and
imagination! He says that we, against light and knowledge, have chosen
the evil and forsaken the good! He charges that knowing what we were
doing, we have turned aside from His most righteous Law and have gone
astray like lost sheep, following the imaginations and devices of our
own hearts. The great Plaintiff claims that inasmuch as we are His
creatures we ought to have obeyed Him! That inasmuch as we owe our very
lives to His daily care we ought to have rendered Him service instead
of disobedience, and to have been His loyal subjects instead of turning
traitors to His Throne.
All this, calmly and dispassionately, according to the great Book of
the Law, is laid to our charge before the Daysman. No exaggeration of
sin is brought against us. It is simply declared of us that the whole
head is sick and the whole heart is faint–that there is none that does
good, no, not one–that we have all gone out of the way and altogether
become unprofitable. This is God's case. He says, "I made this man.
Curiously was he worked in the lowest parts of the earth. And all his
members bear traces of My singular handiwork. I made him for My honor
and he has not honored Me. I created him for My service and he has not
served Me.
"Twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years I have kept the breath in his
nostrils. The bread he has eaten has been the daily portion of My
bounty. His garments are the livery of My charity. And all this while
he has neither thought of Me, his Creator and Preserver, nor done
anything in My service. He has served his family, his wife and
children, but his Maker he has despised. He has served his country, his
neighbors, the borough in which he dwells–but I, who made him–I have
had nothing from him. He has been an unprofitable servant unto Me."
I think I may put the Plaintiff's case into your hands. Which of you
would keep a horse if that horse should yield you no obedience? What
excuse is it that though I might not use him he would carry another?
No, the case is worse than this. Not only has man done nothing, but
worse than nothing. Which of you would keep a dog, which, instead of
fawning upon you, would bark at you–fly at you and tear you apart in
his rage? Some of us have done this to God! We have perhaps cursed Him
to His face. We have broken His Sabbaths, laughed at His Gospel and
persecuted His saints. You would have said of such a dog, "Let it die!
Why should I harbor in my house a dog that treats me thus?"
Yet, hear, O heavens! And give ear, O earth! God has borne with your
ill manners and He still cries, "mercy!" He puts the lifted thunder
back into the arsenal of His dread artillery. I wish I could state the
case as I ought. My lips are but clay. And these words should be like
fire in the sinner's soul. When I meditated upon this subject alone I
felt much sympathy with God, that He should have been so ill treated.
And whereas some men speak of the flames of Hell as too great a
punishment for sin, it seems ten thousand marvels that we should not
have been thrust down there long ago!
The Plaintiff's case having thus been stated, the defendant is called
upon by the Daysman for his. And I think I hear him as he begins. First
of all the trembling defendant sinner pleads–"I confess to the
indictment, but I say I could not help it! I have sinned, it is true,
but my nature was such that I could not well do otherwise! I must lay
all the blame of it to my own heart–my heart was deceitful and my
nature was evil." The Daysman at once rules that this is no excuse
whatever, but an aggravation, for inasmuch as it is conceded that the
man's heart, itself, is enmity against God, this is an admission of yet
greater malice and blacker rebellion!
It was only alleged against the offender in the first place that he had
outwardly offended–but he acknowledges that he does it inwardly and
confesses that his very heart is traitorous against God–fully set upon
working the King's damage and dishonor! It is determined, therefore, by
the Daysman that this excuse will not stand and He gives a case in
point–a thief is brought up for stealing and he pleads that his heart
was thievish, that he felt a constant inclination to steal and that
therefore he could not help running off with any goods within his
reach! The judge very properly answers, "Then I shall give you twice as
much penalty as any other man who only fell into the fault by
surprise–for according to your own confession, you are a thief through
and through–what you have said is not an excuse, but an aggravation."
Then the defendant pleads in the next place that albeit he acknowledges
the facts alleged against him, yet he is no worse than other offenders
and that there are many in the world who have sinned more grievously
than he has done. He says he has been envious and angry and worldly and
covetous, and has forgotten God–but then he never was an adulterer, or
a thief, or a drunkard, or a blasphemer–and he pleads that his lesser
crimes may well be winked at! But the great Daysman at once turns to
the Statute Book and says that as He is about to give His decision by
Law, that plea is not at all tenable, for the Law Book has it–"Cursed
is every man that continues not in all things that are written in the
Book of the Law to do them."
The offense of one sinner does not excuse the offense of another. And
the Arbitrator declares that He cannot mix up other cases with the case
now in hand–that the present offender has, on his own confession,
broken the Law–and that as the Law Book stands, that is the only
question to be decided, for "the soul that sins, it shall die," and if
the defendant has no better plea to offer, judgment must go against
him. The sinner urges further that though he has offended and offended
very greatly and grievously, yet he has done a great many good things.
It is true he did not love God, but he always went to Chapel! It is
true he did not pray, but he belonged to a singing class. It is quite
correct that he did not love his neighbor as himself, but he always
liked to relieve the poor.
But the Daysman, looking the sinner full in the face, tells him that
this plea, also is bad, for the alleged commission of some acts of
loyalty will not make compensation for avowed acts of treason. "Those
things," says He, "you ought to have done, but not to have left the
others undone." And He tells the sinner, with all kindness and
gentleness, that straining at a gnat does not exonerate him for having
swallowed a camel. And that having tithed mint and anise and cummin is
no justification for having devoured a widow's house. To have forgotten
God is, in itself, a great enormity. To have lived without serving Him
is a crime of omission so great that whatever the sinner may have done
on the contrary, stands for nothing at all–since he has even, in that
case, done only what he ought to have done.
You see at once the justice of this decision. If any of you were to say
to your grocer, or tailor, when they send in their bills, "Well, now,
you ought not to ask for payment of that account because I did pay you
another bill–you ought not to ask me to pay for that suit of clothes
because I did pay you for another suit." I think the answer would be,
"But in paying for what you had before, you only did what you ought to
do–I still have a demand upon you for this." So all the good deeds you
have ever done are only debts discharged which were most fully due,
(supposing them to be good deeds, which is very questionable), and they
leave the great debt still untouched.
The defendant has no end of pleas, for the sinner has a thousand
excuses. And finding that nothing else will do, he begins to appeal to
the mercy of the Plaintiff and says that for the future he will do
better. He confesses that he is in debt but he will run up no more
bills at that shop. He acknowledges that he has offended but he vows he
will not do so again. He is quite sure that the future shall be as free
from fault as angels are from sin. Though it is true that he just now
said his heart was bad, still, he feels inclined to think that it is
not so very bad after all! He is conceited enough to think that he can,
in the future, keep himself from committing sin–thereby, you
see–admitting the worthlessness of his former plea on which he relied
so much.
"Now," he says, "if for life I become a teetotaler, then surely I may
be excused for having been a drunkard! Suppose now that I am always
honest and steady and never again say one ill word–will not that
exonerate me from all my wrong-doings and for having blasphemed God?"
But the Daysman rules, still with kindness and gentleness, that the
greatest imaginable virtue in the future will be no recompense for the
sin of the past–for He finds in the Law Book no promise whatever made
to that effect–but the statute runs in these words, "He will by no
means spare the guilty." "Cursed is everyone that continues not in all
things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them."
You would think that the defendant would now be fairly beaten, but he
is not–he asks leave to step across the way to bring in a friend of
his. He is allowed to do so and comes back with a gentleman dressed in
such a strange style, that, if you had not sometimes seen the like in
certain Puseyite churches, you would suppose him to have arrayed
himself for the mere purpose of amusing children at a show where a
merry Andrew is the presiding genius. The defendant seems to imagine
that if the case is left to this gentleman in the white shirt and
ribbons, he will settle it with ease. He has with him a little bottle
of water by which he can turn hearts of stone into flesh–making heirs
of wrath into "members of Christ, children of God, and inheritors of
the kingdom of Heaven."
He has a certain portion of mystical bread and magical wine, the
reception with which he can work wonderful transformation, producing
flesh and blood at his Reverence's will and pleasure! In fact, this
gentleman trades and gets his living by the prosecution of magic. He
has occult influences streaming from his fingers, which influences he
derived originally from a gentleman in lawn. And he now pretends to
have ability derived from the Apostles, most probably from Judas, by
marvelous manipulations–how, I cannot tell you–but by a kind of
sleight of hand to settle the case! But the Daysman, with a frown,
hurls a thunderbolt from His hand against the impudent impostor and
bids him take himself away and not again deceive poor sinners with his
vain pretensions.
He warns the defendant that the priest is an arrant knave, that
whatever professions he may make of being a "successor of the
Apostles," he knows nothing about Apostolic doctrine, or else he would
not have intruded his sinful, silly self between men's souls and God.
He bids him advise the man to dress himself like a person in his right
mind who was about honest work and not as a sorcerer or priest of
Baal–and give himself to preaching the Gospel–instead of propagating
the superstitious inventions of Rome.
What is the poor defendant to do now? He is fairly beaten this time. He
falls down on his knees, and with many tears and lamentations he cries,
"I see how the case stands! I have nothing to plead, but I appeal to
the mercy of the Plaintiff! I confess that I have broken His
Commandments. I acknowledge that I deserve His wrath–but I have heard
that He is merciful, and I plead for free and full forgiveness." And
now comes another scene. The Plaintiff, seeing the sinner on his knees
with his eyes full of tears, makes this reply, "I am willing at all
times to deal kindly and according to loving-kindness with all My
creatures. But will the Arbitrator, for a moment suggest that I should
damage and ruin My own perfections of truth and holiness?
"Does He suggest that I should belie My own Word? That I should imperil
My own Throne? Does He recommend that I should make the purity of
immaculate Justice to be suspect and should bring down the glory of My
unsullied holiness because this creature has offended Me and now craves
for mercy? I cannot, I will not spare the guilty–he has offended and
he must die! As I live, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked,
but would rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live.
Still, this 'would rather' must not be supreme. I am gracious and would
spare the sinner, but I am just, and must not unsay My own Words. I
swore with an oath, 'The soul that sins shall die.' I have laid it down
as a matter of firm decree, 'Cursed is everyone that continues not in
all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them.' This
sinner is righteously cursed and he must inevitably die. And yet I love
him. How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I make you as Admah? How
can I set you as Zeboim? And yet, how can I put you among the children?
Would it not be a worse calamity that I should be unjust than that
earth should lose its inhabitants? Better all men perish than that the
universe should lose the Justice of God as its stay and shield."
The Arbitrator bows and says, "Even so. Justice demands that the
offender should die and I would not have You unjust." What more does
the Arbitrator say? He sits still and the case is in suspense. There
stands the just and holy God, willing to forgive if it can be done
without injury to the immutable principles of right. There sits the
Arbitrator, looking with eyes of love upon the poor, weeping, trembling
sinner and anxious to devise a plan to save him–but conscious that
that plan must not infringe upon Divine Justice–for it were a worse
cruelty to injure Divine perfections than it were to destroy the whole
human race!
The Arbitrator, therefore, after pausing awhile, puts it thus–"I am
anxious that these two should be brought together. I love them both–I
cannot, on the one hand, recommend that My Father should stain His
honor. I cannot, on the other hand, endure that this sinner should be
cast eternally into Hell. I will decide the case and it shall be
thus–I will pay My Father's justice all it craves. I pledge Myself
that in the fullness of time I will suffer in My own proper Person all
that the weeping, trembling sinner ought to have suffered. My Father,
will you stand to this?" The eternal God accepts the awful sacrifice!
What do you say, Sinner, what do you say? Why, I think you cannot have
two opinions!
If you are sane–and may God make you sane–you will melt with
amazement! You will say, "I could not have thought this! I never called
in a Mediator with an expectation of this! I have sinned and He
declares that He will suffer! I am guilty and He says that He will be
punished for me!" Yes, Sinner and He did more than say it, for when the
fullness of time came–but you know the story–the officers ofjustice
served Him with the writ and He was taken from His knees in the garden
of Gethsemane away to the court. And there He was tried and condemned.
And you know how His back was scourged till the white bones stood like
islands of ivory in the midst of a crimson sea of gore!
You know how His head was crowned with thorns and His cheeks were given
to those who plucked off the hair! Can you not see Him hounded through
the streets of Jerusalem with the spittle of the brutal soldiery still
upon His unwashed face and His wounds all unstanched and bleeding? Can
you not see Him as they hurl Him down and fasten Him to the accursed
tree? Then they lift the Cross and dash it down into its socket in the
earth–dislocating every bone, tearing every nerve and sinew–filling
His soul as full of agony as this earth is full of sin or the depths of
the ocean filled with its floods? You do not know, however, what He
suffered within. Hell held carnival within His heart! Every arrow of
the infernal pit was discharged at Him and Heaven, itself, forsook Him!
The thunderbolts of vengeance fell upon Him and His Father hid His face
from Him till He cried in His agony, "My God, My God, why have You
forsaken Me?" And so He suffered on and on and on, till, "It is
finished," closed the scene. Here, then, is the arbitration. Christ
Himself suffers. And now I have to put the query, "Have you accepted
Christ?" O dear Friend, if you have, I know that God the Holy Spirit
has made you accept Him! But if you have not, what shall I call you? I
will not upbraid you–my heart weeps over you! How can you be so mad as
to forego a compromise so blessed, an arbitration so Divine! Oh, kiss
the feet of the Daysman! Love Him all your life because He has decided
the case so blessedly!
III. Let us now look at THE DAYSMAN'S SUCCESS. For every soul who has
received Christ, Christ has made a full Atonement which God the Father
has accepted. And His success in this matter is to be rejoiced in,
first of all, because the suit has been settled conclusively. We have
known cases go to arbitration and yet the parties have quarreled
afterwards. They have said that the arbitrator did not rule justly, or
something of the kind, and so the whole point has been raised again.
But O Beloved, the case between a saved soul and God is settled once
and forever! There is no more conscience of sin left in the Believer.
And as for God's Book, there is not a sin recorded there against any
soul that has received Christ! I know some of our Arminian Brethren
rather think that the case is not settled–or they suppose that the
case is settled for a time–but that it will one day come up again.
Beloved, I thank God that they are mistaken! Christ has not cast His
people's sins into the shallows where they may be washed up again! He
has cast them into the depths of the sea where they are drowned
forever! Our Scapegoat has not carried our sins to the borders of the
land where they may be found again– He has taken them away into the
wilderness where, if they are searched for, they shall not be found!
The case is so settled that in eternity you shall never hear of it
again except as a case which was gloriously decided.
Again, the case has been settled on the best principles, because, you
see, neither party can possibly quarrel with the decision. The sinner
cannot, for it is all mercy to him–even eternal Justice cannot–for it
has had its due. If there had been any mitigation of the penalty we
might yet fear that perhaps the suit might come up again. But now that
everything has been paid, that cannot be! If my creditor takes from me,
by a settlement in the Court of Insolvency, ten shillings in the pound,
I know he will not disturb me again. But I cannot feel quite at ease
about the other ten shillings. And if I am ever able, I should like to
pay him.
But, you see, Christ has not paid ten shillings in the pound, but He
has paid every farthing–
"Justice now demands no more, He has paid the dreadful score." For all
the sins of all His people He has made such a full and satisfactory
reconciliation that Divine justice were not Divine justice at all if it
should ask to be paid twice for the same offense! Christ has suffered
the Law's fullest and most severe penalty–and there is now no fear
whatever that the case can ever be revived, by writ of error, or
removal into another court–because it has been settled on the eternal
and immutable principles of Justice.
Again, the case has been so settled that both parties are well content.
You never hear a saved soul murmur at the Substitution of the Lord
Jesus. If ever I get to see His face, I'll fall down before Him and
kiss the dust beneath His feet! Oh, if ever I see the Savior who has
thus delivered me from ruin, if I have a crown I will cast it at His
feet and never, never wear it–it must, it shall be His! I feel like
the good woman who said that if Christ ever saved her, He should never
hear the last of it. And I am sure He never shall for I will praise Him
as long as immortality endures for what He has done for me. I am sure
that every saved sinner feels the same.
And Jehovah, on the other side, is perfectly content. He is satisfied
with His dear Son. "Well done!" He says to Him. He has received Him to
the Throne of Glory and made Him to sit at His right hand because He is
perfectly content with the great work which He has accomplished. But,
what is more and more wonderful still, both parties have gained in the
suit. Did you ever hear of such a lawsuit as this before? No, never in
the courts of man! The old story of the two oyster shells, you know,
awarded to the plaintiff and defendant, while the oyster is eaten in
court, is generally the result! But it is not so in this ease–for both
the Plaintiff and the defendant have won by the arbitration!
What has God gained? Why, glory to Himself and such glory as all
creation could not give Him, such glory as the ruin of sinners, though
so well-deserved, could not give Him. Hark how–
"Hea ven's eternal arches ring With shouts of Sovereign Grace!" Angels,
too, as well as those who have been redeemed, strike their harps which
they have tuned afresh to a nobler strain, as they sing, "Worthy is the
Lamb and blessed is the eternal God!" And, as for us, the poor
defendants, why, what have we NOT gained? We were men before–now we
are something more than Adam was! We were "a little lower than the
angels" before–now we are "lifted up far above all principalities and
powers." We were God's subjects once, but this arbitration has made us
His children!
We were at our very best only the possessors of a paradise on
earth–but now we are joint-heirs with Christ of a Paradise above the
skies! Both sides have won and both sides must therefore be blessedly
content with their glorious Daysman. And, to conclude–through this
Daysman both parties have come to be united in the strongest, closest,
dearest and fondest bond of union. This lawsuit has ended in such a way
that the Plaintiff and the defendant are friends for life–no, friends
through death and friends in eternity! How near God is to a pardoned
sinner–
"So near, so very near to God,
Nearer we cannot be.
For in the Person of His Son,
We are as near as He."
What a wonderful thing is that union between God and the sinner! We
have all been thinking a great deal lately about the Atlantic Cable. It
is a very interesting attempt to join two worlds together. That poor
cable, you know, has had to be sunk into the depths of the sea in the
hope of establishing a union between the two worlds–and now we are
disappointed again. But oh, what an infinitely greater wonder has been
accomplished! Christ Jesus saw the two worlds divided and the great
Atlantic of human guilt rolled between. He sank down deep into the woes
of man till all God's waves and billows had gone over Him that He might
be, as it were, the great telegraphic communication between God and the
apostate race–between the Most Holy One and poor sinners!
Let me say to you, Sinner, there was no failure in the laying down of
that blessed cable. It went down deep. The end was well secured and it
went down deep into the depths of our sin and shame and woe. And on the
other side it has gone right up to the Eternal Throne and is fastened
there eternally fast by God Himself! You may work that Telegraph today
and you may easily understand the art of working it, too. A sigh will
work it! A tear will work it. Say, "God be merciful to me, a sinner,"
and along the wire the message will flash and will reach God before it
comes from you! It is far swifter than earthly telegraphs–yes, and
there will come an answer back much sooner than you ever dreamed of!
It is promised–"Before they call I will answer and while they are yet
speaking I will hear." Whoever heard of such a communication as this
between man and man? But it really does exist between sinners and God,
since Christ has opened up a way from the depths of our sin to the
heights of His Glory. This is for you who are at a distance from Him.
But He has done more for us who are saved, for He has taken us right
across the Atlantic of our sin and set us down on the other side! He
has taken us out of our sinful state and put us into the Father's
bosom–and there we shall dwell forever in the heart of God as His own
dear children!
I would to God that some might now be led to look to the Savior–that
some would come with weeping and with tears to Him and say–
"Jesus, lover of my soul, Let me to Your bosom fly.
"Take my case and arbitrate for me. I accept Your Atonement. I trust in
Your precious blood! Only receive me and I will rejoice in You forever
with joy unspeakable and full of glory."
May the Lord bless you forevermore. Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON.–Isaiah 53.