The Privileged Man
A Sermon
(No. 813)
Delivered on Sunday Morning, May 31, 1868, by
C. H. SPURGEON,
at the [23]Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
"Then washed I you with water; yes, I thoroughly washed away your
blood from you, and I anointed you with oil. I clothed you also with
embroidered work, and shod you with badgers 'skin, and I girded you
about with fine linen, and I covered you with silk. I adorned you
also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon your hands, and a
chain on your neck. And I put a jewel on your forehead, and earrings
in your ears, and a beautiful crown upon your head. Thus were you
decked with gold and silver; and your raiment was of fine linen, and
silk, and embroidered work; you did eat fine flour, and honey, and
oil: and you were exceedingly beautiful, and you did prosper into a
kingdom. And your renown went forth among the heathen for your
beauty for it was perfect through your comeliness, which I had put
upon you, says the Lord God."
Ezekiel 16:9-14.
THE root of Israel's nation was originally a lone man whose family and
dependants formed a small Bedouin tribe wandering throughout the plains
of Canaan. God separated and selected Abraham, who was in no way
distinct from others in his parentage, and declared that in him and in
his seed should all the nations of the earth be blessed. When the tribe
had somewhat multiplied, God found them in Egypt, a herd of slaves
helplessly crushed beneath the foot of Pharaoh. They were sorely
burdened with labors for which they received no reward. They were
without spirit to resent the oppressions of their taskmasters and
without power to succeed had the energy been there.
Yet God brought them out of Egypt. He led them through the wilderness,
chased out powerful nations before them, settled them in the most
fertile country and there multiplied them at such an extraordinary
rate, and enriched and endowed them with such power that the little
kingdom of Israel became famous among the nations of the earth! And in
the days of Solomon its scepter was respected far and wide. The nations
of the earth stood still and wondered how so small a monarchy had come
to be so exceedingly rich and great. It was entirely through the favor
of Jehovah that these great blessings had been received.
He had a favor to Abraham's race. He revealed Himself to them and not
to others. He chose them to be His people and made them the custodians
of His Law. His worship was kept up among them and while they were
faithful to Him they were a happy and a prosperous people whose renown
went forth to Tarshish and the isles–and the excellence of whose laws
and government was respected and admired even by such distant nations
as those which were governed by the queen of the South.
The beauty of the nation consisted entirely in what God had done for
it–its comeliness was a comeliness which Jehovah had put upon it. It
was a nation wealthy, intelligent, free and upon the whole, pure and
happy so long as it remained faithful to its God. Our business, this
morning, is not with that nation, but ourselves. Our meditations, to be
profitable, must be personal. Vainly do we blame departed
nations–usefully may we judge ourselves. Children of God, I shall
address myself to you. God has done great things for us of which we are
glad. All that God did for His Israel was but a type and shadow of what
He has done for His own beloved and redeemed ones whom He has
distinguished beyond all men that dwell upon the face of the earth.
I shall ask you, O you sons of God, to contemplate the bounties of the
Lord towards His people. And then, secondly, for a short time to draw
reflections from your contemplations.
I. Let us, each man for himself, sitting in this house before the Lord,
REVIEW THE LORD'S LOVING KINDNESS and contemplate the amazing bounties
which have come to us from the blessed fount of His Grace. To help your
meditations, let me remind you where you were when Divine loving
kindness pitched upon you effectually and you knew its power
experimentally in your own consciences. You were, as others are, lovers
of sin, having no desires towards righteousness and salvation. You had
sinned and you continued in sin and found delight in sin.
You were defiled, depraved, condemned and ready to perish. Like the
infant whom Ezekiel has described–you lay cast out and forsaken,
polluted in your own blood. You had no power to cleanse yourself,
neither were there to be found any friends through whom cleansing might
possibly come to you. You were both loathsome and helpless. As the
loathsomeness necessarily would have involved your eternal ruin, so
your helplessness took away from you all hope of eternal safety.
Some of you had plunged into open sin. Others who had been kept from
that yet had a den of unclean birds within their hearts. Our past lives
will not do to look at–our state before conversion is something to be
blushed over–we should repent of it in dust and ashes. And yet the eye
of Jehovah had fixed itself upon us from before the foundations of the
world! And when He saw us ruined, first by Adam's Fall, and afterwards
by our own practical iniquity, He did not take away that eye of regard
nor did His heart change towards us. He loved us, loved us still, loved
us when there was nothing in us to love–nothing to evoke His
complacency, nothing even that could call forth His benevolence–for
our sin was such a counter power against our misery that if our misery
might have made Jehovah pity us, our sin must have made Him hate us!
His love was utterly causeless by anything within us, but it sprang up
spontaneously from the mysterious wellhead of His infinite goodness.
Blessed be God, that when we were lost, and lost forever, Sovereign
mercy interposed! Let us consider the list of the favors received in
the order in which we find them set forth in the text. According to the
Prophet, one of the first gifts of the Divine favor is washing. "Then I
washed you with water; yes, I thoroughly washed away your blood from
you." Now, remember, you who have been immersed in the–
"Fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel's veins"
remember when you were washed, and thoroughly washed, and sing aloud–
"'Tis from the mercy of our God
That all our hopes begin;
'Tis by the water and the blood
Our souls are washed from sin."
"But," says the Apostle, and what a blessed "but" it is, and what a
weight of meaning there is in it, "But you are washed." He had been
giving a very fearful description of what some of the saints had been,
"Such were some of you," and then he puts this in at the end of it,
"But you are washed," as if the being washed had taken away whatever
defilement might have been there. Remember, Beloved, when you were
first washed? Recall the hour when, believing in Jesus Christ, you felt
in a moment that you were saved? What bliss was crowded into that hour!
Your acceptance in the Beloved was sealed upon your heart by the Holy
Spirit! You enjoyed a peace with God which passed all understanding–
the result of pardoned sin! Remember that day of blessing, and be
grateful!
But I want you to remember that you are washed this morning. You are
now in the sight of God as a Believer without a spot, for "the blood of
Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin." Do not look upon your
cleansing as a thing of the past, to be forgotten! You are at this
present moment "clean every whit" in the sight of God through Jesus'
blood! There is no sin in God's book recorded against the Believer.
"Who is he that condemns, now that Christ has died?" Oh, perfect
justification! How shall I prize you enough? Oh, perfect pardon! What
shall I compare with you? These two things put together are enough to
make a Heaven upon earth even to the most disconsolate and afflicted of
the sons of men. "Then washed I you with water."
In this respect we may say that we have been washed twice–first with
the blood by which the guilt of sin is removed–and then by the
energetic power of the Holy Spirit. We have been washed from the
impurity and power of sin so that we are clean in a double sense before
God. And here is the beauty of it, it is done thoroughly, "Yea, I
thoroughly washed away your blood from you." Your depravity is not
gone, your old nature is not removed–it shall be before long–but your
old guilt is completely gone and your present criminality is utterly
blotted out–
"In your Surety you are free,
His dear hands were pierced for you;
With His spotless vesture on,
Holy as the Holy One.
Oh, the heights and depths of Grace!
Shining with meridian blaze;
Here the sacred records show
Sinners black, but comely, too."
The sins of 20 years ago are drowned beneath the billows of the Red Sea
of Jesus' atoning blood! The sins of yesterday have shared the same
fate, and the sins of today the same. "I thoroughly washed your blood
from you." Now, Believer, let not the devil rob you, this morning, of a
sense of your complete cleansing. Remember what you were, but at the
same time remember you are not now what you once were. "Old things have
passed away. All things have become new." Jesus Christ has said, "I
have blotted out your sins like a cloud, and like a thick cloud your
iniquities." I say Jesus has said it, said it to you by His Holy Spirit
bearing witness in your heart. Come afresh to the Cross and look up,
and as you see those dear wounds, sweet fountains of immaculate
perfection, rejoice that it is written, "Yes, I washed you with water,
I thoroughly purged your blood from you."
The next mercy is anointing. Observe in the text, "I anointed you with
oil." So soon as a man is cleansed he becomes fit for the Lord's
service. One of the first instincts of a forgiven sinner is to become a
servant in the house of his pardoning God. Listen to David in the 51st
Psalm: "Then will I teach transgressors Your ways; and sinners shall be
converted unto You." Forgiven himself, he desires to be a preacher to
others. But before we can serve God we must be anointed to the service.
God will have no unanointed priest in His temple. His Holy Spirit is
the anointing which He bestows upon every one of the pardoned. Not to
me as the preacher, alone, is this anointing given, though I desire to
have it more and more for your sakes, but for every one of you is this
unction appointed.
"You have an anointing from the Holy One." Your eyes are anointed with
eye salve that you may see and discern the mystery of fellowship with
God. Your hands have been anointed that you may be laborers together
with God and you have been anointed in heart, in body, soul, and spirit
that your entire man, filled with the indwelling Deity, may be
consecrated to noblest ends! I pray God to give His children to feel
this anointing more and more. We believe in no priest-craft, no setting
apart of any set of men who are to minister in holy things as
substitutes for their brethren–but all you who are saints are alike
kings and priests unto God.
Though by nature sinners who would have been in Hell but for Divine
Grace, you are now made priests to God today to minister before His
Throne. There, amidst the fires of Gehennam, would have been your
everlasting portion, but there, within the veil where the Glory which
excels reveals its radiance, is your proper position today by the
rights which Sovereign Grace has bestowed upon you. "I washed you with
water and I anointed you with oil." Dear Brothers in Christ, I want you
to realize these privileges now. As I said about cleansing so, yes, I
say again–do not let Satan make you think it to be a myth or that it
does not belong to you at this precise instant of time. The reality and
present character of Divine blessings is a point never to be forgotten.
Today you are justified. You are altogether without a blot in God's
sight as He sees you in His dear Son. You are without spot or wrinkle,
or any such thing as you stand in Jesus. And then at this hour you are
anointed to priesthood by the Holy Spirit. Let not Satan tell you that
you are not so called and qualified, for as a child of God you are,
indeed, a partaker of the Holy Spirit. Go to your knees in prayer as an
anointed priest. Go to your Sunday school this afternoon, or street
preaching, or whatever else may be your form of ministry–go to it as
having an unction from God, an anointing to do the work which the Lord
has appointed you to do. In the double blessedness of cleansing as a
washed sinner and qualification as an anointed one, rejoice in the Lord
your God!
But, my dear Brethren, our heavenly Father stops nowhere when He once
begins to lavish forth His mercy! He abounds in His loving kindnesses,
and therefore I ask your attention to the next covenant mercy–He
clothes His people. The Holy Spirit in this passage seems to have
exhausted human imagery in order to set forth the sumptuous apparel in
which God has been pleased to clothe His people. Four modes of
description are used. First, it is said, "I clothed you also with
embroidered work." This was the work which was worked by the needles of
the well-skilled women of Israel–most delicate and cunning work.
Garments intended for glory and beauty, such as the priests' vestments,
were made by dexterous fingers long accustomed to the needle. Now, when
I read that God clothes His people with embroidered work, it teaches me
that the righteousness with which God covers His people is a work of
labor, of skill, of care, of thought–not merely labor (though our Lord
Jesus Christ labored well, a very Hercules was He in toil), not rough
labor, thoughtless, and unskilled–not the labor of the hammer, but of
the needle in a fair and well-trained hand. The wisdom of our God was
exercised about the way of justifying a sinner! Great thoughts of
Jehovah went out about the methods of making unrighteous ones
righteous, and causing the unjust to become the righteousness of God in
Christ Jesus.
Each stitch of embroidery demands its thought. Each motion of the
needle is a matter of care and anxiety. So in every part of the
Covenant of Grace, Divine thoughts were abundantly exercised. See how
resplendently God's attributes are all seen in the way of
justification! In the robe with which Christ has covered us it is
impossible to say which of the Divine attributes are most to be seen.
There is His justice, for all that the Law demands it receives in the
sacrifice of Jesus. His mercy is equally manifest, for He passes by
transgression, iniquity, and sin. There is His power sustaining the
Savior, while, at the same time He smites Him. There is His wrath
boiling forth against iniquity, and His love resplendent like a fair
jewel in the midst of it all.
It is an embroidered work. Stitch within stitch, with many a cunning
twist and wise device and dainty piece of curious work. Angels have
looked at it and they never saw such embroidered work before! And you
and I regard it and we glory that it is matchless! In Heaven as we
shall examine it, thread by thread and stitch by stitch, we shall burst
forth into fresh songs of adoring praise and say, "Indeed, most
gracious God, You have clothed us with embroidered work! What sumptuous
apparel! What skill! What wisdom! What power! What Grace are blended in
the robe of righteousness with which God has covered His people!
Child of God, you are wearing it today, and if Jacob puts on Joseph a
garment of many colors because he loved him better than his brothers,
stand up and think what a garment your heavenly Father has put on you
because He loves you so much! A garment of embroidered work has He put
upon you this day because He loves you more than angels, and more than
archangels–for unto none of these did He ever say–
"'Yes, I clothed you with embroidered work.'
How far the heavenly robe exceeds,
What earthly princes wear!
These ornaments, how bright they shine!
How white the garments are!
Strangely, my Soul, are you arrayed
By the great Sacred Three!
In sweetest harmony of praise
Let all your powers agree."
Then comes the next thought, "and shod you with badgers' skin." It
would be impossible, at this remote period, to guess what animal is
referred to here–certainly not the animal we call a badger, but some
creature found, I suppose, abundantly in the wilderness. It probably
had spotted skin, which skin was afterwards dyed a deep purple and used
for leather. Badgers' skins were used, whatever they were, for the
covering of the ark and tabernacle in the wilderness. I suppose the
leather made of these skins to have been the softest, best, and most
durable to be found, and that the meaning of the passage is just
this–"I shod you with the best that was to be had."
We know that the Jewish women were accustomed to wear shoes made with
very delicate leather dyed with a deep purple color. This, of course,
was for daintiness and luxury and it is mentioned to show the great
riches of the Jewish people, and the luxuries with which God had
endowed them. I use the term spiritually thus, today, and bid you mark
the riches of the Lord's people. Moreover, behold the durability of
that righteousness which God has given to us. We have to pass through a
wilderness of briers and thorns and our shoes are fit for it. Our Jesus
has not given us an embroidered robe for show only, but He has provided
us garments which will bear the wear and toil of the pilgrimage to the
skies. He has shod us right well.
Sometimes He tells us that our shoes shall be as iron and brass and
that as our days are, so shall our strength be. Paul tells us of the
preparation of the Gospel of peace with which our feet are to be shod,
and now here, the text says, "I shod you with badgers' skin." Believer,
you have the best Grace, the best righteousness, the best assistance
that you can possibly imagine in order to bring you safely to the right
hand of God at the last! Jesus' righteousness is such that, let you
tread the desert through, up to the remotest age, still that
righteousness shall not be worn out for it is an everlasting
righteousness–
"This spotless robe the same appears When ruined nature sinks in years.
Nor age can change its glorious hue, The robe of Christ is ever new."
The figure, then, changes again. The text says, "I girded you about
with fine linen." May I stop a moment and say to every Believer to try
to feel, now by the exercise of faith, that you have this embroidered
robe upon you at this moment and that these shoes are on your feet at
this instant. Believe in the gifts which the Covenant of Grace secures
you, and in Jesus Christ who is made of God unto you wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification and redemption. But to return to the word
itself, "I girded you with fine linen." That is to set forth the purity
of the righteousness which God gives to us– linen, white and
fair–fine linen, the best and most expensive fabric such as was worn
by the priests alone.
Child of God, you have on at this very moment, in the sight of God, the
righteousness which is of God by faith and this is so pure that God
Himself sees no spot in it! It is so precious that if Heaven and earth
were sold, such a dress as you wear could not be bought with the price.
You are this day arrayed as a priest–you are a priest to offer prayer
and praise, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Now, do not forget this,
or treat it as if I were talking mere poetry or fiction. It is so. I
speak a sober fact most true and sure to faith. You do at this moment
wear the priestly apparel, for you are made of God a priest and a king.
Then the last figure is, "I covered you with silk." One scarcely knows
what the Prophet here refers to, as silk does not appear to have been
used in his time, but something as near to our modern silk, I suppose,
as possible. And this was a royal fabric, soft and delicate, but rarely
seen and only found in imperial courts. "I covered you with silk." This
may represent the splendor of the saints when they appear in the robes
of Christ. An angel, I suppose, must be a glorious sight. But though
you would be dazzled at the sight of an angel, you would not be half so
much surprised as an angel would at the sight of you as you stand
arrayed in the righteousness of Christ!
I have never read that God is admired in the angels, but I do read that
Jesus Christ is to be admired in all them that believe. The glory of
the Believer is to be such that even angels, who have been used to
supernal splendor, shall be amazed as they look upon the redeemed when
covered with the righteousness of Christ! If you but spell this word
Jehovah Tsidkenu, the Lord our Righteousness! If you are but to be
robed about with the merit of the Redeemer, then I tell you that Heaven
shall have no courtier before God's Throne more sumptuously arrayed
than you!–
"With your Savior's garment on, You are holy as the Holy One"
Thus in the four expressions which indicate skill and care, durability
and use, purity and priesthood, delicacy and royalty we have wrapped up
a mass of most precious thought–may our minds be on the alert for the
working out of the thought! How grateful ought we to be to our good God
for such distinguished love! But this is not all. He who washes us,
anoints us, and clothes us then adorns us. Observe how the Holy Spirit,
again, seems to labor for expression to set out the ornaments which God
has put upon His people, which ornaments, I suppose, represent the
Graces of the Spirit, the fruits of the Spirit in the regenerate man. I
will not detain you an unnecessary minute over them, but ask you to
look at each one with your Bibles open.
"I put bracelets upon your hands." The Believer being saved becomes a
worker, and when he works with the bracelets of faith and love upon his
hands, how fair a worker he becomes! And, Christian, you have this
honor. You work for God, trusting in God. You work for God, loving
God–having no motive to constrain you but that of disinterested
affection. You have these bracelets upon your hands. "And a chain on
your neck." And what is this but the ornament of a meek and quiet
spirit? That neck which once would not bend–a stiff neck, a rebellions
neck with a proud obstinate iron sinew–bows itself before the Lord and
wears the easy yoke of Christ. Blessed are they to whom God has given
this golden chain made of many links of humble gratitude–a meek and
quiet spirit!
This, also, has God given to the Believer. If you have lost it, bemoan
yourself–but certainly it is one of His gifts and, as one of His
Beloved, He has bestowed it upon you. Then He speaks of a jewel upon
the forehead, or as some read it, "the nose-jewel," for it was common
with the Eastern women to wear a large golden ring or bow in the nose.
Or the text may refer to a jewel which dangled from the hair upon the
brow. Now every Believer has this when he is in his right state–this
forehead jewel of an open confession of his Lord–this forehead jewel
of a holy boldness, a conscience that gives an answer for itself,
meekly, but yet without fear of men.
Every Believer has that dauntless courage which could beard the lion in
its den for Christ–could rush through perils and through toils for
Jesus–this forehead jewel God has been given to some of us, at any
rate. May we always wear it. This is one of the brightest ornaments of
Christians before men. When it is compared with the other ornaments it
is one of the noblest that a Christian spirit can wear. Nor is the list
exhausted. "I put earrings in your ears." And there are no earrings
more precious than these two which I will let you see. "My sheep hear
My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me." That is the best
earring to wear in all the world, "My sheep hear My voice." God has
given His people the earring of discernment, "a stranger will they not
follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of
strangers." The other is the earring of affection, by which, hearing
the voice of Jesus, they know His voice and at once arise and with
cheerfulness follow Him. Yes, these are the ornaments of the Christian!
And then it is added, "And I put a beautiful crown upon your head." God
will not stop halfway. His people shall wear the best of the best and
all of the best. He will adorn their feet with shoes of badgers' skin
and He will crown their head with a diadem of beauty. Now, heir of
salvation, you are this day one of God's princes! You may be very poor.
You may feel very low spirited. You may have all sorts of troubles to
fight with, but you are down in the red roll of the princes of the
blood–you belong to Heaven's true aristocracy! Be you who you may, if
you are a Believer in Jesus Christ you are not knighted, nor made a
baron, or a peer, but you are actually taken into the royal family
itself! You are a king, and you shall reign with Jesus Christ forever
and ever! "To him that overcomes will I give to sit upon My throne,
even as I have overcome and am set down with My Father upon His
Throne."
See your dignity, Christian. I say nothing to make you proud, but I
would say much to make you glad in the Lord and to make you rejoice in
the mercies which He has given you! There is nothing which you could
wish for, when in your spiritual senses, which you do not already
possess. All your capacious powers can wish is given you in the
Covenant of Grace. If imagination should take her utmost stretch and
fly upon the wings of the morning to the uttermost ends of all
conception, yet could she not compass nor dream of what God has
prepared for them that love Him! Only the Spirit can reveal to you
these depths of mercy, these treasures of loving kindness, these
mountains of mercy, these hills of frankincense! You are rich to all
the intents of bliss! You are rich to the full measure of Heaven and
earth for all that that Covenant can give is yours today by "Promises
which are yes, and amen, in Christ Jesus, to the glory of God by us."
I am a poor speaker on such a theme as this, and though I have tried to
entice you so far as I can into this river of Divine goodness, I have
only led you up to your ankles. God's Spirit could take you far deeper,
for all the mercies you have received are only just the beginnings of
what are coming! Well did we sing just now–
"Glory to God for all the Grace I have not tasted yet." That is the
larger part of the Grace–the Grace to come. The present is good, oh,
how good! But the future is better, ah, how much better! Beyond the
river there comes the best of all. Our wine does not grow weaker
towards the end of the feast–He has kept the best wine until the last.
And, oh, what will it be to drink at the table of the King Eternal,
draughts of His blessed love, in the place where sin and trouble shall
never come to intervene and break our peace?
O Brothers and Sisters, wait awhile–your day shall come and your
enemies shall be beneath your feet, and Satan shall be trampled
there–and you–
"Far from a world of grief and sin
With God eternally shut in,"
shall know what God has done, and forever has intended to do for His
beloved ones!
II. Thus have I, as well as I could, set before you food for
contemplation. Now, I want to DRAW TWO OR THREE REFLECTIONS FROM THIS
and we will have done. The first is this–sitting down before the Lord
in quiet this afternoon, reading this passage, turning over sentence by
sentence, I think the emotion of the soul would express itself in words
like these–"And what am I? And what is my father's house that You have
brought me here? And why this to me? Why me, Lord? Me?"
Depreciate Divine mercies and you will not marvel that you receive
them–appreciate them at their proper estimate and you will wonder and
weep, and wonder and love, and wonder and adore that ever such an
unworthy thing as you should be so singularly favored! I will not
linger over the reflection–that is for your closet rather than for my
pulpit. But the next one is this–What a wretched return have we made
to God for these amazing benefits bestowed! There are some parts of the
earth where the soil is so fruitful, that to quote the language of a
certain writer, you have but to tickle it with the hoe and it laughs
with plenty. But there are other soils where you must plow and plow,
and plow, and fertilize and use all arts to get but handfuls, after
all.
Surely these last soils are very like ourselves. God has done great
things for us and we have done little things for God. I took up on the
Alp side a glistening stone one day and I noticed that the whole heap
of stones which had been broken up for mending the roads was like the
one which I took up–and in it there were sparkling pieces of gold!
Everyone could see that there was gold in the stone and we asked the
geologist if it were not so. Yes, all the stones with which they mend
the road had gold in them!
Well, but why not extract the gold? Because it was in such miserably
small quantities that it would never have paid for the extraction.
Really, this is very much like ourselves. If there are some good thing
in us, it is in such small quantities and seems to be imbedded in such
hard quartz, that God's great machinery of Divine Grace seems to be a
waste of power, if I may so speak, when we compare the results in us
with the effort which God puts forth towards us. I know there is no
waste and in the end He will show that the means were only commensurate
with the result. But so far as we now go, and can see of it, think of
Christ sweating the great sweat of blood! Think of Him afterwards going
up and yielding Himself to die the death on the Cross–the Incarnate
God dying for the sins of men!
And the result of it is–what? A member of a Church, a wealthy man,
who, when there is a collection, gives a four-penny piece. Did you ever
see such a step from the sublime to the ridiculous as that? And yet it
is so. Yes, and then take the best–the best of us. You smile because I
put it in that shape, but conceive God Himself coming here on earth,
bleeding and dying, and the most earnest man is the result. There is
still a fall, a wretched, miserable fall from what God did down to what
the most earnest of us can do for Him!
This is a thing to be bemoaned and to be grieved over! For such is the
debt we owe to God that if we spend all the strength we have morning,
noon and night, and wear ourselves out in the Master's service–and had
50 such lives to give and ended them all at the stake–yet still the
sacrifice were as nothing compared to what is due to the infinite
majesty of the love of God! I lead you to a reflection which is more
sad than this, and that reflection is, How base, then, in the light of
this amazing mercy does our sin appear! I have read of one who was
extremely poor and who was helped by a Christian man–helped again and
again, and yet when the officers were out searching after the
Protestant Christian, the man, to betray him for the sake of the
reward, was the neighbor who had constantly eaten at his table and who
had been helped by his charity!
This was brutal, that he who was so much under obligation should yet
become a traitor! And yet it was only a neighbor. Your case is worse,
Believer, for you are a friend and more–you profess to be a child of
God, to be in union with Christ–and yet have you been a traitor to
Jesus! O sweet Lord of my heart, and monarch of my soul, with precious
blood You have sealed me as Your own. And fool that I am, that I should
cast my eyes on other beauties, beauties did I call them?–other shams,
other painted Jezebels! Wretch that I am to wander thus in search of
vain delights, to seek after earthly joys, to set my soul on earthly
loves and let my Lord and Savior go!
O you virgin souls that follow the Lamb wherever He goes, may you never
wander from your spiritual chastity as some of us have done. O you
whose delights are with Him still, who in the garden of nuts and among
the beds of spices have beheld His face and seen those eyes which are
like the fishponds of Heshbon by the walls of Bath-rabbim–you that
have been enchanted with His Presence–cling to His garment! Keep His
company and let no enchantment of the world induce you to desert Him!
But we, O what shall we do? Though like Peter we have denied Him, yet
like Peter we can say, "You know all things, You know that I love You."
Jesus, believe not our words, but believe our actions this morning.
Look not askance upon us because of our ill manners! Forget the past
and clasp us to Your breast anew. Into Your precious blood cast the
multitude of our offenses and forgive us freely and graciously. Once
again let the flames of Your love flash into our hearts till our
hearts, also, grow warm, and then never, never let them become chilled
again! Let us be fastened to the Cross, bound with cords even to the
horns of the altar that we may be Yours in full fellowship, sweet
service and growing conformity all the days of our life!
Now, Beloved, the practical result, if what I have said is carried out,
will be most blessed. But to push it home I would ask, what is there
that any of us can do this morning for Christ? Since we have received
so much, what can we give in return this morning? It shall be that some
of you will say, "He shall have the sweet cane which I have bought with
money, and the fat of my sacrifices. If I cannot speak for Him, I will
give to Him. I will let Him see that I love Him, for like the holy
women, I will minister unto Him of my substance." Others of you will
say, "I cannot do that, but I will speak a good word for Him this day.
I will go to the school, or to the street, or to the Prayer Meeting, or
to the Bible class and I will try to speak to someone about his soul.
If I may but paint my Master in lovely hues so that one heart shall be
enchanted with Him, I hope He will accept what I shall try to do."
Now make that a resolution, that this day something shall be done by
you for Christ. And another will say, "Alas! I cannot speak, I shall
have no opportunity, but I will get me to my chamber and I will there
speak with God on Christ's behalf, and I will not let Him go except He
bless me, and the Church, and all the cause and kingdom of my Lord."
Ah, Beloved, Christ will take of you anything that comes from your
heart, whatever the gift may be! However feeble, and weak, and
insignificant it may seem to others, it shall be rich and comely to Him
if it comes from your heart. You owe all to Him. What will you render
to Him? What will you do more than others? Do it not to earn anything,
or seek a reward, but because He has loved you–love Him and serve Him
in return!
God give you to give the ready answer and the acceptable answer, and
may He accept it, for Jesus' sake. I wish, this morning, you all had a
share in these mercies. Some of you have not. The mercy is that the
door is not shut. "Whoever believes on the Son of God has everlasting
life." Trust Jesus, and you shall be saved!–
"Come naked, and adorn your souls
In robes prepared by God,
Worked by the labors of His Son,
And dyed in His own blood.
Great God, the treasures of Your love
Are everlasting mines,
Deep as our helpless miseries are,
And boundless as our sins.
The happy gates of Gospel Grace
Stand open night and day,
Lord, we are come to seek supplies,
And drive our needs away."
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Life by Faith
A Sermon