Jesus Interceding For Transgressors

DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 18, 1877,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"And made intercession for the transgressors." Isaiah 53:12.

Our blessed Lord made intercession for transgressors in so many words
while He was being crucified, for He was heard to say, "Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do." It is generally thought that He
uttered this prayer at the moment when the nails were piercing His
hands and feet and the Roman soldiers were roughly performing their
duty as executioners. At the very commencement of His passion He begins
to bless His enemies with His prayers. As soon as the Rock of our
salvation was smitten, there flowed forth from Him a blessed stream of
intercession. Our Lord fixed His eyes upon that point in the character
of His persecutors which was most favorable to them, namely, that they
knew not what they did.

He could not plead their innocence and, therefore, He pleaded their
ignorance. Ignorance could not excuse their deed, but it did lighten
their guilt and, therefore, our Lord was quick to mention it as in some
measure an extenuating circumstance. The Roman soldiers, of course,
knew nothing of His higher mission–they were the mere tools of those
who were in power–and though they "mocked Him, coming to Him, and
offering Him vinegar," they did so because they misunderstood His
claims and regarded Him as a foolish rival of Caesar, only worthy to be
ridiculed. No doubt the Savior included these rough Gentiles in His
supplications. And perhaps their centurion who "glorified God, saying,
Certainly this was a righteous Man," was converted in answer to our
Lord's prayer.

As for the Jews, though they had some measure of light, yet they, also,
acted in the dark. Peter, who would not have flattered any man, yet
said, "And now, brethren, I know that through ignorance you did it, as
did, also, your rulers." It is doubtless true that, had they known,
they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory, though it is equally
clear that they ought to have known Him, for His credentials were clear
as noonday! Our Redeemer, in that dying prayer of His, shows how quick
He is to see anything which is, in any degree, favorable to the poor
clients whose cause He has undertaken. He spied out in a moment the
only fact upon which compassion could find a foothold and He secretly
breathed out His loving heart in the cry, "Father, forgive them, for
they know not what they do."

Our great Advocate will be sure to plead wisely and efficiently on our
behalf! He will urge every argument which can be discovered, for His
eyes, quickened by love, will suffer nothing to pass which may be in
our favor. The Prophet, however, does not, I suppose, intend to confine
our thoughts to the one incident which is recorded by the Evangelists,
for the intercession of Christ was an essential part of His entire
lifework. The mountain's side often heard Him, beneath the chilly
night, pouring out His heart in supplications. He might as fitly be
called the Man of Prayers as, "the Man of Sorrows."

He was always praying, even when His lips moved not. While He was
teaching and working miracles by day, He was silently communing with
God and making supplication for men. And His nights, instead of being
spent in seeking restoration from His exhausting labors, were
frequently occupied with intercession. Indeed, our Lord's whole life is
a prayer! His career on earth was intercession worked out in actions.
Since "He prays best who loves best," He was a mass of prayer, for He
is altogether Love. He is not only the channel and the example of
prayer, but He is the life and force of prayer. The greatest plea with
God is Christ, Himself! The argument which always prevails with God is
Christ Incarnate, Christ fulfilling the Law and Christ bearing the
penalty.

Jesus Himself is the reasoning and logic of prayer and He Himself is an
ever living prayer unto the Most High. It was part of our Lord's
official work to make intercession for the transgressors. He is a
Priest and as such He brings His offering and presents prayer on behalf
of the people. Our Lord is the Great High Priest of our profession and
in fulfilling this office we read that He offered up prayers and
supplications with strong cries and tears. And we know that He is now

offering up prayers for the souls of men. This, indeed, is the great
work which He is carrying on today. We rejoice in His finished work,
and rest in it, but that relates to His atoning Sacrifice. His
intercession springs out of His Atonement and it will never cease while
the blood of His Sacrifice retains its power.

The blood of sprinkling continues to speak better things than that of
Abel. Jesus is pleading now and will be pleading till the heavens shall
be no more. For all that come to God by Him He still presents His
merits to the Father and pleads the causes of their souls. He urges the
grand argument derived from His life and death and so obtains
innumerable blessings for the rebellious sons of men.

I. I have to direct your attention, this morning, to our ever-living
Lord making intercession for the transgressors. And as I do so I shall
pray God, in the first place, that all of us may be roused to
admiration for His Grace. Come, Brothers and Sisters, gather up your
scattered thoughts and meditate upon Him who alone was found fit to
stand in the gap and turn away wrath by His pleading! If you will
consider His intercession for transgressors, I think you will be struck
with the love, tenderness and graciousness of His heart when you
remember that He offered intercession verbally while He was standing in
the midst of their sin.

Sin heard of and sin seen are two very different things. We read of
crimes in the newspapers, but we are not at all so horrified as if we
had seen them for ourselves. Our Lord actually saw human sin–saw it
unfettered and unrestrained– saw it at its worst. Transgressors
surrounded His Person and, by their sins, darted 10,000 arrows into His
sacred heart–and yet while they pierced Him, He prayed for them! The
mob compassed Him round about, yelling, "Crucify Him, crucify Him," and
His answer was, "Father, forgive them." He knew their cruelty and
ingratitude, and felt them most keenly, but answered them only with a
prayer.

The great ones of the earth were there, too, sneering and
jesting–Pharisee and Sadducee and Herodian–He saw their selfishness,
conceit, falsehood and bloodthirstiness, yet He prayed! Strong bulls of
Bashan had beset Him round and dogs had compassed Him, yet He
interceded for men! Man's sin had stirred up all its strength to slay
God's Love and, therefore, sin had arrived at its worst point–and yet
Mercy kept pace with Malice and outran it, for He sought forgiveness
for His tormentors! After killing Prophets and other messengers, the
wicked murderers were now saying, "This is the Heir! Come, let us kill
Him that the inheritance may be ours." And yet that Heir of all things,
who might have called fire from Heaven upon them, died crying, "Father,
forgive them"!

He knew that what they did was sin, or He would not have prayed,
"forgive them," but yet He set their deed in the least unfavorable
light and said, "they know not what they do." He set His own Sonship to
work on their behalf and appealed to His Father's love to pardon them
for His sake. Never was virtue set in so fair a frame! Never goodness
came so adorned with abundant love as in the Person of the Lord
Jesus–and yet they hated Him all the more for His loveliness and
gathered around Him with the deeper spite because of His infinite
goodness! He saw it all and felt the sin as you and I cannot feel it,
for His heart was purer and, therefore, more tender than ours.

He saw that the tendency of sin was to put Him to death and all like
He, yes, and to slay God, Himself if it could achieve its purpose, for
man had become a Deicide and must crucify his God–and yet, though His
holy soul saw and loathed all this tendency and atrocity of
transgression–He still made intercession for the transgressors! I do
not know whether I convey my own idea, but to me it seems wonderful
beyond measure that He should know sin so thoroughly, understand its
heinousness, see the drift of it, feel it so wantonly assailing Him
when He was doing nothing but deeds of kindness–and yet with all that
vivid sense of the vileness of sin upon Him–even then and there He
made intercession for the transgressors, saying, "Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do."

Another point of His graciousness was clear on that occasion, namely,
that He should thus intercede while in agony! It is marvelous that He
should be able to call His mind away from His own pains to consider
their transgressions. You and I, if we are subject to great pains of
the body, do not find it easy to command our minds and especially to
collect our thoughts and restrain them so as to forgive the person
inflicting the pain and even to invoke blessings on his head! Remember
that your Lord was suffering while He made intercession. He was
beginning to suffer the pangs of death, suffering in soul as well as in
body, for He had freshly come from the Garden where His soul was
exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death.

Yet in the midst of that depression of spirit which might well have
made Him forgetful of the wretched beings who were putting Him to
death, He forgets Himself and He only thinks of them and pleads for
them! I am sure that we should

have been taken up with our pains, even if we had not been moved to
some measure of resentment against our tormentors. But we hear no
complaints from our Lord, no accusations lodged with God, no angry
replies to them such as Paul once gave–"God shall smite you, you
whited wall!" Jesus uttered not even a word of mourning or of complaint
concerning the indignities which He endured, but His dear heart all
ascended to Heaven in that one blessed petition for His enemies, which
then and there He presented to His Father.

But I will not confine your thoughts to that incident, because, as I
have already said, the Prophet's words had a wider range. To me it is
marvelous that He, being pure, should plead for transgressors at all!
For you and for me among them–let the wonder begin there. Sinners by
nature, sinners by practice, willful sinners, sinners who cling to sin
with a terrible tenacity, sinners who come back to sin after we have
smarted for it–and yet the Just One has espoused our cause and has
become a suitor for our pardon! We are sinners who omit duties when
they are pleasures and who follow after sins which are known to involve
sorrow. We are sinners, therefore, of the most foolish kind–wanton,
willful sinners– and yet He who hates all sin has deigned to take our
part and plead the causes of our souls!

Our Lord's hatred of sin is as great as His love to sinners. His
indignation against everything impure is as great as that of the thrice
holy God who revenges and is furious when He comes into contact with
evil. And yet this Divine Prince, of whom we sing, "You love
righteousness and hate wickedness," espouses the cause of transgressors
and pleads for them! Oh, matchless Grace! Surely angels wonder at this
stretch of condescending love! Brothers and Sisters, words fail me to
speak of it. I ask you to adore!

Further, it is to me a very wonderful fact that in His Glory He should
still be pleading for sinners. There are some men who, when they have
reached high positions, forget their former associates. They knew the
poor and needy friend, once, for, as the proverb has it, poverty brings
us strange bedfellows. But when they have risen out of such conditions,
they are ashamed of the people whom once they knew. Our Lord is not
thus forgetful of the degraded clients whose cause He espoused in the
days of His humiliation. Yet though I know His constancy, I marvel and
admire! The Son of Man on earth pleading for sinners is very gracious,
but I am overwhelmed when I think of His interceding for sinners now
that He reigns yonder where harps, unnumbered, tune His praise and
cherubim and seraphim count it their glory to be less than nothing at
His feet!

I am amazed to think that where all the Glory of His Father is
resplendent in Himself and He sits at the right hand of God in Divine
favor and majesty unspeakable, He is still interceding for
transgressors! How can we hear without amazement that the King of kings
and Lord of lords occupies Himself with caring for
transgressors–caring, indeed, for you and me?! It is condescension
that He should commune with the blood-washed before His Throne and
allow the perfect spirits to be His companions! But that His heart
should steal away from all Heaven's joys to remember such poor
creatures as we are and make incessant prayer on our behalf–this is
like His own loving Self–it is Christ-like, Godlike!

I think I see at this moment our great High Priest pleading before the
Throne. He is wearing His jeweled breastplate and His garments of glory
and beauty–wearing our names upon His breast and His shoulders in the
Most Holy Place. What a vision of incomparable love! It is a fact and
no mere dream. He is within the Holy of Holies, presenting the one
sacrifice. His prayers are always heard and heard for us–but the
marvel is that the Son of God should condescend to exercise such an
office and make intercession for transgressors! This matchless Grace
well near seals my lips, but it opens the floodgates of my soul and I
would gladly pause to worship Him whom my words fail to set forth.

Again, it is gloriously gracious that our Lord should continue to do
this, for lo, these 1,800 years and more He has gone into His Glory,
yet He has never ceased to make intercession for transgressors. Never
on Heaven's most joyous holiday, when all His armies are marshaled and,
as their glittering squadrons pass in review before the King of kings,
has He forgotten His redeemed ones! The splendors of Heaven have not
made Him indifferent to the sorrows of earth. Never, though, for all we
know, He may have created myriads of worlds, and though assuredly He
has been ruling the courses of the entire universe, never once, I say,
has He suspended His incessant pleading for the transgressors!

Nor will He, for the Holy Scriptures lead us to believe that as long as
He lives as Mediator He will intercede–"He is able to save them to the
uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make
intercession for them." He lived and lives to intercede, as if this
were the express objective of His living. Beloved, as long as the great
Redeemer lives and there is a sinner still to come to Him, He will
still continue to intercede! Oh, my Master, how shall I praise You? Had
You undertaken such an office, now and then, and had You gone into the
royal Presence only once in a while to intercede

for some special cases, it would have been divinely gracious on Your
part. But that You should always be a Suppliant and never cease to
intercede, surpasses all our praise! Wonderful are His words as written
in prophecy by Isaiah–"For Zion's sake will I not hold My peace, and
for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest until the righteousness thereof
goes forth as brightness and the salvation thereof as a lamp that
burns."

As the lamp in the temple never went out, so neither has our Advocate
ceased to plead day nor night! Unwearied in His labor of love, without
a pause, He has urged our case before the Father's face! Beloved, I
will not enlarge. I cannot, for adoration of such love quite masters
me! But let your hearts be enlarged with abounding love to such an
Intercessor as this, who made, who does make and who will always make
intercession for transgressors! I have said, "will make," and, indeed,
this is no bare assertion of mine, for my text may be read in the
future as well as in the past–indeed, as you will perceive upon a
little thought–it must have been meant to be understood in the future
since the prophecy was written some 700 years before our Lord had
breathed His intercessory prayer at the Cross!

Although the Prophet, in order to make his language pictorial and
vivid, puts it in the past tense, it was actually in the future to him
and, therefore, we cannot err in reading it in the future, as I have
done–"He shall make intercession for the transgressors." Constant love
puts up a ceaseless plan! Endless compassion breathes its endless
prayer. Till the last of the redeemed has been gathered Home, that
interceding breath shall never pause, nor cease to prevail!

II. Thus have I called you to feel admiration for His Grace. And now,
secondly, I do earnestly pray that we may be led of the Holy Spirit to
view His intercession for transgressors as to put our confidence in
Him. There is ground for a sinner's confidence in Christ and there is
abundant argument for the Believer's complete reliance in Him from the
fact of His perpetual intercession. Let me show you this, first,
because, Beloved, His intercession succeeds. God hears Him, of that we
have no doubt, but what is the basis of this intercession? For whatever
that is, seeing it makes the intercession to be successful, we may
safely rest on it.

Read carefully the verse–"Because He has poured out His soul unto
death: and He was numbered with the transgressors and He bore the sin
of many." See, then, the success of His plea arises out of His
Substitution. He pleads and prevails because He has borne the sin of
those for whom He intercedes! The main stay and strength of His
prevalence in His intercession lies in the completeness of the
Sacrifice which He offered when He bore the sin of many. Come, then, my
Soul, if Christ's prayer prevails because of this, so will your faith!
Resting on the same Foundation, your faith will be equally secure of
acceptance. Come, my Heart, rest on that Truth of God–"He bore the sin
of many." Throw yourself with all your sin upon His substitution and
feel that this is a safe resting place for your believing, because it
is a solid basis for your Lord's intercession. The perfect Sacrifice
will bear all the strain which can possibly come upon it–test it by
the strongest faith and see for yourself! Plead it with the boldest
requests and learn its boundless prevalence! You may urge the plea of
the precious blood with the Father, seeing the Lord Jesus has urged it
and has never failed.

Now, again, there is reason for transgressors to come and trust in
Jesus Christ, seeing He pleads for them. You never need be afraid that
Christ will cast you out when you can hear Him pleading for you! If a
son had been disobedient and had left his father's house and were to
come back, again, if he had any fear about his father's receiving him,
it would all disappear if he stood listening at the door and heard his
father praying for him. "Oh," he would say, "my coming back is an
answer to my father's prayers! He will gladly enough receive me."

Whenever a soul comes to Christ it need have no hesitancy, seeing
Christ has already prayed for it that it might be saved. I tell you
transgressors, Christ prays for you when you do not pray for
yourselves! Did He not say of His believing people, "Neither pray I for
these, alone, but for them, also, which shall believe on Me through
their word"? Before His elect become Believers they have a place in His
supplications! Before you know yourselves to be transgressors and have
any desire for pardon–while as yet you are lying dead in sin–His
intercession has gone up even for such as you! "Father, forgive them,"
was a prayer for those who had never sought forgiveness for themselves!
And when you dare not pray for yourselves, He is still praying for you!
When, under a sense of sin, you dare not lift so much as your eyes
toward Heaven. When you think, "Surely it would be in vain for me to
seek my heavenly Father's face," He is pleading for you!

Yes, and when you cannot plead. When, through deep distress of mind you
feel choked in the very attempt to pray. When the language of
supplication seems to blister your lips because you feel yourself to be
so unworthy. When you cannot force, even, a holy groan from your
despairing heart–He still pleads for you! Oh, what encouragement this
ought to give you! If you cannot pray, He can! And if you feel as if
your prayers must be shut out, yet His intercession

cannot be denied! Come and trust Him! Come and trust Him! He who pleads
for you will not reject you–do not entertain so unkind a thought–but
come and cast yourself upon Him. Has He not said, "Him that comes to Me
I will in no wise cast out"? Venture upon the assured truth of that
Word and you will be received into the abode of His love.

I am sure, too that if Jesus Christ pleads for transgressors as
transgressors, while as yet they have not begun to pray for themselves,
He will be sure to hear them when they are, at last, led to pray. When
the transgressor becomes a penitent. When he weeps because he has gone
astray–let us be quite sure that the Lord of Mercy, who went after him
in his sin, will come to meet him, now that he returns! There can be no
doubt about that! I have known what it is to catch at this text when I
have been heavy in heart. I have seen my sinfulness and I have been
filled with distress, but I have blessed the Lord Jesus Christ that He
makes intercession for the transgressors, for then I may venture to
believe that He intercedes for me since I am a transgressor beyond all
doubt.

Then again, when my spirit has revived, and I have said, "But yet I am
a child of God and I know I am born from above," then I have drawn a
further inference–if He makes intercession for transgressors, then
depend upon it–He is even more intent upon pleading for His own
people! If He is heard for those who are out of the way, assuredly He
will be heard for those who have returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop
of their souls. For them, above all others, He will be sure to plead,
for He lives to intercede for all who come unto God by Him! In order
that our confidence may be increased, consider the effect of our Lord's
intercession for transgressors. Remember, first, that many of the worst
of transgressors have been preserved in life in answer to Christ's
prayer.

Had it not been for His pleading, they would have been dead long ago.
You know the parable of the fig tree that cumbered the ground, bearing
no fruit and impoverishing the soil? The master of the vineyard said,
"Cut it down," but the vinedresser said, "Let it alone this year, also,
till I shall dig about it and fertilize it: and if it bears fruit,
well." Need I say who He is that stops the axe which, otherwise, had
long ago been laid at the root of the barren tree? I tell you ungodly
men and women that you owe your very lives to my Lord's interference on
your behalf! You did not hear the intercession, but the great Owner of
the vineyard heard it–and in answer to the gracious entreaties of His
Son, He has let you live a little longer!

Still, are you where the Gospel can come at you and where the Holy
Spirit can renew you? Is there no ground for faith in this gracious
fact? Can you not trust in Him through whose instrumentality you are
yet alive? Say to your heavenly Father–

"Lord, and am I yet alive, Not in torments, not in Hell! Still does
Your good Spirit strive– With the chief of sinners dwell?" I do not
doubt but that between the prayer of Christ for His murderers and the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, there was an intimate
connection. As the prayer of Stephen brought Saul into the Church and
made him an Apostle, so the prayer of Christ brought in 3,000 at
Pentecost to become His disciples. The Spirit of God was given "to the
rebellious, also," in answer to the pleading of our Lord!

Now, it is a great blessing to have the Spirit of God given to the sons
of men. And if this comes through Jesus' prayers, let us trust in Him,
for what will not come if we rely upon His power? Upon sinners He will
still display His power–they will be pricked in their hearts and will
believe in Him whom they have pierced. It is through Christ's
intercession that our poor prayers are accepted with God. John, in
Revelation, saw another angel standing at the altar, having a golden
censer, to whom there was given much incense that he should offer it
with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before
the Throne.

From where did all the incense come? What is it but Jesus' merits? Our
prayers are only accepted because of His prayers. If, then, the
intercession of Christ for transgressors has made the prayers of
transgressors to be accepted, let us, without wavering, put our trust
in Him and let us show it by offering our supplications with a full
assurance of faith and an unstaggering confidence in the promise of our
Covenant God! Are not all the promises, yes and amen, in Christ Jesus?
Let us remember Him and ask in faith, nothing wavering.

It is through the prayers of Christ, too, that we are kept in the hour
of temptation. Remember what He said to Peter, "I have prayed for you,
that your faith fail not," when Satan desired to have him and sift him
as wheat. "Father, keep them from the Evil One" is a part of our Lord's
supplication–and His Father always hears Him! Well, if we are kept in

the midst of temptation from being destroyed because Christ pleads for
us, let us never fear to trust ourselves in His kind, careful hands! He
can keep us, for He has kept us! If His prayers have delivered us out
of the hands of Satan, His eternal power can bring us safely home
though Death lies in the way. Indeed, it is because He pleads that we
are saved at all! He is "able, also, to save them to the uttermost that
come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for

them."

This, also, is one grand reason why we are able to challenge all the
accusations of the world and of the devil, for, "Who is he that
condemns? It is Christ that died, yes, rather, that is risen again, who
is even at the right hand of God, who, also, makes intercession for
us." Satan's charges are all answered by our Advocate! He defends us at
the Judgment Seat when we stand there like Joshua in filthy garments,
accused by the devil and the verdict is always given in our favor–
"Take away his filthy garments from him." Oh, you that would bring
slanderous accusations against the saints of God, they will not damage
us in the court of the great King, for, "if any man sins, we have an
Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous."

Think, my dear Brothers and Sisters, of what the intercession of Jesus
has done, and you will clearly perceive great inducements to place your
sole reliance in your Lord. You who have never trusted Him, will you,
this very morning, begin to do so? Come, weary Heart, take the Lord
Jesus to be your confidence–what more do you need? Can you desire a
better Friend than He is, a more prevalent Advocate before the Throne?
Come, leave all other trusts and yield yourselves to Him this morning!
I pray you, accept this advice of love! And you, you saints, if you are
foolish enough to have doubts and fears, come, see how Jesus pleads for
you! Give Him your burden to bear, leave with Him your anxieties at
this moment that He may care for you. He will carry your case before
the Eternal Throne and carry it through to success!

He who engages a solicitor to manage his legal business among men
leaves his affairs in his hands. And he who has such a pleader before
God as Christ Jesus, the Wonderful Counselor, has no need to torment
himself with anxieties! Rather, let him rest in Jesus, and wait for the
result with patience–

"Give Him, my Soul,

Your cause to plead,

Nor doubt the Father's Grace." So much, then, for the duty of
exercising confidence in Him. May the Holy Spirit fill you with faith
and peace!

III. And now, in the third place, I pray that our text may inspire us
with the spirit of obedience to His example. I say obedience to His
example, for I take the example of Christ to be an embodied precept as
much binding upon us as His written commands. The life of Christ is a
precept to those who profess to be His disciples. Now, Brothers and
Sisters in Christ, may I put a few practical matters before you and
will you endeavor, by the help of God's Spirit, to carry them

out?

First, then, your Lord makes intercession for the
transgressors–therefore imitate Him by forgiving all transgressions
against yourself. Have any offended you? Let the very recollection of
the offense, as far as possible, pass from your minds, for none have
ever injured you as men injured Him! Let me say as you, yourself, have
injured Him! They have not nailed you to a cross, nor pierced your
hands, feet and side. Yet, if He said, "Father, forgive them," well may
you say the same. Ten thousand talents did you owe? Yet He forgave you
all that debt, not without a grievous outlay to Himself–your brother
owes you but a hundred pence–will you take him by the throat? Will you
not, rather, freely forgive him even to 70 times seven?

Can you not forgive him? If you find it to be impossible, I will not
speak to you any longer as a Christian, because I must doubt if you are
a Believer at all! The Lord cannot accept you while you are unforgiving
since He, Himself, says, "Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar
and there remember that your brother has anything against you; leave
there your gift before the altar and go your way. First be reconciled
to your brother and then come and offer your gift." If peace is not
made, you will not be accepted! God does not hear those in whose hearts
malice and enmity find a lodging! Yet I would speak to you in tones of
love rather than with words of threats–as a follower of the gentle
Christ, I beseech you imitate Him in this and you shall find rest and
comfort for your soul.

From the day in which Christ forgives you, rise to that nobility of
character which finds pleasure in forgiving all offenses fully and
frankly for Christ's sake. Surely, the Atonement which He offered, if
it satisfied God, may well satisfy

you and make amends for the sin of your brother against you as well as
against the Lord! Jesus took upon Himself the transgressions of the
second table of the Law, as well as of the first–and will you bring a
suit against your brother for the sin which Jesus bore? Brothers and
Sisters, you must forgive, for the blood has blotted out the record!
Let these words of Scripture drop upon your hearts like gentle dew from
Heaven–"Be you kind, one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one
another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you."

Next, imitate Christ, dear Friends, in pleading for yourselves. Since
you are transgressors and you see that Jesus intercedes for
transgressors, make bold to say, "If He pleads for such as I am, I will
put in my humble petition and hope to be heard through Him. Since I
hear Him cry, 'Father, forgive them,' I will humbly weep at His feet
and try to mingle my faint and trembling plea with His all-prevalent
supplication." When Jesus says, "Father, forgive them," it will be your
wisdom to cry, "Father, forgive me!" Dear Hearer, that is the way to be
saved! Let your prayers hang like the golden bells upon the skirts of
the great High Priest! He will carry them within the veil and make them
ring out sweetly there. As music borne on the breeze is heard afar, so
shall your prayers have a Listener in Heaven because Jesus wafts them
there. Since your prayers are feeble, yoke them to the Omnipotence of
His intercession! Let His merits be as wings on which they may soar and
His power as hands with which they may grasp the priceless blessings.

What shall I say to those who refuse to pray when they have such an
encouragement as the aid of Jesus? Tones of tenderness are suitable
when addressing the ungodly when we would persuade them to pray. But if
they refuse the intercession of Jesus Christ, Himself, then must we add
our solemn warnings! If you perish, your blood is on your own heads–we
must say, Amen, to your condemnation and bear witness that you deserve
to be doubly punished! Rejecters of great mercy must expect great
wrath. The intercession of your Savior, when refused, will be visited
upon you most terribly in the day when He becomes your Judge.

Let us imitate our Lord in a third point, dear Friends, namely, if we
have been forgiven our transgressions, let us now intercede for
transgressors, since Jesus does so. He is the great Example of all His
disciples, and, if He makes it His constant business to supplicate for
sinners, should not His people unite with Him? Therefore would I stir
up your pure minds by way of remembrance to come together in your
hundreds and in your thousands to pray. Never let our Prayer Meetings
decline! Let us, as a Church, make intercession for transgressors and
never rest from seeking the conversion of all around us. I trust that
every day, so often as you bow the knee for yourselves, you will make
intercession for the transgressors!

Poor things, many of them are sinning against their own souls, but they
know not what they do! They think to find pleasure in sin! In this,
also, they know not what they do. They break the Sabbath. They despise
the sanctuary. They reject Christ. They go downward to Hell with mirth,
singing merry glees as if they were going to a wedding feast! They know
not what they do! But you know what they are doing. By your
humanity–scarcely shall I need to urge a stronger motive–I say, by
mere humanity I beseech you, do all you can for these poor souls and
especially pray for them! It is not much you are asked to do–you are
not pointed to the Cross and bid to bleed there for sinners! You are
but asked to make intercession.

Intercession is an honorable service. It is an ennobling thing that a
sinner like yourself should be allowed to entreat the King for others.
If you could have permission to frequent the Queen's courts, you would
not think it a hardship to be asked to present a petition for another.
It would be a delight to be enjoyed, a privilege to be snatched at
eagerly that you should be permitted to present requests for others.
Oh, stand where Abraham stood and plead for sinners! Sodom could
scarcely be worse than many portions of the world at this hour. Plead,
then, with all your hearts! Plead again and again, and again with the
Lord, though you are but dust and ashes–and cease not till the Lord
says, "I have heard the petition. I will bless the city. I will save
the millions and my Son shall be glorified."

I have not quite done, for I have a further duty to speak of, and it is
this. Let us take care, dear Friends, that if we do plead for others,
we mix with it the doing of good to them, because it is not recorded
that He made intercession for transgressors until it is first written,
"He bore the sin of many." For us to pray for sinners without
instructing them, without exerting ourselves to awaken them, or making
any sacrifice for their conversion–without using any likely means for
their impression and conviction–would be a piece of mere formality on
our part. According to our ability, we must prove the sincerity of our
petitions by our actions. Prayer without effort is falsehood–and that
cannot be pleasing to God. Yield up yourselves to seek the good of
others and then may you intercede with honest hearts.

Lastly, if Christ appears in Heaven for us, let us be glad to appear on
earth for Him. He acknowledges us before God and the holy angels–let
us not be ashamed to confess Him before men and devils. If Christ
pleads with God for men, let us not be backward to plead with men for
God. If He, by His intercession, saves us to the uttermost, let us
hasten to serve Him to the uttermost. If He spends eternity in
intercession for us, let us spend our time in intercession for His
cause. If He thinks of us, we ought, also, to think of His people and
especially supplicate for His afflicted. If He watches our cases and
adapts His prayers to our necessities, let us observe the needs of His
people and plead for them with understanding.

Alas, how soon do men weary of pleading for our Lord! If a whole day is
set apart for prayer and the meeting is not carefully managed, it
readily becomes a weariness of the flesh. Prayer Meetings very easily
lose their flame and burn low. Shame on these laggard spirits and this
heavy flesh of ours which needs to be pampered with liveliness and
brevity or we go to sleep at our devotions! "Forever" is not too long
for Him to plead and yet an hour tries us! On and on and on through all
the ages His intercession rises to the Throne of God and yet we weaken
and our prayers are half dead in a short season!

Look, Moses lets his hands hang down and Amalek is defeating Joshua in
the plain! Can we endure to be losing victories and causing the enemy
to triumph? If our ministers are unsuccessful. If our laborers for
Christ in foreign lands make little headway. If the work of Christ
drags, is it not because in the secret place of intercession we have
but little strength? The lack of prayer is the weakness of the Church!
If we awakened ourselves to lay hold upon the Covenant Angel and
resolutely cried, "I will not let You go, except You bless me," we
should enrich ourselves and our age! If we used more of the strong
reasons which make up the weapon of all-prayer, our victories would not
be so few and far between!

Our interceding Lord is hindered for lack of an interceding Church! The
kingdom comes not because so little use is made of the Throne of Grace.
Get to your knees, my Brothers and Sisters, for on your knees you
conquer! Go to the Mercy Seat and remain there! What better argument
can I use with you than this–Jesus is there–and if you desire His
company you must ofttimes resort there. If you want to taste His
dearest, sweetest love, do what He is doing–union of work will create
a new communion of heart. Let us never be absent when praying men meet
together! Let us make a point of frequenting assemblies gathered for
prayer, even if we give up other occupations. While we live, let us be,
above all things, men of prayer! And when we die, if nothing else can
be said of us, may men give us this epitaph, which is, also, our Lord's
memorial–"He made intercession for the transgressors." Amen.
__________________________________________________________________