The Blood of the Lamb, the Conquering Weapon

The Blood of the Lamb, the Conquering Weapon

DELIVERED ON LORD'S DAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 9, 1888,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"And they o vercame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of
their testimony. And they loved not their lives unto the death."
Revelation 12:11.

WHEREVER evil appears, it is to be fought with by the children of God
in the name of Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit. When evil
appeared in an angel, straightway there was war in Heaven. Evil in
mortal men is to be strived against by all regenerate men. If sin comes
to us in the form of an angel of light we must still war with it. If it
comes with all manner of deceivableness of unrighteousness we must not
parley for a single moment but begin the battle at once–if we belong
to the armies of the Lord. Evil is at its very worst in Satan
himself–with him we fight. He is no mean adversary. The evil spirits
which are under his control are, any one of them, terrible foes. But
when Satan himself personally attacks a Christian, any of us will be
hard put to it.

When this dragon blocks our road, we shall need heavenly aid to force
our passage. A pitched battle with Apollyon may not often occur. But
when it does you will know it painfully–you will record it in your
diary as one of the darkest days you have ever lived. And you will
eternally praise your God when you overcome him. But even if Satan were
ten times stronger and more crafty than he is, we are bound to wrestle
with him–we cannot for a moment hesitate, or offer him terms. Evil in
its highest, strongest and proudest form is to be assailed by the
soldier of the Cross and nothing must end the war but complete victory.

Satan is the enemy, the enemy of enemies. That prayer of our Lord's,
which we usually render, "Deliver us from evil," has the special
significance of "Deliver us from the Evil One," because Satan is the
chief embodiment of evil and in him evil is intensified and has come to
its highest strength. That man had need have Omnipotence with him who
hopes to overcome the enemy of God and man. He would destroy all godly
ones if he could. And though he cannot, such is his inveterate hate
that he worries those whom he cannot devour with a malicious eagerness.

In this chapter the devil is called the "great red dragon." He is great
in capacity, intelligence, energy and experience. Whether or not he was
the chief of all angels before he fell I do not know. Some have thought
that he was such and that when he heard that a man was to sit upon the
Throne of God, out of very jealousy he rebelled against the Most High.
This also is conjecture. But we do know that he was and is an
exceedingly great spirit as compared with us. He is a being great in
evil–the Prince of Darkness–having the power of death. He shows his
malice against the saints by accusing the Brethren day and night before
God. In the Prophets we have the record of Satan standing to accuse
Joshua the servant of God. Satan also accused Job of serving God from
mercenary motives–"Have not You made an hedge about him and all that
he has?"

This ever active enemy desires to tempt as well as accuse–he would
have us and sift us as wheat. In calling him the dragon, the Holy
Spirit seems to hint at his mysterious power and character. To us a
spirit such as he is must ever be a mystery in his being and working.
Satan is a mysterious personage though he is not a mythical one. We can
never doubt his existence if we have once come into conflict with him.
Yet he is to us all the more real because so mysterious. If he were
flesh and blood it would be far easier to contend with him. But to
fight with this spiritual wickedness in high places is a terrible task.
As a dragon he is full of cunning and ferocity.

In him, force is allied with craft. And if he cannot achieve his
purpose at once by power, he waits his time. He deludes, he deceives.
In fact, he is said to deceive the whole world. What a power of
deception must reside in him, when under his influence the third part
of the stars of Heaven are made to fall and myriads of men in all ages
have worshipped demons and idols! He has steeped the minds of men in
delusion so that they cannot see that they should worship none but God,
their Maker. He is styled "the old serpent." And this reminds us how
practiced he is in every evil art.

He was a liar from the beginning, and the father of lies. After
thousands of years of constant practice in deception he is much too
cunning for us. If we think that we can match him by craft we are
grievous fools for he knows vast more than the wisest of mortals. And
if it once comes to a game of policies, he will certainly clear the
board and sweep our tricks into the bag. To this cunning he adds great
speed so that he is quick to assail at any moment, darting down upon us
like a hawk upon a poor chick. He is not everywhere present. But it is
hard to say where he is not.

He cannot be omnipresent–but yet by that majestic craft of his–he so
manages his armies of fallen ones that, like a great general, he
superintends the whole field of battle and seems present at every
point. No door can shut him out, no height of piety can rise beyond his
reach. He meets us in all our weaknesses and assails us from every
point of the compass. He comes upon us unaware and gives us wounds
which are not easily healed.

But yet, dear Friends, powerful as this infernal spirit certainly must
be, his power is defeated when we are resolved never to be at peace
with him. We must never dream of terms or truce with evil. To suppose
that we can let him alone and all will be well is a deadly error. We
must fight or perish–evil will slay us if we do not slay it. Our only
safety will lie in a determined, vigorous opposition to sin, whatever
shape it assumes, whatever it may threaten, whatever it may promise.
The Holy Spirit, alone, can maintain in us this enmity to sin.

According to the text it is said of the saints, "They overcame him." We
are never to rest until it is said of us also, "They overcame him." He
is a foeman worthy of your steel. Do you refuse the conflict? Do you
think of turning back? You have no armor for your back. To cease to
fight is to be overcome. You have your choice between the two–either
to gird up the loins of your minds for a life-long resistance–or else
to be Satan's slave forever. I pray God that you may awake, arise, and
give battle to the foe. Resolve once and for all that by the Grace of
God you will be numbered with those who overcome the archenemy.

Our text brings before us a very important subject for consideration
What is the conquering weapon? With what sword did they fight who have
overcome the great red dragon? Listen! "They overcame him by the blood
of the Lamb." Secondly, how do we use that weapon? We do as they did
who overcame "by the word of their testimony. And they loved not their
lives unto the death."

I. First, WHAT IS THIS CONQUERING WEAPON? They overcame him by "the
blood of the Lamb."

The blood of the Lamb signifies, first, the death of the Son of God.
The sufferings of Jesus Christ might be set forth by some other figure
but His death on the Cross requires the mention of blood. Our Lord was
not only bruised and smitten but He was put to death. His heart's blood
was made to flow. He of whom we speak was God over all, blessed
forever. But He condescended to take our manhood into union with His
Godhead in a mysterious manner. He was born at Bethlehem a babe. He
grew as a child, He ripened into manhood and lived here among us,
eating and drinking, suffering and rejoicing, sleeping and laboring as
men do. He died in very deed and was buried in the tomb of Joseph of
Arimathea.

That death was the grand fact which is set forth by the words "the
blood of the Lamb." We are to view Jesus as the Lamb of God's
Passover–not merely separated from others, dedicated to be Israel's
memorial and consecrated to Divine service but as the Lamb slain.
Remember that Christ viewed as living and not as having died, is not a
saving Christ. He Himself says, "I am He that lives and was dead." The
moderns cry, "Why not preach more about His life and less about His
death?" I reply, Preach His life as much as you will but never apart
from His death. For it is by His blood that we are redeemed.

"We preach Christ." Complete the sentence–"We preach Christ
crucified," says the Apostle. Ah, yes, there is the point. It is the
death of the Son of God which is the conquering weapon. Had He not
poured forth His soul unto death, even to the death of the Cross–had
He not been numbered with the transgressors and put to a death of
shame–we should have had no weapon with which to overcome the dragon
prince. By "the blood of the Lamb," we understand the death of the Son
of God. Hear it, O men! Because you have sinned, Jesus dies that you
may be cleared from your sin. "He His own Self bare our sins in His own
body on the tree" and died that He might redeem us from all
unrighteousness.

The point is His death and, paradoxically, this death is the vital
point of the Gospel. The death of Christ is the death of sin and the
defeat of Satan and hence it is the life of our hope and the assurance
of His victory. Because He poured out His soul unto death, He divides
the spoil with the strong.

Next, by "the blood of the Lamb" we understand our Lord's death as a
substitutionary sacrifice. Let us be very clear here. It is not said
that they overcame the archenemy by the blood of Jesus, or the blood of
Christ, but by the blood of the

Lamb. And the words are expressly chosen because, under the figure of a
lamb, we have set before us a sacrifice. The blood of Jesus Christ,
shed because of His courage for the truth, or out of pure philanthropy,
or out of self-denial conveys no special Gospel to men and has no
peculiar power about it. Truly it is an example worthy to beget
martyrs. But it is not the way of salvation for guilty men.

If you proclaim the death of the Son of God but do not show that He
died the Just for the unjust to bring us to God, you have not preached
the blood of the Lamb. You must make it known that "the chastisement of
our peace was upon Him," and that "the Lord has laid on Him the
iniquity of us all," or you have not declared the meaning of the blood
of the Lamb. There is no overcoming sin without a substitutionary
sacrifice. The lamb under the old Law was brought by the offender to
make atonement for his offense and in his place it was slain.

This was the type of Christ taking the sinner's place, bearing the
sinner's sin and suffering in the sinner's place and thus vindicating
the justice of God and making it possible for Him to be just and the
Justifier of Him that believes. I understand this to be the conquering
weapon–the death of the Son of God set forth as the propitiation for
sin. Sin must be punished–it is punished in Christ's death. Here is
the hope of men.

Furthermore, I understand by the expression, "The blood of the Lamb,"
that our Lord's death was effective for the taking away of sin. When
John the Baptist first pointed to Jesus, he said, "Behold the Lamb of
God, which takes away the sin of the world." Our Lord Jesus has
actually taken away sin by His death. Beloved, we are sure that He had
offered an acceptable and effectual propitiation when He said, "It is
finished." Either He did put away sin, or He did not. If He did not,
how will it ever be put away? If He did, then are Believers clear.
Altogether apart from anything that we do or are, our glorious
Substitute took away our sin, as in the type, the scapegoat carried the
sin of Israel into the wilderness.

In the case of all those for whom our Lord offered Himself as a
substitutionary sacrifice, the justice of God finds no hindrance to its
fullest flow–it is consistent with justice that God should bless the
redeemed. Near nineteen hundred years ago Jesus paid the dreadful debt
of all His elect and made a full atonement for the whole mass of the
iniquities of them that shall believe in Him, thereby removing the
whole tremendous load and casting it by one lift of His pierced hand
into the depths of the sea. When Jesus died, an atonement was offered
by Him and accepted by the Lord God so that before the high court of
Heaven there was a distinct removal of sin from the whole body of which
Christ is the Head.

In the fullness of time each redeemed one individually accepts for
himself the great atonement by an act of personal faith but the
atonement itself was made long before. I believe this to be one of the
edges of the conquering weapon. We are to preach that the Son of God
has come in the flesh and died for human sin and that in dying He did
not only make it possible for God to forgive but He secured forgiveness
for all who are in Him. He did not die to make men savable but to save
them. He came not that sin might be put aside at some future time but
to put it away then and there by the sacrifice of Himself. By His death
He "finished transgressions, made an end of sin and brought in
everlasting righteousness."

Believers may know that when Jesus died they were delivered from the
claims of Law and when He rose again their justification was secured.
The blood of the Lamb is a real price which did effectually ransom His
elect. The blood of the Lamb is a real cleansing which did really purge
away sin. This we believe and declare. And by this sign we conquer.
Christ crucified, Christ the Sacrifice for sin, Christ the effectual
Redeemer of men–we will proclaim everywhere, and thus put to rout the
powers of darkness.

II. I have shown you the sword. I now come, in the second place, to
speak to the question, How DO WE USE IT? "They overcame him by the
blood of the Lamb."

When a man gets a sword, you cannot be quite certain how he will use
it. A gentleman has purchased a very expensive sword with a golden hilt
and an elaborate scabbard–he hangs it up in his hall and exhibits it
to his friends. Occasionally he draws it out from the sheath and he
says, "Feel how keen is the edge!" The precious blood of Jesus is not
meant for us merely to admire and exhibit. We must not be content to
talk about it and extol it and do nothing with it. But we are to use it
in the great crusade against unholiness and unrighteousness, till it is
said of us, "They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb."

This precious blood is to be used for overcoming and consequently for
holy warfare. We dishonor it if we do not use it to that end. Some, I
fear, use the precious blood of Christ only as a quietus to their
consciences. They say to themselves, "He made atonement for sin,
therefore let me take my rest." This is doing a grievous wrong to the
great sacrifice. I grant you that the blood of Jesus does speak better
things than that of Abel and that it sweetly cries, "Peace! Peace!"
within the

troubled conscience. But that is not all that it does. A man who wants
the blood of Jesus for nothing but the mean and selfish reason, that
after having been forgiven through it he may say, "Soul, take your
ease, eat, drink and be merry– hear sermons, enjoy the hope of eternal
felicity, and do nothing"–such a man blasphemes the precious blood and
makes it an unholy thing.

We are to use the glorious mystery of atoning blood as our chief means
of overcoming sin and Satan–its power is for holiness. See how the
text puts it–"They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb"–these
saints used the doctrine of atonement not as a pillow to rest their
weariness but as a weapon to subdue their sin. O my Brothers, to some
of us, atonement by blood is our battle-ax and weapon of war by which
we conquer in our struggle for purity and godliness–a struggle in
which we have continued now these many years. By the atoning blood we
withstand corruption within and temptation without. This is that weapon
which nothing can resist.

Let me show you your battlefield. Our first place of conflict is in the
heavenlies and the second is down below on earth. First, then, my
Brothers and Sisters who believe in the blood of Jesus, have to do
battle with Satan in the heavenlies. And there you must overcome him
"by the blood of the Lamb." "How?" you say. I will lead you into this
subject. First, you are to regard Satan this day as being already
literally and truly overcome through the death of the Lord Jesus. Satan
is already a vanquished enemy. By faith grasp your Lord's victory as
your own since He triumphed in your nature and on your behalf.

The Lord Jesus Christ went up to Calvary and there fought with the
Prince of Darkness, utterly defeated him and destroyed his power. He
led captivity captive. He bruised the serpent's head. The victory was
the victory of all who are in Christ. He is the representative seed of
the woman and you who are of that seed and are in Christ actually and
experimentally, you then and there overcame the devil by the blood of
the Lamb. Can you get a hold of this tog? Do you not know that you were
circumcised in His circumcision, crucified on His Cross, buried with
Him in Baptism and therein also risen with Him in His resurrection? He
is your federal Head and you, being members of His body, did in Him
what He did.

Come, my Soul, you have conquered Satan by your Lord's victory. Will
you not be brave enough to fight a vanquished foe and trample down the
enemy whom your Lord has already thrust down? You need not be afraid,
but say, "Thanks be to God which gives us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ." We have overcome sin, death and Hell in the Person and
work of our great Lord. And we should be greatly encouraged by that
which has been already worked in our name. Already we are more than
conquerors through Him that has loved us. If Jesus had not overcome the
enemy, certainly we never should have done so. But His personal triumph
has secured ours.

By faith we rise into the conquering place this day. In the heavenlies
we triumph, as also in every place. We rejoice in our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Michael of the angels, the Redeemer of men. For by Him we
see Satan cast out and all the powers of evil hurled from their places
of power and eminence.

This day I would have you overcome Satan in the heavenlies in another
sense–you must overcome him as the Accuser. At times you hear in your
heart a voice arousing memory and startling conscience. A voice which
seems in Heaven to be a remembrance of your guilt. Hark to that deep,
croaking voice, boding evil! Satan is urging before the Throne of
Justice all your former sins. Can you hear him? He begins with your
childish faults and your youthful follies. Truly a black memory. He
does not let one of your wickednesses drop out. Things which you had
forgotten he cunningly revives. He knows your secret sins, for he had a
hand in most of them.

He knows the resistance which you offered to the Gospel and the way in
which you stifled conscience. He knows the sins of darkness, the sins
of the bedchamber, the crimes of the inner chambers of imagery. Since
you have been a Christian he has marked your wickedness and asked, in
fierce sarcastic tones, "Is this a child of God? Is this an heir of
Heaven?" He hopes to convict us of hypocrisy or of apostasy.

The foul fiend reveals the wanderings of our hearts, the deadness of
our desires in prayer, the filthy thoughts that dropped into our minds
when we have been at worship. Alas, we have to confess that we have
even tolerated doubts as to eternal verities and suspicions of the love
and faithfulness of God! When the Accuser is about his evil business he
does not have to look far for matter of accusation, nor for facts to
support it. Do these accusations stagger you? Do you cry, "My God, how
can I face You? For all this is true and the iniquities now brought to
my remembrance are such as I cannot deny. I have violated Your Law in a
thousand ways and I cannot justify myself."

Now is your opportunity for overcoming through the blood of the Lamb.
When the Accuser has said his say and aggravated all your
transgressions, be not ashamed to step forward and say, "But I have an
Advocate as well as an Accuser.

Jesus, my Savior, speak for me!" When He speaks, what does He plead but
His own blood? "For all these sins I have made atonement," says He,
"all these iniquities were laid on Me in the day of the Lord's anger
and I have taken them away." Brethren, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's
dear Son, cleans us from all sin. Jesus has borne the penalty due to
us–He has discharged for us upon the Cross all our liabilities to the
justice of God and we are free forever, because our Surety suffered in
our place.

Where is the Accuser now? That dragon voice is silenced by the blood of
the Lamb. Nothing else can ever silence the Accuser's cruel voice but
the voice of the blood which tells of the infinite God accepting, in
our behalf, the sacrifice which He Himself supplied. Justice decrees
that the sinful shall be clear, because the accepted Substitute has
borne his sin in His own body on the tree. Come, Brother or Sister, the
next time you have to do with Satan as an accuser in the heavenly
places, take care that you defend yourself with no weapon but the
Atonement. All comfort drawn from inward feelings or outward works will
fall short.

The bleeding wounds of Jesus will plead with full and overwhelming
argument and answer all. "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's
elect? It is God that justifies. 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." Who, then, shall
accuse the child of God? Every accuser shall be overcome by the
invincible argument of the blood of the Lamb.

Still further, the Believer will have need to overcome the enemy in the
heavenly places in reference to access to God. It may happen that when
we are most intent upon communing with God, the Adversary hinders us.
Our heart and our flesh cry out for God, the living God. But from one
cause or another we are unable to draw near unto the Throne. The heart
is heavy, sin is rampant, care is harassing and Satanic insinuation is
busy. You seem shut out from God and the Enemy triumphs over you. You
feel very near the world and very near the flesh and very near the
devil–you mourn your miserable distance from God. You are like a child
who cannot reach his father's door because a black dog barks at him
from the door.

What is the way of access? If the foul Fiend will not move out of the
way, can we force our passage? By what weapon can we drive away the
Adversary so as to come to God? Is it not written that we are made near
by the blood? Is there not a new and living way consecrated for us?
Have we not boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus?
We are sure of God's love when we see that Christ died for us. We are
sure of God's favor when we see how that Atonement has removed our
transgressions far from us. We perceive our liberty to come to the
Father and therefore we each one say–

"I will approach You–I will force

My way through obstacles to You;

To You for strength will have recourse,

To You for consolation flee!"

Pleading the propitiation made by the blood of the Lamb, we dare draw
near to God. Behold, the evil spirit makes way before us. The sacred
name of Jesus is one before which he flees. This will drive away his
blasphemous suggestions and foul insinuations better than anything that
you can invent. The dog of Hell knows the dread name which makes him
lie down–we must confront him with the authority and especially with
the Atonement of the Lamb of God. He will rage and rave all the more if
we send Moses to him–for he derives his power from our breaches of the
Law and we cannot silence him unless we bring to him the great Lord who
has kept the Law, and made it honorable.

We next must overcome the enemy in prayer. Alas, we cannot always pray
as we would! Do you ever feel, when you are in prayer, as if something
choked your utterance–and, what is worse–deadened your heart? Instead
of having wings as of an eagle to mount to Heaven, a secret evil clips
your wings and you cannot rise. You say within yourself, "I have no
faith and I cannot expect to succeed with God without faith. I seem to
have no love. If I have any, my heart lies asleep and I cannot stir
myself to plead with God. Oh, that I could come out of my closet,
saying, 'Vici! Vici!'–'I have overcome! I have overcome!' But, alas,
instead I groan in vain and come away unrelieved. I have been half
dead, cold and

1 cannot hope that I have prevailed with God in prayer."

Whenever you are in this condition fly to the blood of the Lamb as your
chief remedy. When you plead this master argument you will arouse
yourself and you will prevail with God. You will feel rest in pleading
it and a sweet assurance of success at the Mercy Seat. Try the method
at once. This is the way in which you should use this plea. Say, "My
God, I

am utterly unworthy and I admit it. But, I beseech You, hear me for the
honor of Your dear Son. By His agony and bloody sweat, by His Cross and
passion, by His precious death and burial, I beseech You hear me! O
Lord, let the blood of Your Son prevail with You! Can You put aside His
groans, His tears, His death, when they speak on my behalf?"

If you can thus come to pleading terms with God upon this ground, you
must and will prevail. Jesus must be heard in Heaven. The voice of His
blood is eloquent with God. If you plead the atoning sacrifice, you
must overcome through the blood of the Lamb.

Thus have I spoken of overcoming in the heavenlies. But I shall have to
show you how you must contend against the Evil One in a lower sphere,
even on this earth. You must first overcome in the heavenly places
before the Throne. And when you have been thus triumphant with God in
prayer, you will have Divine Grace to go forth to service and to defeat
evil among your fellow men. How often have I personally found that the
battle must first be fought above! We must overcome in order to
service. Many a score of times of late I should not have ventured into
this pulpit had it not been for power at the Mercy Seat. Those who know
the burden of the Lord are often bowed down and would not be able to
bear up at all were it not for having in secret battled with their
enemy and won the day.

I have been bowed down before the Lord and in His Presence I have
pleaded the precious blood as the reason for obtaining help and the
help has been given. Faith, having once made sure that Jesus is hers,
helps herself out of the treasury of God to all that she needs. Satan
would deny her but in the power of the blood she takes possession of
Covenant blessings. You say to yourself, "I am weak but in the Lord, my
God, there is power–I take it to myself. I am hard and cold but here
is tenderness and warmth and I appropriate it. It pleased the Father
that in Jesus should all fullness dwell and by virtue of His precious
blood, I take out of that fullness what I need and then with help thus
obtained I meet the enemy and overcome him."

Satan would hinder our getting supplies of Divine Grace wherewith to
overcome him. But with the blood mark on our foot we can go anywhere.
With the blood mark on our hand we dare take anything. Having access
with confidence, we also take with freedom whatsoever we need and thus
we are provided against all necessities and armed against all assaults
through the atoning sacrifice. This is the fountain of supply and the
shield of security–this, indeed, is the channel through which we
receive strength for victory.

When we really feel the power of the precious blood of Christ we
overcome the great enemy by laying hold upon the all-sufficiency of
God. Thus, being victorious in the heavenlies, we come down to the
pulpit or to the Sunday school class made strong in the Lord and in the
power of His might. Having overcome Satan at the Throne of Grace, we
see him like lightning fall from Heaven even before our feeble
instrumentality. We speak and God speaks with us. We long for souls and
God's great heart is yearning with us. We entreat men to come and the
Lord also pleads with them to come so that they no longer resist.
Spiritual power of a holy kind rests upon us to overcome the spiritual
power of an evil kind which is exerted by Satan, the world and the
flesh.

The Lord scatters the power of the enemy and breaks the spell which
holds men captive. Through the blood of the Lamb we become masters of
the situation and the weakest among us is able to work great wonders.
Coming forth to the service of God in the power of our victory in
Heaven gained by pleading the blood of the Lamb we march on conquering
and to conquer and no power of the enemy is able to stand against us.

It is time that I now showed you how this same fight is carried on on
earth. Among men in these lower places of conflict saints overcome
through the blood of the Lamb by their testimony to that blood. Every
Believer is to bear witness to the atoning sacrifice and its power to
save. He is to confirm the doctrine. He is to emphasize it by earnest
faith in it. And he is to support it and prove it by his experience of
the effect of it. You cannot all speak from the pulpit but you can all
speak for Jesus as opportunity is given you. Our main business is to
bear witness with the blood in the power of the Spirit. To this point
we can all testify. You cannot go into all manner of deep doctrines or
curious points but you can tell to all those round about you that
"There is life in a look at the Crucified One."

You can bear witness to the power of the blood of Jesus in your own
soul. If you do this you will overcome men in many ways. First, you
will arouse them out of apathy. This age is more indifferent to true
religion than almost any other. It is alive enough to error but to the
old faith it turns a deaf ear. Yet I have noticed persons captivated by
the Truth of Substitution who would not listen to anything else. If any
discourse can hold men, as the ancient mariner detained the wedding
guest, it is the story of Divine Love, incarnate in the Person of
Jesus, bleeding and dying for guilty men. Try

that story when attention flags. It has a fascination about it. The
marvelous history of the Son of God, who loved His enemies and died for
them–this will arrest them.

The history of the Holy One who stood in the sinners' place and was in
consequence put to shame and agony and death–this will touch them. The
sight of the bleeding Savior overcomes obduracy and carelessness. The
doctrine of the blood of the Lamb prevents or scatters error. I do not
think that by reasoning we often confute error to any practical
purpose. We may confute it rhetorically and doctrinally but men still
stick to it. But the doctrine of the precious blood–when it once gets
into the heart–drives error out of it and sets up the throne of Truth.
You cannot be clinging to an atoning sacrifice and still delight in
modern heresies.

Those who deny inspiration are sure to get rid of the vicarious
atonement because it will not allow their errors. Let us go on
proclaiming the doctrine of the great sacrifice and this will kill the
vipers of heresy. Let us uplift the Cross and never mind what other
people say. Perhaps we have taken too much notice of them already. Let
the dogs bark, it is their nature to. Go on preaching Christ crucified.
God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ!

We also overcome men by softening rebellious hearts. Men stand out
against the Law of God and defy the vengeance of God. But the love of
God in Christ Jesus disarms them. The Holy Spirit causes men to yield
through the softening influence of the Cross. A bleeding Savior makes
men throw down their weapons of rebellion. "If He loves me so," they
say, "I cannot do other than love Him in return." We overcome men's
obduracy by the blood, shed for many for the remission of sins.

How wonderfully this same blood of the Lamb overcomes despair. Have you
ever seen a man shut up in the iron cage? It has been my painful duty
to talk with several such prisoners. I have seen the captive shake the
iron bars but he could not break them, or break from them. He has
implored us to set him free by some means. But we have been powerless.
Glory be to God, the blood is a universal solvent and it has dissolved
the iron bars of despair, until the poor captive conscience has been
able to escape. How sweet for the desponding to sing–

"I do believe, I will believe, That Jesus died for me"! Believing that,
all doubts and fears and despairs fly away and the man is at ease.

There is nothing, indeed, dear Friends, which the blood of the Lamb
will not overcome. For see how it overcomes vice and every form of sin.
The world is foul with evil like a stable which has long been the lair
of filthy creatures. What can cleanse it? What but this matchless
Stream? Satan makes sin seem pleasurable, but the Cross reveals its
bitterness. If Jesus died because of sin, men begin to see that sin
must be a murderous thing. Even when sin was but imputed to the Savior
it made Him pour out His soul unto death. It must, then, be a hideous
evil to those who are actually and personally guilty of it. If God's
rod made Christ sweat great drops of blood, what will His axe do when
He executes the capital sentence upon impenitent men! Yes, we overcome
the deadly sweetness and destructive pleasures of sin by the blood of
the Lamb.

This blood overcomes the natural lethargy of men towards obedience. It
stimulates them to holiness. If anything can make a man holy, it is a
firm faith in the atoning sacrifice. When a man knows that Jesus died
for him, he feels that he is not his own but bought with a price and
therefore he must live unto Him that died for him and rose again. In
the Atonement I see a motive equal to the greatest heroism–yes, a
motive which will stimulate to perfect holiness. What manner of persons
ought we to be for whom such a sacrifice has been presented! Now are we
quickened into intensity of zeal and devotion. See, dear Brothers, how
to use the blood of the Lamb in this lower sphere while contending with
evil among men.

But I must close with this. It is not merely by testimony that we use
this potent Truth. We must support that testimony by our zeal and
energy. We need concentrated, consecrated energy. For it is written,
"They loved not their lives unto the death." We shall not overcome
Satan if we are fine gentlemen, fond of ease and honor. As long as
Christian people enjoy the world, the devil will suffer little at their
hands. They that overcame the world in the old days were humble men and
women, generally poor, always despised. They were never ashamed of
Christ. They only lived to tell of His love and died by tens of
thousands rather than cease to bear testimony to the blood of the Lamb.

They overcame by their heroism. Their intense devotion to the cause
secured the victory. Their lives to them were as nothing when compared
with the honor of their Lord. Brethren, if we are to win great
victories we must have greater

courage. Some of you hardly dare speak about the blood of Christ in any
but the most godly company. And scarcely there. You are very retiring.
You love yourselves too much to get into trouble through your religion.
Surely you cannot be of that noble band that love not their own lives
unto the death!

Many dare not hold the old doctrine nowadays because they would be
thought narrow and bigoted and this would be too galling. They call us
old fools. It is very likely we are. But we are not ashamed to be fools
for Christ's sake and the Truth's sake. We believe in the blood of the
Lamb, despite the discoveries of science. We shall never give up the
doctrine of atoning sacrifice to please modern culture. What little
reputation we have is as dear to us as another man's character is to
him. But we will cheerfully let it go in this struggle for the central
Truth of Revelation. It will be sweet to be forgotten and lost sight
of, or to be vilified and abused, if the old faith in the
substitutionary sacrifice can be kept alive.

This much we are resolved on, we will be true to our convictions
concerning the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus. For if we give up this,
what is there left? God will not do anything by us if we are false to
the Cross. He uses the men who spare not their reputations when these
are called for in defense of the Truth of God. Oh to be at a white
heat! Oh to flame with zeal for Jesus! O my Brothers and Sisters, hold
to the old faith and say, "As for the respect of men, I can readily
forfeit it. But as for the Truth of God, that I can never give up."
This is the day for men to be men. For, alas, the most are soft
creatures. Now we need backbones as well as heads. To believe the Truth
concerning the Lamb of God and truly to believe it–this is the
essential of an overcoming life. Oh for courage, constancy, fixedness,
self-denial, willingness to be made nothing for Christ! God give us to
be faithful witnesses to the blood of the Lamb in the midst of this
ungodly world!

As for those of you who are not saved, does not this subject give you a
hint? Your hope lies in the blood of the Lamb–

"Come, guilty souls and flee a way, Like doves, to Jesus' wounds."

The atoning sacrifice, which is our glory, is your salvation. Trust in
Him whom God has set forth to be the propitiation for sin. Begin with
this and you are saved. Every good and holy thing which goes with
salvation will follow after. But now, this morning, I pray you accept a
present salvation through the blood of the Lamb. "He that believes in
Him has everlasting life."