The Barrier

DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MARCH 27, 1881,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"And there shall in nowise enter into it anything that defiles, neither
whatever works abomination, or makes a lie: but they which are written
in the Lamb's Book of Life." Revelation 21:27.

THE text refers to the glorified Church of our Lord Jesus Christ. That
perfected company of the elect and sanctified is set forth in this
wonderful chapter under the image of a city descending "from God out of
Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." Her workday dress
all laid aside, the bride appears in garments of needlework and raiment
of worked gold. The militant Church, the Church of the present day, is
comparable to a tent and is well imaged by the Tabernacle in the
wilderness–it is lit up within by the Glory of God's Presence and
covered without by the fiery cloudy pillar of His eternal Providence!
But to the eyes of men it is mean and inconsiderable, for verily it
does not yet appear what it shall be. By-and-by this same Church which,
today, is likened unto a structure of curtains readily removed from
place to place, shall become a city–fixed, permanent, high-walled and
compact–a "city which has foundations, whose Builder and Maker is
God."

The comforts and trials of the desert life shall be exchanged for the
quiet and comfort of a city dwelling. There shall be nothing of the
wilderness about the Church triumphant–it shall be a right royal
abode, the metropolis of the universe, the palace of the great King!
Everything that is lustrous, pure, precious, majestic shall be there.
Rare and priceless things which are now the peculiar treasure of kings
shall be the common possession of all the sanctified. The Church shall
be no longer despised, but shall sit as a queen among the nations while
at her feet they shall heap up all their glory and honor. In that
Church there shall remain nothing for which men shall reproach her, but
everything shall be manifested in her for which they shall do her
honor. Her very streets to be trod on shall be of pure gold like unto
transparent glass and her lowest course of stones shall be of jasper.

Everything about the perfected Church shall be the best of the
best–she shall be recognized as being the fairest among women, the
bride, the Lamb's wife, the crown and flower of the universe! We read
the sparkling figures of John's vision as emblems of moral and
spiritual excellence, but we doubt not that beyond the spiritual riches
of the Church, all materialism will also be at her disposal and the
restored creation shall bring her choicest beauties to adorn the chosen
bride of the Lamb. We have said that the glorified Church will be the
crown of the new creation and it is into the new heavens and the new
earth that she is represented as coming down from God. He that sits
upon the Throne said, "Behold, I make all things new."

The creation which is round about us at this hour waxes old and is
ready to vanish away. Wise men tell us that there are evident
preparations in the bowels of the earth for a burning up of the earth
and of all the works of men that are upon it, for its center is an
ocean of fire. God shall but speak and as once the waters leaped upon
the world and utterly destroyed all things that were upon it, so shall
He call to the waves of flame and they shall rise from their hidden
furnaces to melt all things with their fervent heat. Nevertheless we,
according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein
dwells righteousness! The former things shall have passed away and a
new creation shall dwell beneath the new heavens, filling up the new
earth–and the flower and perfection of the new creation shall be the
Church of the Living god in her full bloom and perfection!

Even now the regenerate are a kind of first fruits of God's creatures,
the forerunners of the renewed universe. But then they shall be its
center and glory! The new birth is the beginning of the new
creation–we lead the way, even we who are the Church of the
First-born–but the whole creation groans to follow us so as to be
delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of
the children of God! It is the glorified Church, I say, that is here
spoken of and,

therefore, the text may be said to refer to Heaven, for at the present
moment the nucleus of the glorified Church is in Heaven and from Heaven
every defiled thing must be shut out.

Hence, too, it may refer to the kingdom of the millennial age, when the
saints will reign with Christ upon the earth for a thousand years, when
even upon this battlefield our conquering Leader shall be crowned with
victory and where His blood was shed, His Throne shall be set up, for
among the sons of men shall He triumph, even among those that spat in
His face. The text may also be read as including the eternal world of
future bliss, for of that glorious, endless, undefiled inheritance, the
Church glorified will be the possessor–but out of her shall long
before have been gathered all things that offend and them that do
iniquity.

From Heaven and from all heavenly joys and states, sin must be shut
out. Into the perfected Church there shall never enter anything that
defiles and from all its honors and rewards every polluted person is
shut out by immutable decree. I should like you, for a minute or two,
to think of that perfected Church as she is described in this chapter,
for it is a description worthy of the most profound study. What glory
will surround the risen saints in their capacity as the city of
God–"having the glory of God"–says the 11th verse. What a glory of
glories is this! Even now, my Brothers and Sisters, you that are in
Christ possess the Grace of God, but you shall, by-and-by,
conspicuously shine with the Glory of God! At present you share in the
dishonor which falls to the lot of your Master and His cause among a
wicked generation, but then you shall share in the Glory which is the
reward of the travail of His soul. "Then shall the righteous shine
forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father."

How glorious will that Church be whose light shall be the Presence of
God, Himself–light in which the nations of them that are saved shall
rejoice! O my God, write my name among them! And to that end write me
among Your persecuted saints below! Well may we be content to endure
what little shame shall come upon the Church militant on earth if we
may participate in the honor of the Church glorified above, for this is
a glory which excels, "having the Glory of God." The city is described
as exhibiting great massiveness, for the length and the breadth and the
height of it are equal. It is a solid square, perfect and compact–

"Your walls are made of precious stones, Your bulwarks diamond square."
What a Church will the Church of God be in those happier days! Now she
is as a rolling thing, removed as readily as a shepherd's tent–but
then she shall stand firm as a cube which rests upon its base!

We watch the Church of God, sometimes, with trepidation and alarm, for
though we know that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against her,
yet her feebleness makes the timid tremble. But in her state after the
Resurrection there shall remain no signs of feebleness, for that which
was sown in weakness shall be raised in power! She shall be a city the
like of which has never been beheld, whose foundation shall be deeper
than the depths beneath and her towers shall reach above the clouds! No
institution shall exist so long or flourish so abundantly as the Church
of the Living god! When you think of the massiveness of the Church of
God settled in her place by the Almighty, Himself, who has established
her, remember at the same time her vastness, for a multitude that no
man can number shall be comprehended among her inhabitants– her census
shall prove her citizens to be as the stars of Heaven for multitude!

Her stones shall not lie cut about as a little heap, but from her vast
foundation the living stones shall rise course upon course, 12
foundations of jewels, till "the mountain of the Lord's House shall be
exalted above the hills." I say again, write my name down among the
dwellers in the great city! What higher honor can I crave than to have
it said, "This man was born there"? To be numbered with princes; to be
named with emperors–what of it? Your golden fleece, silken garter and
gilded stars are all poor toys–true glory lies in being part and
parcel of the Church–today despised and rejected by men, but which
shall, before long, look forth fair as the sun and astonish the world
with the brightness of her rising! Ambition's self needs ask no more
than citizenship in the heavenly Jerusalem.

The perfection of the Church is set forth in her being foursquare, her
value in the sight of God by her walls being composed of the rarest
gems and her delights in the variety of the sparkling jewels which
bedeck her. There is scarcely one precious stone omitted of those that
were known to Orientals, while some are mentioned which are scarcely
known to us at all. All manner of joys and treasures and pleasures and
delights, every form and shade of excellence, virtue and bliss shall
belong to the perfected ones when their number and character shall be
complete and they shall be comparable to the

city of God! The safety and quiet of the Church is set forth by her
gates forever open. In times of war the city gates are fast closed, but
for the New Jerusalem there will remain no fear of foe, no need to set
a watch against an invader.

Gog and Magog will be slain and Armageddon's battle fought and
finished–unbroken rest shall be the portion of the glorified. Write my
name among them, O my God, and permit me to enter into Your rest! Best
of all, remark how holy the Church will be. She shall have no temple
within her walls, for this simple reason, that she shall be all Temple.
She shall have no spot reserved for sacred uses, because all shall be
"holiness unto the Lord." The Divine Presence shall be in all and over
all and this shall be the joy of her joy! "The Glory of God did lighten
it, and the Lamb is the Light

thereof."

Brethren, the glory of the Church even here below is the Presence of
God in her midst, but what will that Presence be when it shines forth
in noonday brightness–when spirits strengthened for the vision shall
endure with transport the full splendor of Jehovah's throne? Tongue
cannot tell the glory, for thought cannot conceive it! Write my name
among the blessed who shall see Jehovah's face! O living God, my soul
thirsts after You! To dwell in Your Presence is the summit of the
soul's delight! To be with You where You are and to behold Your Glory
is the Heaven of Heaven! To what beyond this can thoughts aspire?

I. It being declared that the glorified Church is to be all this and a
great deal more, of which we cannot now speak particularly, we may well
long to enter within her gates of pearl. But what says the text? I
beseech you listen attentively to the solemn sound OF THE WORDS OF
EXCLUSION–"There shall in nowise enter into it anything that defiles,
neither whatever works abomination, or makes a lie." Listen, I say, to
these words of exclusion, though it sounds like a death-knell in my
ears! Learn that it can be abundantly justified to the conscience of
all thoughtful men! Learn that your own soul, if it is honest, must set
its seal to the sentence of exclusion. This is no arbitrary decree, it
is a solemn declaration to which all holy spirits give their willing
assent and consent–an ordinance of which even the excluded,
themselves, shall admit is just.

For, first, it is not meet that so royal and Divine a corporation as
the glorified Church of God should be ruined by defilement. God forbid
that "her light, which is like unto a stone most precious, even like a
jasper stone, clear as crystal," should ever be dimmed by the breath of
sin! How beautiful was this fair world in the early morning of her
creation, when the dew of her youth glistened upon her and the sunlight
of God made her face to shine. Keep watch and ward, you shining ones,
that this beauty be not marred! Let watchers and holy ones fly round
the new-made world to drive far from her the apostate spirit and his
fellows who kept not their first estate! Sad was the hour when, with
dragon wings, the fallen spirit descended into Eden, advanced to mother
Eve and whispered in her ear the fell temptation! Oh, you seraphs,
would God your fiery swords had kept out the Arch-Deceiver, that this
world might never have fallen, that we might have dwelt here amidst
sunny glades by pure rivers rippling over sands of gold–a holy and
happy race, making every hill and valley vocal with the praises of God!

Now, O Earth, you are a field of blood, but you might have been a
garden of delights! Now you are one vast cemetery where all the dust
was once a part of the living fabric of mortal men–but you might have
been as the firmament filled with stars, all shining to their Creator's
praise! Alas that Eden should now remain only as a name–gone as a
vision of the night! Inasmuch as we could heartily wish that evil had
never entered into the primeval world, we earnestly deprecate the idea
that it should ever defile the new! Shall those new heavens ever look
down with amazement upon the flight of a rebellious spirit flying
beneath their serene azure on an errand of destruction? Shall the
jeweled walls of the thrice Holy City be leaped over by an enemy of the
King who is there enthroned? Shall the serpent leave his horrid trail
upon the heavenly Eden, twice made of the Lord? God forbid!

The purity of a world twice made, the perfection of the Church of the
regenerate, the majesty of the Presence of God all demand that every
sinful thing should be excluded. All Heaven and heavenly things cry,
"Write the decree and make it sure, there shall in nowise enter into it
anything that defiles." Engrave it as in eternal brass and let
Omnipotence go with the decree to execute it with the utmost rigor, for
it would be horrible, indeed, if a second time evil should destroy the
work of God! Into the Church of the First-born above, the breath of
iniquity must not enter. It cannot be that the work which cost the
Redeemer's blood should yet be defiled! The eternal purpose of the
Father and the love of the Spirit forbid that the Lord's own perfected
Church should be invaded by any unholy thing.

Brothers and Sisters, there can be no entrance of evil into the Kingdom
of God, for it is the very essence of the bliss of the glorified Church
that evil should be excluded! Imagine, for a moment, that the decree of
our text were reversed or suspended and that it were allowed that a few
unregenerate men and women should enter into the glorified Church of
God. Suppose, in addition, that those few should be of the gentler sort
of sinners, not those who would profanely blaspheme the name of God,
nor openly break the eternal Sabbath, but a few who are indifferent to
God's Glory and cold and formal in His praise. How could Heaven bear
with these? These, who are neither cold nor hot, are sickening both to
Christ and to His people–and must they endure the nausea of their
society? Why, as in a living body the existence of a dead piece of bone
breeds fret, pain and disease, so would the presence of these few
defiling ones cause, I know not what, of disquietude and sorrow. It
must not be!

Love to the saints demands that they be no more vexed by sin or
sinners. Pity, mercy, yes, even the partiality of kindred love dares
not ask that it may be! All Heaven is up in arms at the supposition!
Holy spirits are alarmed at the idea that they should again be tempted
by the presence of evil! Bar the gates of pearl and never open them
again, you spirits, rather than that there should come upon that pure
street of transparent gold a foot that will not walk in the ways of
God's commandments or the halls of Zion be disgraced by a single spirit
that shall refuse to love the holy and exalted name! Heaven were not
Heaven if it were possible for evil of any sort to enter there.
Therefore, stand firm, O dread decree, for it would be cruelty to
saints and destruction to Heaven that there should in anywise enter
into it anything that defiles.

Furthermore, let me beg you to consider that there is an impossibility
of any defiled, sinful, unrenewed person ever entering into the
corporate body of the glorified Church of God–an impossibility within
the persons themselves. Look, good Sirs, the reason why wicked men
cannot be happy is not only because God will not let rebellion and
peace dwell together, but because they will not let themselves be
happy. The sea cannot rest because it is the sea and the sinner cannot
be quiet because he is a sinner! How could you, O natural, unregenerate
man, ever enter into the Kingdom of Heaven as you are? You are not
capable of it! It is not possible! Holiness has in it no attractions
for you since you love sin and the wages of it. You do not know God and
cannot see Him, for this is the privilege of the pure in heart and of
them alone. You live in a world where everything has been made by the
great Lord and yet you do not perceive His hands, so great is your
blindness! Shall blind men grope through the streets of the New
Jerusalem?

You are unacquainted with the simplest elements of spiritual things,
for they can only be spiritually discerned and you have no spiritual
faculty. You are blind and deaf! Yes, dead to God and heavenly
things–you know you are! Well, then, of what use would it be that you
should enter the spiritual realm, supposing it to be a place? For if
you were admitted into the place called Heaven, you would not be a
partaker of the state of Heaven and it is the state of mind and
character which is, after all, the essence of the joy. To be in a
heavenly place and not in a heavenly condition would be worse than
Hell, if worse can be! What are songs to a sad heart? Such would Heaven
be to an unrenewed mind. The element of Glory would destroy, rather
than bless an unrenewed mind!

It is as though you saw before you a blazing furnace in which happy
creatures disported themselves among the flames, bathing themselves in
the white heat, leaping in rapture amid the rising sparks, for they are
children of the flame who drink in fire and find it life. Imagine
yourself to be a poor fly such as you hear buzzing on the windowpane
and you ask to enter into the glow of the furnace, thinking to be as
merry as the fire-children. Keep back! Why tempt your doom? You will
die soon enough–why ask to perish more quickly? No place would be so
dreadful to a sinner as the place where God is most openly manifest!
That holy element which is the habitat of the new-born soul would be
the grave, the everlasting prison if an unholy soul could enter there.

To the wicked, the day of the Lord is darkness and not light. And the
Glory of the Lord is terror and not bliss. Oh, unconverted Hearer, they
sing in Heaven–but in their songs your ears would find no delight.
They worship God in Heaven–but as Divine worship is irksome to you,
even if it is kept up for an hour or so below–what would it be to
dwell forever and ever in the world to come in the midst of
hallelujahs? O soul defiled with sin, you are incapable of Heaven! The
Roman Emperor Caligula, in his madness, made his horse first consul of
Rome–but his horse could not be a magistrate–it could not judge or
govern, whatever the emperor might decree! Though he fed it upon gilded
oats from an ivory manger, it was a horse and nothing more!

Even so, if a man is unregenerate and unbelieving, we may do what we
will with him, but he cannot rise to spiritual joys. And if we could
even bid him come into Heaven, he would still remain what he
was–incapable of the joy and bliss which God has prepared for them
that love Him. So stands it a fact in the very essence and nature of
things, that there shall in nowise enter into the realm of the
spiritual, the Kingdom of the true, the land of the blessed, the home
of the perfected, anything that defiles. It cannot come there from
incapacity within itself. Let me add that our own hearts forbid that
evil should so enter. As I mused on this text, I supposed myself to be
defiled with sin, yet standing outside the pearl gates of Heaven.

Then I said within myself, "If I might enter there defiled as I am,
would I do so?" And my heart answered, "No, I would not if I could. How
could I blot such brightness and spoil such happiness?" Suppose myself
infected today with a deadly fever–an incurable typhus which would
bring death to any that touched me? The blast is pitiless and the snow
is falling–and I stand shivering at the door of one of your
houses–longing for shelter. I see inside the room your little
children, playing in full health! Shall I venture among them? I long to
escape from the cold outside, but if I should enter your room I should
bring fever to you and death to your innocent little ones and to
yourselves–and thus turn your happiness into misery! I would turn away
and brave the storm and sooner die than bring such desolation into a
friend's home!

And well might any honest spirit say at sight of the perfect family
above, "No, if I might, I would not be admitted into a perfect Heaven
while yet I might defile it and spread the contagion of moral evil."
You know, Brothers and Sisters, how a few rags from the East have
sometimes carried a plague into a city. And if you were standing at the
dock when a plague-laden ship arrived, you would cry, "Burn those rags!
Do anything with them, but keep them away from the people! Bring not
the pest into a vast city where it may slay its thousands!" So do we
cry, "Great God, forbid it that anything that defiles should enter into
Your perfected Church! We cannot endure the thought." Draw your swords,
you angels! Stand in your serried ranks, you seraphim, and smite every
defiled one that would force a passage within the gates of pearl! It
must be–"There shall in nowise enter into it anything that defiles."

The fiat of God has gone forth and the fiery sword is set at the gate
of the new Eden. Into the first Paradise there came the serpent–into
the second never shall the subtle tempter enter! Into the first
Paradise there came sin and God was driven from it as well as man–but
into the second there shall never come anything that approximates sin
or false-hood–the Lord God shall dwell there forever and His people
shall dwell there with Him. Thus much, then, upon the words of
exclusion.

II. I desire, as I continue this meditation in the power of the Holy
Spirit, not so much to preach as to think inwardly

and ask you to think with me OF THOSE WORDS OF EXCLUSION WORKING WITHIN
THE SOUL–within my

soul, within yours. They sit in judgment upon me and they chasten me.
It strikes home to my conscience and awakens me to self-examination.
Its voice is solemn and strikes heavily upon the ears as we remember
its wide sweep and comprehensive breadth–"There shall in nowise enter
into it anything that defiles." No person who defiles, no fallen
spirit, or sinful man can enter. And as no person, so no tendency,
leaning, inclination, or will to sin can gain admission! No wish, no
desire, no hunger towards that which is unclean shall ever be found in
the perfect city of God! Nor even a thought of evil can be conceived
there, much less a sinful act performed. Nothing shall ever be done
within those gates of pearl contrary to the perfect Law, nor anything
imagined in opposition to spotless holiness.

Consider such purity and wonder at it! The term, "anything that
defiles," includes even an idea, a memory, a thought of evil. Thoughts
that flit through the mind as birds through the air that never roost or
build a nest–even such shall never glance across the skies of the new
creation! It is altogether perfect! And, mark well, that no untruth can
enter–"neither whatever makes a lie." Nothing can enter Heaven which
is not real! Nothing erroneous, mistaken, conceited, hollow,
professional, pretentious, unsubstantial can be smuggled through the
gates. Only the Truth of God can dwell with the God of Truth. These are
sweeping and searching words–no evil, nothing that works to evil–no
falsehood, nothing that works to falsehood can ever enter into the
triumphant Church of God!

O my Soul! My Soul, how does this bear upon you? Cuts it not to the
very quick? For how are you to enter, defiled as you are and so
diseased with falsehood of one sort or another? Well may we be awakened
when we remember what defiled and defiling creatures we have been in
the days of our unregeneracy. Brothers and Sisters, let us not shrink
from the humbling contemplation! Come down from your high places and
see the horrible pit in which you lie by nature. Think of

your past lives, I pray you–of those days in which you found pleasure
in walking after the flesh. I call on you to remember the sins of your
youth and your former transgressions of thought, word, and deed! If
they are shut out who defile and are defiled, where are you? Where are
you? These sins of ours, though they were committed years ago, are,
none the less, sinful today–they are as fresh to God as if we
perpetrated them this very moment.

Your hands are still bloody red, O sinful Man, though your crime was
worked some 20 years ago! Your are still black, O Sinner, though it was
50 years ago that your chief sin was committed, for time has no
bleaching power upon a crimson sin. The guilt of an old offense is as
fresh as though it were worked but yesterday. Our sins, in themselves,
make us unclean and unfit for holy company and, alas, they are many!
Our sins have left a second defilement on us by creating the tendency
to do the same again. Is there one among us that has sinned who does
not know that he is all the more likely to sin again? Since after once
being drawn aside by sin, there are stronger urges in the same way–sin
once committed becomes a fountain of defilement! The stream in which
the fish has played will be sought by it again in its season and the
swallow will return to its old nest–even so will the mind return to
its folly. Yes, so it is. And if everything that defiles is shut out
from the Holy City–my God, my God–am not I shut out, too?

Do not think that only actual sin shuts men out of Heaven, for this
text goes to the heart by reminding us that we have within us inbred
sin which would defile us speedily even if we were now clean of
positive transgression. The fountain from which actual sin comes is
within every unrenewed bosom. How can you and I enter Heaven while
there is unholy anger in us? The best of men are too apt to retain an
unhallowed quickness of temper which, under certain circumstances,
works wrath. There shall in nowise enter into Heaven a hasty temper, or
a quick imperious spirit, or a malicious mind, for these defile. In
certain persons there is no quickness of spirit, but there is a cold
obstinacy, so that having once resolved, though the resolve is evil,
they stand to it doggedly and cannot be moved. Like obstinate mules,
they can scarcely be driven–blows cannot stir them from their purpose!
Disobedient obstinacy cannot enter the Kingdom–my Hearers–are you
under its dominion?

And, oh, there is in all of us a lusting after evil of some sort or
other! Only place us in certain conditions and the flesh longs after
forbidden things and though we chide ourselves and check the longing,
yet is there not within us a relish for the sweet stolen morsels of
transgression? We could weep our eyes out when we discover what a
palate for pleasurable sin our old nature still retains–yes, a longing
for the very sin of which we most bitterly repent and from which we
most eagerly long to be delivered! How can we hope to enter Heaven if
there are these appetites in us? They are there and they defile! What
can we do? There, too, is that vile thing called, "pride." Why, some of
us cannot be trusted with a pennyworth of success and we are exalted
above measure! Some of God's children cannot have ten minutes
fellowship with Christ but they must put on their fine feathers and
crow right lustily because they feel themselves to be nearing absolute
perfection! Alas for the pride of our hearts and the pollution which
comes of it! How can such vain creatures be admitted among the
glorified?

Nor is this all, for sloth preys on many and tempts them to shun God's
service–and especially to shun the Cross of Christ. Sloth is a rust
which has a sadly defiling power–we gather moth and mildew from
inaction. Never is a man pure who is not zealous in the service of God.
We rot in corruption if we lie still. How, then, shall we be admitted
within the jeweled city? Ah, look within your heart, my Brother–look
steadily beneath the fair film of the surface and mark the inward evil
which it conceals. Judge not yourself when at your best, occupied with
your prayers and praises and almsgivings, but look steadily into your
soul at other times and you shall see a loathsome mass of evil life, a
seething corruption moving within your heart–for evil remains, even in
the regenerate–and this cannot enter Heaven. Thank God, it cannot!
Even though the words of exclusion stagger me and send me back as with
a stunning blow and makes me cry, "You shut me out, my God, by this,
Your decree," yet I feel that if it is so–the decree is right, just
and good. "There shall in nowise enter into it anything that defiles."
Amen and amen!

Now, I ask you whether these words of exclusion do not, in you who know
its meaning, slay all hope of self-salvation? For, first, here are our
past sins and they defile and make us defiling. How are we to get rid
of them? How can we wash out these polluting blots? Tears? So much salt
water thrown away if looked upon as a bath for sin! Good works
performed? They are already due to God! How shall future discharge of
debts repay the past? O my God, if I have ever known what sin means, I
have also known that it is impossible that its defiling nature should
ever be changed, or that the pollution should ever be removed by any
efforts of my own!

I spoke with one the other day who said that she was seeking salvation
by good works. I knew that she had performed self-denying acts of
charity and I asked her whether she felt nearer to the salvation at
which she aimed. I knew that I spoke to a sincere, honest person and
her reply did not surprise me. She answered sadly, "The more I do, the
more I feel I ought to do and I am no nearer to the point I am aiming
at." And so it is–the more a sincere heart does seek to serve God, the
more it feels the shortcoming of its service–and the more a person
seeks after purity by his own efforts, the further he judges himself to
be from it! Our standard rises as we rise toward it! Our conscience
becomes tender in proportion as we obey it and so, in the nature of
things, rest of heart comes not in that manner.

Ah, there remains not beneath Heaven anything that can wash out the
defilement of past sin except only one cleansing flood! O sinful Man,
plunge your hands into the Atlantic and they shall crimson every drop
of its tremendous waters and yet the stain on your hands shall be as
scarlet as before! No, no, no–it is certain that no man can enter
Heaven by reason of his transgression and his sinfulness–unless
Omnipotence shall cleanse him! But then look at the other part of the
difficulty, that is, the making of your own heart pure and clean. How
shall this be done? How shall the Ethiopian change his skin and the
leopard his spots? Have you tried to master your temper? I hope you
have. Have you managed it? Your tendencies this way or that–you have
strived against them, I hope. But have you mastered them?

I will tell you. You thought you had. You thought you had bound the
enemy with strong ropes–you tied him and you fastened him down–you
shut him up in an inner chamber and you said, "The Philistines are upon
you, Samson." You felt that the champion was vanquished, now, but oh
how grimly did he laugh at you as the old adversary arose within you
and snapped the bonds and hurled you to the ground! You were defeated
when you thought that you had won the victory! I cannot overcome
myself, nor overcome my sin. I will never cease from the task, God
helping me, but apart from the Divine Spirit, the task is as impossible
as it is to make a world!

III. It seems to me that we may most fitly come to the close of our
sermon by thinking Of THE WORDS OF SALVATION which just meets the
difficulty raised by the sentence–"There shall in nowise enter into it
anything that defiles." But, first, my past sin, what of that? There
are many who are even now within the Church of God above and we will
ask, concerning them, "Who are these arrayed in white robes and from
where did they come?" We receive the reply, "These are they that have
washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." "In
the blood of the Lamb!" I feel as if I could sing those words! What joy
that there should be anything that can take all my sins away–all
without excep-tion–and make me whiter than snow!

If Christ is God. If it is true that He, within that Infant's body,
contained the fullness of the Deity and, being thus God and Man, He did
take away my sin and in His own body on the Cross did bear it and
suffer its punishment for me, then I can understand how my
transgression is forgiven and my sin is covered. Short of this, my
conscience cannot rest. The misty atonements of modern divines cannot
calm my conscience–they are not worth the time spent in listening to
them! They are cobwebs of the fancy, altogether insufficient to sustain
the strain, even, of the present conscience, much less of the
conscience which shall be awakened by the judgment bar of God!

But this Truth of God–Christ, instead of me! God, Himself, the
offended One in the offender's place, bowing His august head to
vengeance and laying His eternal majesty in the dishonor of a
tomb–this is the fullness of consolation! O Lamb of God, my Sacrifice,
I shall enter Heaven now! I shall pass the scrutiny of the infallible
watchers! I shall not be afraid of the eyes of fire. I shall be without
spot or wrinkle, or any such thing–"Washed in the blood of the Lamb!"
This is our first great comfort, Brothers and Sisters–"He that
believes in Him is not condemned." He that believes in Him is justified
from all things from which he could not be justified by the Law of
Moses. "There is therefore, now, no condemnation to them that are in
Christ Jesus."

But here is the point, there is still no entrance into the Holy City as
long as there are any evil tendencies within us. This is the work, this
is the difficulty and since these are to be overcome, how is the work
to be done? Simple believing upon Christ brings you justification, but
you need more than that–you need sanctification, the purging of your
nature–for have we not seen that until our nature, itself, is
cleansed, the enjoyment of Heaven is impossible? There can be no
knowledge of God, no communion with God, no delight in God hereafter
unless all sin is put away and our fallen nature is entirely changed.
Can this be done?

It can! Faith in Christ tells us of something else besides the blood.
There is a Divine Person–let us bow our heads and worship Him–the
Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father–and He, it is, who renews us
in the spirit of our

minds. When we believe in Jesus, the Spirit enters into the heart,
creating within us a new life. That life struggles and contends against
the old life, or rather, the old death and, as it struggles, it gathers
strength and grows. It masters the evil and puts its foot upon the neck
of the tendency to sin. Do you feel this Spirit within you? You must be
under its power or perish! If any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he
is none of His. I would not have you imagine that in death everything
is to be accomplished for us mysteriously in the last solemn
article–we are to look for a work of Grace in life–a present work,
molding our character among men.

Oh, Sirs, the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit is not a sort of
extreme unction reserved for deathbeds–it is a matter for the walks of
life and the activities of today! I do not know how much is done in the
saint during the last minute of his lingering here, but this I do
know–in a true Believer the conquest of sin is a matter to be begun as
soon as he is converted and to be carried on throughout life. If the
Spirit of God dwells in us, we walk not after the flesh but after the
spirit and we mortify the corruptions and lusts of the old man. There
must be, now, a treading under foot of lust and pride and every evil
thing, or these evils will tread us under foot forever in the future
state where character never changes. There must be, now, a rejection of
the lie–a casting out of the evil–or we shall be cast out, ourselves,
forever! There must be, now, a cry, "O Lord, You desire truth in the
inward parts: and in the hidden part You shall make me to know wisdom.
Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be
whiter than snow."

Beloved, it is to this we must come–to be washed in the water which
flowed with the blood from Jesus' side, for there must be a purging of
nature as well as a removal of actual transgression or else the
inevitable decree, like a fiery sword, will keep the gate of Paradise
against us–"There shall in nowise enter into it anything that defiles,
neither whatever works abomination, or makes a lie." O my Hearers,
suppose we should never enter there? No, start not, for the supposition
will soon be a fact with many of you unless you repent! Suppose we
should be in the next world what some of us are now, defiled and
untruthful–what remains?

That is an awful text in the parable of the virgins–"And the door was
shut." You read of those who said, "Lord, Lord, open to us," to whom He
answered, "I know you not." You have read of them–will any of us be
among them? Will any of us who has a lamp and is thought to be a virgin
soul be among the shut out ones on whose ears shall fall the words, "I
know you not from where you are"? You see you cannot be anywhere else
but out unless you are in! And you must be shut out if you are defiled
and defiling. Dear Heart, this is a question I beg you to look to at
once! You do not know how short a time you have left to you in which
you may look into it. Some who were here but a Sabbath or so ago are
now gone from us. Eleven deaths were reported at one Church Meeting
among our members!

We are a dying people! We shall all be gone within a very short time. I
charge you by the living God and as you are dying men and women–see to
it that you are not shut out so as to hear the fatal cry–"Too late,
too late, you cannot enter." There shall be no "Purgatory," in eternity
and no possible way of entering in among the perfected, for it is
written, "There shall in nowise enter into it anything that defiles."
No crying, "Lord! Lord!" No striving to enter in! No tears, no, not
even the pangs of Hell, itself, shall ever purge the soul so as to make
it fit to join with the holy Church above should it pass into the
future state uncleansed! Shut out! Shut out!

O God, may that never be true of anyone among us, for Christ's dear
name's sake, Amen.
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Honey From A Lion