The Curse Removed

The Curse Removed

(No. 3254)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 15, 1911.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY
AGO.

"Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse
for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangs on a tree."
Galatians 3:13.

[Another Sermon by Mr. Spurgeon upon the same text is #873, Volume
15–CHRIST MADE A CURSE FOR US.]

THE Law of God is a Divine Law, holy, heavenly, perfect. Those who find
fault with the Law, or in the least degree depreciate it, do not
understand its design and have no right idea of the Law itself. Paul
says, "We know that the Law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under
sin." In all that we ever say concerning justification by faith, we
never intend to lower the opinion which our hearers have of the Law,
for the Law is one of the most sublime of God's works. There is not a
commandment too many–there is not one too few! The Law of the Lord is
so incomparable that its perfection is a proof of its Divinity. No
human lawgiver could have given forth such a Law as this which we find
in the Decalogue. It is a perfect Law, for all human laws that are
right are to be found in that brief compendium and epitome of all that
is good and excellent toward God, or between man and man.

But while the Law is glorious, it is never more misapplied than when
anyone attempts to use it as a means of salvation! God never intended
men to be saved by the Law. When He proclaimed it on Sinai, it was with
thunder, lightning, clouds, fire and smoke, as if He would say, "O Man,
hear My Law, but tremble while you hear it! It is proclaimed with the
blast of the trumpet exceedingly loud, even as the great Day of
Destruction will also be of which it is the herald, if you offend
against it and find none to bear your doom for you." It was written on
stone, as if to teach us that it was a hard, cold, stony Law–one which
would have no mercy upon us, but which, if we go against it, would fall
upon us and grind us to powder! O you who are trusting in the Law for
your salvation, you have erred from the faith–you do not understand
God's designs–you are ignorant of the Truths of God that He has
revealed to us by His Holy Spirit! In the Chapter from which our text
is taken, the Apostle says, "If there had been a Law given which could
have given life, verily righteousness would have been by the Law. But
the Scripture has concluded all under sin, that the promise, by faith,
of Jesus Christ, might be given to them that believe." The Law was
intended, by its terrors, to crush every hope of self-righteousness
and, by its lightning, to scathe and demolish every tower of our own
works–that we might be brought humbly to accept a finished salvation
through the one Almighty Mediator who has magnified the Law and made it
honorable, and brought in an everlasting righteousness wherein we stand
complete in Christ if, indeed, we are in Him by a living faith. So you
perceive that all that the Law does is to curse–it cannot bless. In
all the pages of Revelation, you will find no blessings that the Law
ever gave to one who had offended it. There were blessings for those
who kept it completely–though none ever did–but no blessing is ever
written for one offender. Blessings we find in the Gospel, curses we
find in the Law.

This afternoon we shall briefly consider, first, the curse of the Law.
Secondly, the curse removed. Thirdly, the great Substitute who removed
it by "being made a curse for us." And then, lastly, we shall solemnly
ask one another whether we are included among the innumerable multitude
for whom Christ was "made a curse."

I. First, then, let us consider "THE CURSE OF THE LAW."All who sin
against the Law are cursed by the Law– all who disobey its commands
are cursed, cursed instantly, cursed terribly.

We shall regard that curse, first, as being a universal curse resting
upon everyone of the seed of Adam. Perhaps some here will be inclined
to say, "Of course, the Law of God will curse all those who are loose
in their lives or profane in their conversation. We can all of us
imagine that the swearer is a cursed man, cursed by God. We can suppose
that the wrath of God rests upon the head of the man who is filthy in
his life, the man who is degraded and under the ban of society." But,
my Friends, the real Truth is that the curse of God rests upon everyone
of us as by nature we stand before Him! You may be the most moral man
in the world, yet the curse of God is upon you! You may be lovely in
your life, modest in your carriage, upright in your behavior, almost
Christ-like in your conduct, yet if you have not been born-again–if
you have not been regenerated by the Holy Spirit–the curse of God
still rests upon your head! If you have committed but one sin in your
life, God's Justice is so inexorable that it condemns you for that one
solitary offense! And though your life should henceforth be one
continued career of holiness, if you have sinned but once, unless you
have a saving interest in the blood of Christ, the thunders of Sinai
are meant to terrify you and the lightning of Divine Vengeance flash
all around you!

Ah, my Hearers, how humbling is this truth to our pride–that the curse
of God is upon everyone who is of the seed of Adam, that every child
born into this world is born under the curse since it is born under the
Law! Then, in addition to the curse that rests upon us because we are
children of Adam, there is the further curse that comes through our own
transgression. The first moment that I sin, though I sin but once, I
come beneath the curse quoted in the 10th verse of this Chapter,
"Cursed is everyone that continues not in all things which are written
in the Book of the Law to do them"– cursed without hope of mercy apart
from that blessed Savior who "has redeemed us from the curse of the
Law, being made a curse for us." It is a dreadful thought that the
trail of the serpent is over the whole earth, that the poison of sin is
in the fountain of every human heart, that the blood in all our veins
is corrupt, that we are all condemned already, that each one of us,
without a single exception, whether he is a philanthropist, senator,
philosopher, Divine, prince, or monarch, is under the curse unless he
has been redeemed from it by Christ!

The curse, too, while it is universal, is also just. There are many
persons who think that the curse of God upon those who are undeniably
wicked is, of course, right, but that the curse of God upon those who,
for the most part, appear to be excellent, and who may have sinned but
once, is an act of injustice! But when God pronounces the curse, He
does it justly. He is a God of Justice and just and right are all His
ways. And mark you, Man, if you are condemned, it shall be by the
strictest Justice. Even if you have sinned but once, the curse is a
righteous one when it lights upon your head! Do you ask me how this is?
I answer–You say that your sin is little. Then, if it is but little,
how little trouble it might have taken you to have avoided it! If your
transgression is but small, at how small an expense you might have
refrained from it! Some have said, "Surely the sin of Adam was but a
little one–he did but take an apple and eat it." Yes, but in its
littleness was its greatness! If it was but a little thing to take the
forbidden fruit, with how little trouble might the sin have been
avoided! And because it was so small an act, there was couched within
it the greater malignity of guilt. So, too, you may never have
blasphemed your God, you may never have desecrated His Sabbath, yet
insomuch as you have committed a little sin, you are justly condemned,
for a little sin has in it the essence of all sin–and I know not but
that what we call little sins may be greater in God's sight than those
which the world universally condemns and against which the hiss of the
curse of humanity continually rises! I say that God is just even though
He should pronounce a curse upon all His creatures! So tremble, O
Sinners, and "kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish from the
way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that
put their trust in Him." So the curse is universal and it is just.

But, next, the curse of the Law is also fearful. There are some who
seem to think that it is a little matter to be under the curse of God,
but, oh, if they knew the fearful consequences of that crime, they
would realize that it is indeed a terrible one! It were enough to make
our knees knock together, to chill our blood and to cause every hair of
our head to stand on end if we did but know what it is to be under the
curse of God! What does that curse include? It involves the death of
the body and that is by no means an insignificant portion of its
sentence. It also includes spiritual death–the death of that inner
life which Adam had–the life of the spirit which can only be restored
by the Holy Spirit who quickens whom He will. And it includes, last of
all and worst of all, eternal death–that second death which can only
be described by that awful–I had almost said, unutterable word,
"Hell." This is the curse which rests upon every man by nature. We make
no exception for rank or degree, for God has made none. We offer no
hope of exception for character or reputation, for God has made none.
The whole of us are shut up to this, that as far as the Law is
concerned, we must die–die here,

and die in the next world the death which never dies, "where their worm
dies not, and the fire is not quenched," even by a flood of tears of
penitence if they could be shed! There we must be forever lost! Could
we estimate all the consequences of that curse, we might well afford to
ridicule all the torments that tyrants could inflict upon us–we might
well despise any injuries that this body might sustain–when we compare
them with that awful avalanche of threats which rushes down with
resistless force from the mountain of God's Truth!

We hasten from this point, Beloved, for it is fearful work to speak
upon it. Yet we must not depart from it entirely until we have hinted
at one more thought, and that is that the curse of God which comes upon
sinful men is a present curse. O my dear Hearers, could I lay hold of
your hands, if you are not converted, I would labor with tears and
groans, to get you to grasp this thought! It is not merely damnation in
the future that you have to dread–it is condemnation NOW that is your
portion! Yes, my Hearer, sitting where you are, if you are out of
Christ, you are already condemned! Your death warrant has been sealed
with the great seal of the Majesty on High, and the angel's sword of
vengeance is already unsheathed over your head this afternoon! Whoever
you may be, if you are out of Christ there hangs a sword over you,
suspended by a single hair which death shall cut, and then that sword
shall descend, dividing your soul from your body, and dooming both to
eternal pains! You might well start up from your seats in terror if you
did but realize your true condition in God's sight! You are reputable,
you are respectable, you are honorable–perhaps right honorable– yet
you are condemned men, condemned women! On the walls of Heaven your
names are written up there among the Dei-cides who have slain the
Savior, among the rebels against God's government who have committed
high treason against Him! And perhaps even now the dark-winged Angel of
Death is spreading his pinions upon the blast, hastening to hurry you
down to destruction! Say not, O Sinner, that I frighten you! Say rather
that I would bring you to the Savior , for whether you believe this or
not, you cannot alter the truth thereof–that you are now, if you have
not given yourself to Christ– "condemned already." Wherever you sit,
you are but in the condemned cell, for to the unconverted, the
unre-newed, the unrepentant, this whole world is but one huge prison
wherein the condemned one does drag along a chain of condemnation till
death takes him to the scaffold where the fearful execution of terrific
woe must take place upon him! This, then, is "the curse of the Law."

II. But now I must speak, in the second place, of THE REMOVAL OF THAT
CURSE. This is a sweet and pleasant duty. Some of you, my dear Friends,
will be able to follow me in your experience while I remind you how it
was that in your salivation, Christ removed the curse from you.

First, you will agree with me when I say that the removal of the curse
from us is done in a moment. It is an instantaneous thing. I may stand
here one moment under the curse and then, if the Spirit shall quicken
me, and I breathe a prayer to Heaven–if by faith I cast myself on
Jesus–in one solitary second, before the clock has ticked, my sins
shall be all forgiven! Hart sang truly–

"The moment a sinner believes, And trusts in his crucified God, His
pardon at once he receives, Redemption in full through His blood."

You will remember in Christ's life that most of the cures He
worked–yes, I believe all–were instantaneous cures. Look! There lies
a man stretched upon his couch from which he has not risen for years.
"Take up your bed and walk," said Christ in majesty–and then, without
the intervention of weeks of convalescence, "immediately he rose up
before them and took up that where he lay, and departed to his own
house, glorifying God." There is another man! He is deaf and
practically dumb. Christ said to him, "Ephphatha, that is, Be opened,
and immediately his ears were opened and the string of his tongue was
loosed, and he spoke plainly." Yes, and even in the case where Christ
healed death, itself, he did it instantaneously. When that beautiful
young creature lay asleep in death upon the bed, Jesus went to her and
though her dark ringlets covered up her eyes, which were glazed in
death, Jesus did but take her clay-cold hand in His and say to her,
"Ta-litha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto you,
arise," then, "straightway the damsel arose and walked."

It is true that in conversion, Christ commences a work which is to be
carried on through life in sanctification, but the justification of the
sinner, the taking away of the curse, is done in a single moment.
"Unwrite the curse," says God, and it is done! The acquittal is signed
and sealed–it takes not long. I may stand here at this moment and I
may have believed in Christ but five minutes ago–still, even if I have
believed in Christ for only that short time, I am as fully justified,
in

God's sight, as I would be should I live until these hairs are whitened
by the sunlight of Heaven, or as I shall be when I walk among the
garden lamps of the city of palaces! God justifies His people at once!
The curse is removed in a single moment. Sinner, hear that! You may be
now under condemnation, but before you can say, "now," again, you may
be able to say, "There is therefore now no condemnation to me, for I am
in Christ Jesus."

Mark, Beloved, in the next place, that this removal of the curse from
us, when it does take place, is an entire removal It is not merely a
part of the curse which is taken away. Christ does not stand at the
foot of Sinai and say, "Thunders, diminish your force!" He does not
catch the lightning, now and then, and bind its wings. But when He
comes, He blows away all the smoke! He puts aside all the thunder, He
quenches all the lightning–He removes it all! When Christ pardons sin,
He pardons all sin! You may be old and gray-headed, and hitherto
unpardoned, but though your sins exceed in number the stars of the sky,
one moment suffices to take them all away! Mark that–all/That sin of
midnight, that black sin which, like a ghost, has haunted you all your
life! That hideous crime! That unknown act of blackness which has
darkened your character. That awful stain upon your conscience–they
shall all be taken away in a moment! And though you have a stain upon
your hands which you have often sought in vain to wash out with the
mixtures which Moses can give you, you shall find, when you are bathed
in Jesus' blood, that you shall be able to say, "All clean my Lord! All
clean! Not a spot, all is gone! I am completely washed from head to
foot, the stains are all removed." It is the glory of this removal of
the curse, that it is all taken away! There is not a single atom off it
left! Hushed now is the Law's loud thunder–the sentence is completely
reversed and there is no fear of it left!

We must also say upon this point, that when Christ removes the curse,
it is an irreversible removal. Once let me be acquitted by God and who
is he that can condemn me? There are some, in these days, who teach
that God justifies, and yet, after that, condemns the same person whom
He has justified! We have heard it asserted pretty boldly that a man
may be a child of God today–hear it, you heavens, and be
astonished–and be a child of the devil tomorrow! We have heard it
said, but we know it is untrue, for we find nothing in Scripture to
warrant it! We have often asked ourselves–Can men really believe that
after having been begotten again by God unto a lively hope by the
Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead–that new birth can fail and
die? We have asked ourselves, Can men imagine that after God has once
broken our chains, and set us free, He will call us back and bind us
once again, like Prometheus, to the great rocks of despair? Will He
once blot out the handwriting that is against us and then record the
charge again? Once pardoned, then condemned? We know that if Paul had
met with such teachers, he would have said, "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 make intercession for us."
There is no condemnation now to us who are "in Christ Jesus, who walk
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." It is a sweet thought to me
that even Satan himself can never rob me of my pardon. I may lose my
copy of it, and lose my comfort from it, but the original pardon is
filed in Heaven! It may be that gloomy doubts may arise, and I may fear
that I am not forgiven, yet I can say–

"O my distrustful heart,

How small your faith appears.1

But greater, Lord, You are

Than all my doubts and fears!

Did Jesus once upon me shine?

Then Jesus is forever mine!"

I love, at times, to go back in thought to that hallowed hour when I
first realized that my sins were all forgiven for Christ's sake. There
is much comfort in recalling that blessed hour when first we knew the
Lord–

"Do mind the place, the spot of ground Where Jesus did you meet!"

Perhaps you do. Perhaps you can look back to the very place where Jesus
whispered to you that you were His. Can you do so? Oh, what comfort it
will give you! For remember, once acquitted, you are acquitted forever!
So says God's Word. Once pardoned, you are clear forever! Once set at
liberty, you shall never be a slave again! Once Sinai's wrath has been
appeased, it shall never thunder against you again! Blessed be God's
name, we have been brought to Calvary and we shall be brought to Zion,
too! At last we shall stand before God and even there we shall be able
by Grace to say–

"Great God, we are clean!

Through Jesus' blood we are clean."

III. Now we are brought, in the third place, to observe THE GREAT
SUBSTITUTE by whom the curse is removed. "The curse of the Law" was not
easily taken away. In fact, there was but one way whereby it could be
removed. The

lightning was in God's hand–it must be launched–He said it must. The
sword was unsheathed. Divine Justice must be satisfied, God vowed that
it must. Vengeance was ready. Vengeance must fall! God had said that it
must. How, then, was the sinner to be saved? The only answer was this.
The Son of God appears and He says, "Father, launch Your thunderbolts
at Me! Here is My breast, plunge the sword of Justice in here! Here are
My shoulders, let the lash of vengeance fall on them!" Thus Christ, our
Substitute, came forth and stood for us, "the Just for the unjust, that
He might bring us to God." It is our delight to preach the Doctrine of
Substitution because we are fully persuaded that no Gospel is preached
where Substitution is omitted. Unless sinners are plainly and
positively told that Christ stood in their place to bear their guilt
and carry their sorrows, they never can see how God can "be just and
the Justifier of him which believes in Jesus."

We have heard some preach a Gospel something after this order–that,
though God is angry with sinners, yet, out of His great mercy, for the
sake of something that Christ has done, He does not punish them, but
remits the penalty. Now we hold that this is not God's Gospel, for it
is neither just to God nor safe for man! We believe that God never
remitted the penalty, that He did not forgive the sin without punishing
it, but that He exacted the full penalty without the abatement of a
solitary jot or tittle–that Jesus Christ, our Savior, did drink the
veritable cup of our redemption to its very dregs–that He did suffer
beneath the crushing wheels of Divine Vengeance, the same pains and
sufferings which we ought to have endured! Oh, the glorious Doctrine of
Substitution! When it is preached fully and rightly, what a charm and
what a power it has! Oh, how sweet is the work to be able to tell
sinners that although God has said, "The soul that sins, it shall die,"
their Maker has Himself bowed His head to death in their place, and
thus God is righteously able to pardon all Believers in Jesus because
He has met all the claims of Divine Justice on their account!

Should there be one here who does not yet understand the Doctrine of
Substitution, let me repeat what I have said. Sinner, the only way in
which you can be saved is this. God must punish sin. If He did not, He
would unDeify Himself. But if He has punished sin in the Person of
Christ for you, you are fully absolved, you are quite clear! Christ has
suffered what you ought to have suffered, and you may well rejoice in
that. "Well," you say, "I ought to have died." But Christ has died! "I
ought to have been sent to Hell." But Christ has suffered that which is
a full equivalent, and which completely satisfies God's demands. The
cup which His Father gave Him, He drank to its dregs–

"At one tremendous draft of love He drank damnation dry"–

for all who believe in Him! All the punishment, all the curse was laid
upon Him–now it is all gone forever. Yet it had not gone without
having been taken away by the Savior. The thunder has not been
reserved, the lightning has been launched at Him! Divine Justice is
satisfied because Christ has endured the full penalty of all His
people's guilt.

IV. Now we come to answer that last question, HOW MANY OF US CAN SAY
THAT CHRIST HAS REDEEMED US FROM THE CURSE OF THE LAW, HAVING BEEN MADE
A CURSE FOR US?

The first part of our discourse has been entirely doctrinal, some of
you have not cared for it because you did not feel that you were
interested in it. It was natural that it should be so. At the reading
of a will, does the servant stay to listen? No, for there is nothing
for her. But if a man is a son of the testator, how eagerly does he
open his ears to catch every sound, that he may know whether the estate
has been left to him or not? However badly the lawyer may read the
will, he is anxious to hear every word that he may learn if he is to
have a portion among the children. Now, Beloved, let us read the will
again to see if you are among those for whom Christ was the Substitute.
The usual way with most of our congregations is this–they write
themselves down as Christ's long before they know whether God has done
so or not. You make a profession of religion, you wear a Christian's
cloak, you behave like a Christian, you take a seat in a church or a
chapel, and you think you are Christianized at once. Yet many in our
congregation who fancy that they are Christian, have made a great
mistake! Let me beg you not to suppose that you are Believers in Christ
because your parents were, or because you belong to an orthodox church.
Religion is a thing which we must have for ourselves, and it is a
question which we all ought to ask–whether we are savingly interested
in the Atonement of Christ and have a portion in the merit of His
agonies?

Come, then, my Friend, let me put a question or two to you. And fist
let me ask you this– Were you ever condemned by the Law in your own
conscience? "No," you say, "I know not what you mean." Of course you do
not, and you have

therefore no true hope that you are saved. But I will ask you yet
again–Have you ever been condemned by the Law in your conscience? Have
you ever heard the Law of God saying in your soul, "Cursed is everyone
that continues not in all things which are written in the Book of the
Law to do them"? And have you felt that you were thus cursed? Did you
ever stand before God's bar, like a poor condemned criminal before his
judge, ready for execution? Have you, as John Bunyan would have put it,
ever had the rope around your neck? Have you ever seen the black cap
placed upon the head of your Judge? Have you even thoughtyourself about
to be turned to the gallows? Have you ever walked the earth as if, at
every step, it would open beneath your feet and swallow you up? Have
you ever felt yourself to be a worthless, ruined, sin-condemned,
Law-condemned, conscience-condemned sinner? Have you ever fallen down
before God and said, "Lord, You are just. Though You slay me, I will
say that You are just, for I am sinful and deserve Your wrath"? As the
Lord lives, if you have never felt and spoken like that, you are still
a stranger to His Grace, for the man who acquits himself, God condemns!
And if the Law condemns you, God will acquit you! So long as you have
felt yourself condemned, you may know that Christ died for condemned
ones and shed His blood for sinners. But if you fold your arms in
self-security, if you say, "I am good, I am righteous, I am honorable,"
be you warned of this–your armor is the weaving of a spider and it
shall be broken in pieces! The garments of your righteousness are light
as feathers and shall be blown away by the breath of the Eternal in
that day when He shall unspin all that Nature has ever woven! Yes, I
bid you now take heed of this–if you have never been condemned by the
Law, you have never been acquitted by Divine Grace!

Now I will ask you another question–Have you ever felt yourself to be
acquitted by Grace? ' 'No," says one, "I have never expected to feel
that. I thought that we might perhaps know it when we came to die, or
that a few eminent Christians might possibly then know themselves to be
forgiven, but I think, Sir, you are very enthusiastic to ask mewhether
I have ever felt myself forgiven." My dear Friend, you make a great
mistake. If a man had been a galley slave, chained to an oar for many a
year, and if he were once set free, do you think that he would not know
whether he were free or not? Do you think that a slave who had been
toiling in bondage for years, when once he trod the land of freedom, if
you should say to him, "Do you know that you are emancipated?" do you
think that he would not know it? Or if a man who has been dead in his
grave were to be awakened to life, do you think he would not know it?
He will know himself to be alive as the emancipated slave will know
that he is a free man! If you have never felt your chains fall off you,
then your chains are still on you, for when God breaks our chains off
us, we know ourselves to be free! The most of us, when God set us free
from our prison camp, leaped for very joy! And we remember that the
mountains and the hills did break forth before us into singing, and all
the trees of the field did clap their hands! We shall never forget that
gladsome moment! It is indelibly impressed upon our memory–we shall
remember it to life's last hour! I ask you again–Did you ever feel
yourself to be forgiven? And if you say, "No," then you have no reason
to think that you areforgiven! If the Lord has never whispered in your
ear, "I, even I, am He that blots out your transgressions"–you have no
right to think yourself pardoned! Oh, I beseech you, examine yourself
and know whether you have been condemned by the Law, and whether you
have been acquitted by Grace!

And, lastly, my dear Friends, I may have, and doubtless do have, many
here present who have simply come to spend an hour, but who have no
care, no interest, no concern about their souls, who are perhaps,
utterly careless as to whether they are condemned or not. If I could
speak to you as I could wish, I would speak–

"As though I never might speak again, And as a dying man to dying men."
When I remember that, likely enough, I shall never see the faces of
many of you again, I feel that there is a deep and an awful
responsibility lying upon me to speak to such of you as are careless.
There are some of you who are putting off the evil day, or you are
saying, "If I am condemned, I care not for it." Ah, my Friend! If I saw
you asleep upon your bed when the flames were raging in your chamber, I
would shout in your ear, or I would drag you from your couch of
slumber. If I knew that while you had a fatal disease within you, you
would not take the medicine which alone could cure you, I would, upon
my knees implore you to take that medicine! But, alas, here you are,
many of you, in danger of eternal destruction–and you have a disease
within your souls that must soon destroy them forever! Yet what
careless, hardened, thoughtless creatures you are, just caring for the
body and not seeing Christ to be the Savior of your souls! As the
angels laid hold upon Lot, and said to him, "Escape for your life! Look
not behind you, neither stay you in all the plain! Escape to the
mountain, lest you be consumed," so would I do to you. I would come to
each one of you and say, "My brother,

carelessness may be of use to you now, but carelessness will not stop
the voice of death when he speaks! Indifference may silence my voice in
your conscience now, but when that grim skeleton tyrant comes to
address you, indifference will not do then! You may laugh now, you may
dance now, you may be merry now, your cup may be full to the brim
now–but what will you do in that day when the heavens are clothed with
Glory, when the books are opened, when the Great White Throne is set,
and when you come before your Maker to be acquitted or condemned? I
beseech you, prepare for that day! I beg of you, for Christ's sake, to
picture yourself before your Judge–conceive of Him there in yonder
heavens seated upon His Throne–imagine that you are now looking upon
Him. O my Hearer, what will you do? You are before the Judgment Seat
without Christ as your Savior! "Rocks, hide me, for I am naked!" But
you are dragged out, Sinner, naked before your Judge! What will you do
now? I see you bend your knees. I hear you cry, "O Jesus, clothe me
now!" "No," says Jesus, "that robe can never be worn by you now."
"Savior, have mercy upon me even now.""No," says He, "I called, but you
refused. I stretched out My hand, but no man regarded; you set at
nothing all My counsel, and would none of My reproach, so now I will
laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear comes."

Am I talking realities or mere fictions? Why, realities, and yet, if I
were reading a novel to you, you would be lost in tears! But when I
tell you God's Truth that soon His Throne shall be set and we shall all
appear before Him, you sit unmoved and remain careless concerning that
great event! But be it known to every careless sinner that death and
judgment are not the unimportant things that they may have fancied!
Everlasting wrath and eternal severance from God are not such light
things to endure as they may have conceived. "It is a fearful thing to
fall into the hands of the living God."

Have I one here who is saying, "What must I do to be saved, for I feel
myself condemned?" Hear Christ's own words–"He that believes and is
baptized shall be saved; but he that believes not shall be damned." Do
you ask me what it is to believe? Hear, then, the answer. To believe is
to look to Jesus! That little word, "look," beautifully expresses what
a sinner is to do. There is little in its appearance, but there is much
in its meaning. Believing is letting the hands lie still and turning
the eyes to Christ. We cannot be saved by our hands–but we are saved
when we look to Jesus by faith. Sinner, it is no use for you to try to
save yourself! To believe in Christ is the only way of salvation–and
that is throwing self behind your back and putting Christ right before
you! I can never find a better description than that of the Negro–"to
believe is to fall flat down upon the promise, and to lie there." To
believe is to do as one might do in a stream. It is said that if we
were to fold our arms and lie motionless upon the water, we would not
sink. To believe is to float upon the stream of Grace. I grant you that
there will be much that you will do afterwards, but you must live
before you can do! The Gospel is the reverse of the Law. The Law says,
"Do, and live." The Gospel says, "Live first, then do." The thing for
you to say, poor Sinner, is just this, "Lord Jesus, here I am. I give
myself to You."

I never had a better idea of believing in Jesus then I once had from a
poor countryman. I may have mentioned this before, but it struck me
very forcibly at the time and I cannot help repeating it. Speaking
about faith, he said, "The old enemy has been troubling me very much
lately, but I told him that he must not say anything to me about my
sins–he must go to my Master, for I had transferred the whole concern
to Him–bad debts and all." That is believing in Jesus! Believing is
giving up all we have to Christ and taking all that Christ has to
ourselves! It is changing houses with Christ, changing clothes with
Christ, changing our unrighteousness for His righteousness, changing
our sins for His merits. Execute the transfer, Sinner, or rather, may
God's Grace execute it and give you faith in it! And then the Law will
no longer be your condemnation, but it shall acquit you! May Christ add
His blessing! May the Holy Spirit rest upon us and may we all at last
meet in Heaven! Then will we sing "to the praise of the

Glory of His Grace, wherein He has made us accepted in the Beloved."