WONDROUS LOVE
AND OTHER GOSPEL ADDRESSES
BY
D. L. MOODY
AUTHOR OF
“PREVAILING PRAYER” “SOVEREIGN GRACE” ETC.
DELIVERED DURING MESSRS. MOODY AND SANKEY’S
FIRST CAMPAIGN IN ENGLAND
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THE WORLD-WIDE LIBRARY
THE SEEKING SAVIOUR
By Dr. W. P. Mackay
Author of “Grace and Truth”
HOW AND WHEN
Do we Become Children of God?
50 Answers by Well-Known Men
THE GOOD SHEPHERD
By H. Forbes Witherby
ABUNDANT GRACE
By DR. W. P. MACKAY
Author of “Grace and Truth”
FORGIVENESS, LIFE AND GLORY
By Sir S. Arthur Blackwood
WONDROUS LOVE: Original Addresses
By D. L. Moody
First issued in 1876
Made and Printed in Great Britain
[Christ’s Boundless Compassion]
WONDROUS LOVE
God loved the world of sinners lost
And ruined by the fall;
Salvation full, at highest cost,
He offers free to all.
Oh, ’twas love, ’twas wondrous love,
The love of God to me;
It brought my Saviour from above,
To die on Calvary!
E’en now by faith I claim Him mine,
The risen Son of God;
Redemption by His death I find,
And cleansing through the blood.
Love brings the glorious fulness in,
And to His saints makes known
The blessed rest from inbred sin,
Through faith in Christ alone.
Believing souls, rejoicing go;
There shall to you be given
A glorious foretaste, here below,
Of endless life in heaven.
Of victory now o’er Satan’s power
Let all the ransomed sing,
And triumph in the dying hour
Through Christ, the Lord, our King.
Addresses by D. L. Moody
CHRIST’S BOUNDLESS
COMPASSION
“And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and He healed their sick.”—Matthew xiv. 14.
It is often recorded in Scripture that Jesus was moved by compassion; and we are told in this verse that after the disciples of John had come to Him and told Him that their master had been beheaded, that he had been put to a cruel death, He went out into a desert place, and the multitude followed Him, and that when He saw the multitude He had “compassion” on them, and healed their sick. If He were here to-night in person, standing in my place, His heart would be moved as He looked down into your faces, because He could also look into your hearts, and could read the burdens and troubles and sorrows you have to bear. They are hidden from my eye, but He knows all about them, and so when the multitude gathered round about Him, He knew how many weary, broken, and aching hearts there were there. But He is here to-night, although we cannot see Him with the bodily eye, and there is not a sorrow, or trouble, or affliction which any of you are enduring but He knows all about it; and He is the same to-night as He was when here upon earth—the same Jesus, the same Man of compassion.
When He saw that multitude He had compassion on it, and healed their sick; and I hope He will heal a great many sin-sick souls here, and will bind up a great many broken hearts. And let me say, in the opening of this sermon, that there is no heart so bruised and broken but the Son of God will have compassion upon you, if you will let Him. “He will not break a bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax.” He came into the world to bring mercy, and joy, and compassion, and love.
If I were an artist I should like to draw some pictures to-night, and put before you that great multitude on which He had compassion. And then I would draw another painting of that man coming to Him full of leprosy, full of it from head to foot. There he was, banished from his home, banished from his friends, and he comes to Jesus with his sad and miserable story. And now, my friends, let us make
THE BIBLE STORIES REAL,
for that is what they are. Think of that man. Think how much he had suffered. I don’t know how many years he had been away from his wife and children and home; but there he was. He had put on a strange and particular garb, so that anybody coming near him might know that he was unclean. And when he saw any one approaching him he had to raise the warning cry, “Unclean! unclean! unclean!” Aye, and if the wife of his bosom were to come out to tell him that a beloved child was sick and dying, he durst not come near her, he was obliged to fly. He might hear her voice at a distance, but he could not be there to see his child in its last dying moments. He was, as it were, in a living sepulchre; it was worse than death. There he was, dying by inches, an outcast from everybody and everything, and not a hand put out to relieve him. Oh, what a terrible life! Then think of him coming to Christ, and when Christ saw him, it says He was moved with compassion. He had a heart that beat in sympathy with the poor leper, He had compassion on him, and the man came to Him and said, “Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou cant make me clean.” He knew there was no one to do it but the Son of God Himself, and
THE GREAT HEART OF CHRIST
was moved with compassion towards him. Hear the gracious words that fell from His lips—“I will; be thou clean!” and the leprosy fled, and the man was made whole immediately. Look at him now on his way back home to his wife and children and friends! No longer an outcast, no longer a loathsome thing, no longer cursed with that terrible leprous disease, but going back to his friends rejoicing. Now, my friends, you may say you pity a man who was so badly off, but did it ever strike you that you are a thousand times worse off? The leprosy of the soul is far worse than the leprosy of the body. I would rather a thousand times have the body full of leprosy than go down to hell with the soul full of sin. A good deal better that this right hand of mine were lopped off, that this right foot should decay, and that I should go halt and lame and blind all the days of my life, than be banished from God by the leprosy of sin. Hear the wailing and the agony and the woe that is going up from this earth caused by sin! If there is one poor sin-sick soul filled with leprosy here to-night, if you come to Christ He will have compassion on you, and say, as He did to that man, “I will; be thou clean.”
THE DEAD RAISED.
Well, now we come to the next picture that represents Him as moved with compassion. Look into that little home. There is a poor widow sitting there. Perhaps a few months before she had buried her husband, and now she has an only son. How she dotes upon him! She looks to him to be her stay and her support and friend in her old age. She loves him far better than her own life-blood. But see, at last sickness enters the dwelling, and death comes with it, and lays his ice-cold hand upon the young man. You can see that widowed mother watching over him day and night; but at last those eyes are closed, and that loved voice is hushed, she thinks, for ever. She will never see or hear him more after he is buried out of her sight. And so the hour comes for his burial. Many of you have been in the house of mourning, and have been with your friends when they have gone to the grave and looked at the loved one for the last time. There is not one here, I dare say, who has not lost some beloved one. I never went to a funeral and saw a mother take the last look of her child but it has pierced my heart, and I could not keep back the tears at such a sight. Well, the mother kisses her only son on that poor, icy forehead; it is her last kiss, her last look, and now the body is covered up, and they put him on the bier and start for the place of burial. She had a great many friends, The little town of Nain was moved at the sight of the widow’s only son being borne away. I see that great crowd as they come pushing out of the gates; but over yonder are thirteen men, weary, and dusty, and tired, and they have to stand by the wayside to let this great crowd pass by, and the Son of God is in this group, and the others with Him are His disciples. And He looked upon that scene and saw the mother with her broken heart; He saw it bleeding, crushed, and wounded, and it touched His heart. Yes, the great heart of the Son of God was moved with compassion, and He came up and touched the bier, and said,
“YOUNG MAN, ARISE!”
and the young man came forth. I can see the multitude startled and astonished; I can see the widowed mother going back rejoicing with the morning rays of the resurrection shining in her heart. Yes, He had indeed compassion on her. And there is not a widow in this hall but Christ’s voice will respond to your trouble and give you peace. Oh, dear friends, let me say to you whose hearts are aching, you need a friend like Jesus. He is just the friend the widow needs; He is just the friend every poor bleeding heart needs; He will have compassion on you and will bind up your wounded, bleeding heart if you will only come to Him just as you are. He will receive you, without upbraiding or chastising, to His loving bosom, and say, “Peace, be still,” and you can walk in the unclouded sunlight of His love from this night. Christ will be worth more to you than all the world besides. He is just the friend that all of you need; and I pray God you may every one of you know Him from this hour as your Saviour and friend.
THE MAN WHO WAS ROBBED AND SPOILED.
The next picture which I shall show you to illustrate Christ’s compassion is the man that was going down to Jericho and fell among thieves. They had taken away his coat, aye, and if he had a watch they would have taken that as well. However, they took his money, and stripped him, and left him half dead. Look at him wounded, bleeding, dying; and now comes down the road a priest, and he looks upon the scene. His heart might have been touched, but he was not moved with compassion enough to help the poor man. He might have said, “Poor fellow”; but he passed by on the other side and left him. After him came down a Levite, and he said, “Poor man”; but he was not moved with compassion to help him. Ah, there are a good many like the priest and Levite! Perhaps some of you coming down to this hall meet a drunkard reeling in the street, and just say, “Poor fellow,” or it may be you laugh because he stammers out some foolish thing. We are very unlike the Son of God. At last a Samaritan came down that way, and he looked down on the man and had compassion on him. He got off his beast, and took oil and poured it into his wounds, and bound them up, and took him out of the ditch, helpless as he was, and placed him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. That good Samaritan represents your Christ and mine. He came into the world to seek and to save
THAT WHICH WAS LOST.
Young man, have you come to London, and fallen in with bad companions? Have they taken you to theatres and vicious places, and left you bleeding and wounded? Oh, come to-night to the Son of God, and He will have compassion on you, and take you off from the dunghill, and transform you, and lift you up into His kingdom, and into the heights of His glory, if you will only let Him! I do not care who you are; I do not care what your past life may have been. As He said to the poor woman caught in adultery, “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.” He had compassion upon her, and He will have compassion on you. That man coming down from Jerusalem to Jericho represents thousands in London, and that good Samaritan represents the Son of God. Young man, Jesus Christ has set His heart on saving you. Will you receive His love and compassion? Do not have such hard thoughts about the Son of God. Do not think He has come to condemn you. He has come to save you.
THE PRODIGAL.
But I should like to draw another picture, another scene—that young man going away from his home that we read of in the fifteenth chapter of Luke; an ungrateful man, an ungrateful wretch as ever one saw. He could not wait for his inheritance till his father was dead, he wanted his share at once; and so he said to his father, “Give me the goods that belong to me,” and his good old father gives him the goods, and away he goes. I can see him now as he starts on his journey, full of pride, boastful and arrogant, going out to see life, off in grand style to some foreign country—say, going down to London. How many have come down to London, that being the far country to them, squandering all their money. Yes, he was a popular man as long as he had money. His friends last as long as his money lasts; a very popular young man in London, “hail-fellow-well-met” greets him everywhere. He always paid the liquor bill and cigars. Yes, he had plenty of friends in London. What grand folly! But when his money was gone, where were his friends? Oh, you that serve the devil, you have a hard master! Well, when the prodigal’s money was all gone, of course they laughed at him, and called him a fool; and so he was. What a blind, misguided young man he was! Just see what he lost. He lost his father’s home, his table and food, and testimony, and every comfort, and lost his work, except what he got down there while feeding those swine. He was in an unlawful business. And that’s just what
THE BACKSLIDER
is doing; he is in the devil’s pay. You are losing your time and testimony. No one has any confidence in a backslider; for even the world despises such a character. This young man lost his testimony. Look at him amongst the swine. At last one in that far country comes along, and, taking stock of him, says, “Look at that miserable, wretched, dirty, barefooted fellow taking care of swine.” “Ah,” says the prodigal, “don’t talk to me like that. Why, my father’s a rich man, and has got servants better dressed than you are.” “Don’t tell me that,” says the other. “If you had such a father as that, I know very well he wouldn’t own you.” And no one would believe him.
HE HAD LOST HIS TESTIMONY.
No one believes a backslider. Let him talk about his enjoyment with God, nobody believes it. Oh, poor backslider, I pity you! You had better come home again. Well, at last the poor prodigal comes to himself, and he says, “I will arise and go to my father,” and now he starts. Look at him as he goes along, pale and hungry, with his head down; his strength is exhausted, and perhaps disease in his frame, and so shattered that no one would know him but his father. Love is keen to detect its object. The old man has often been longing for his return. I can see him many a night up on the house-top looking out to catch a glimpse of him. Many a long night he has wrestled with God that his prodigal son might come back. Everything he had heard from that far country told him his boy was going to ruin as fast as he could go. The old man spent much time in prayer for him, and at last faith begins to arise, and he says, “I believe God will send back my boy”; and one day the old man sees afar off that long-lost boy. He does not know him by his dress, but he detected the gait of him, and he says to himself, “Yes, that’s my boy.” I see him now pass down the stairs; he rushes along the highway; he is running. Ah! that is just like God. Many a time in the Bible God is represented as running; He is in great haste to meet the backslider. Yes, the old man is running; he sees him afar off, and he has compassion on him. The boy wanted to tell him his story what he had done, and where he had been, but the old man could not wait to hear him; his heart was filled with compassion, and he took him to his loving bosom. The boy wanted to go down into the kitchen, but the old man would not let him. No, but he bade the servants put shoes on his feet, and a ring on his finger, and kill the fatted calf, and make merry. The prodigal has come home, the wanderer has returned, and the old man rejoices over the backslider’s return. Oh, backslider, come home, and there will be joy in your heart and in the heart of God. May God bring the backsliders back to-night—this very hour. Say as the poor prodigal did, “I will arise and go to my father,” and on the authority of God I tell you God will receive you; He will blot out your sins, and restore you to His love, and you shall walk again in the light of His reconciled countenance.
CHRIST WEEPS OVER JERUSALEM.
But look again. He comes to mount Olivet. He is under the shadow of the cross. The city bursts upon Him. Yonder is the Temple; He sees it in all its grandeur and glory. The people are shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David! They are breaking off the palm branches, and taking off their garments, and spreading them before Him, still shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David! and bowing down before Him. But He forgets it all. Yes, even Calvary with all its sorrow He forgets. Gethsemane lay there at the foot of the hill; He forgot it too. As He looked upon the city which He loved, the great heart of the Son of God was moved with compassion, and He cried aloud, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!”
My friends, look at Him there weeping over Jerusalem. What a wonderful city it might have been. How exalted to heaven it was. Oh, if they had only known the day of their visitation, and had received instead of rejected their king, what a blessing He would have been to them! Oh, poor backslider, behold the Lamb of God weeping over you, and crying to you to come to Him, and receive shelter and refuge from the storm which has yet to sweep over this earth!
LOOK AT POOR PETER,
See what he does. He denied the Lord, and swore he never knew Him. If ever He needed sympathy, if ever He needed His disciples round Him, it was that night, when they were bringing false witnesses against Him, that He might be condemned to death; and there was Peter, one of His foremost disciples, swearing he never knew Him. He might have turned on Peter and said, “Peter, is it true you don’t know me? Is it true you have forgotten how I cured and healed your wife’s mother when she lay at the point of death? Is it true you have forgotten how I raised you up when you were sinking in the sea? Is it true, Peter, you forgot how you were with me on the mount of transfiguration, when heaven and earth came together, and you heard the voice speaking from the clouds? Is it true you have forgotten that mountain scene when you wanted to build the three tabernacles? Is it true, Peter, you have forgotten me?” Yes, thus He might have taunted poor Peter; but instead of that He just gave him one look of compassion that broke his heart, and he went out and wept bitterly.
THE PERSECUTING SAUL.
Again, look at that bold blasphemer and persecutor who was going to stamp out the early Church, and was breathing out threatenings and slaughter, when Christ met him on his way to Damascus. It is the same Jesus still. Listen, and hear what He says—“Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” Why, He could have smitten him to the earth with a look or a breath; but instead of that, the heart of the Son of God was moved with compassion, and He cries out, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” If there is a persecutor here to-night, I would ask you, “Why persecute Jesus?” He loves you, sinner; He loves you, persecutor. You never received anything but goodness and kindness and love from Him. And Saul cried out, “Who art thou?” And He answered, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.” It is hard to fight against such a loving friend, to contend against one who loves you as I do; and down comes the proud, persecuting Saul, down upon his face, and he cried out, “Lord, what wouldst Thou have me to do?” And the Lord told him, and he went and did it. May the Lord have compassion upon the infidel, and sceptic, and persecutor. Let me ask you, my friend, Is there any reason why you should hate Christ, or why your heart should be turned against Him?
I remember a story about a teacher telling the scholars all to follow Jesus, and how they might all be missionaries, and go out to work for others. And one day one of the smallest came to her and said, “I asked such and such a one to come with me, and they said they would like to come, but their father was an infidel.”
“WHY DON’T YOU LOVE JESUS?”
And the young child wanted to know what an infidel was, and the teacher went on to explain to her. And one day, when she was on her way to school, this infidel was coming out of the post office with his letters in his hand, when the child ran up to him, and said, “Why don’t you love Jesus?” He thought at first to push her aside, but the child pressed it home again, “Why don’t you love Jesus?” If it had been a man, the infidel would have resented it; but he did not know what to do with the child, and with tears in her eyes she asked him again, “Oh! please, tell me, why don’t you love Jesus?” He went on to his office, but he felt as if every letter he opened read, “Why don’t you love Jesus?” He attempted to write, with the same result; every letter seemed to ask him, “Why don’t you love Jesus?” and he threw down his pen in despair, and went out of his office, but he could not get rid of the question; it was asked by a still small voice within, and as he walked along it seemed as if the very ground and the very heavens whispered to him, “Why don’t you love Jesus?” At last he went home, and there it seemed as if his own children asked him the question, so he said to his wife, “I will go to bed early to-night,” thinking to sleep it away; but when he laid his head on the pillow it seemed as if the pillow whispered it to him. So he got up about midnight, and said, “I can find out where Christ contradicts Himself, and I’ll search it out and prove Him a liar.” Well, the man got up, and turned to the Gospel of John, and read on from the beginning until he came to the words, “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” What love! he thought; and at last the old infidel’s heart was stirred. He could find no reason for not loving Jesus, and down he went on his knees and prayed, and before the sun rose the old infidel was in the kingdom of God.
I will challenge any one on the face of the earth to find any reason for not loving Christ. It is only here on earth men think they have a reason for not doing so. In heaven they know Him, and they shout, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.” Oh, sinner, if you knew Him you would have no wish to find a reason for not loving Him. He is “the chiefest among ten thousand, and altogether lovely.” I can imagine a good many saying, “I should like very much to become a Christian, and I should like to know how I can come to Him, and be saved.”
COME TO HIM AS A PERSONAL FRIEND.
For twenty years I have made this a rule. Christ is just as habitually near, as personally present to me as any other person living; and when I have any troubles, trials, and afflictions, I go to Him with them. When I want counsel I go to Him, just as if I could talk face to face with Him. Twenty years ago God met me one night and took me to His bosom, and I would sooner give up my life to-night than give up Christ, or that I should leave Him, or that He should leave me, and that I should have no one to bear my burdens, or tell my sorrows to. Why, He is worth more than all the world beside; and to-night He will have compassion upon you as He had upon me. I tried for weeks to find a way to Him, and I just went and laid my burden upon Him, and then He revealed Himself to me, and I have ever since found Him a true and sympathizing friend, just the friend you need. Go right straight to Him. You need not go to this man or that man, to this church or that church. “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”
There is no name so dear to the Americans as that of
ABRAHAM LINCOLN,
and in an audience like this in America you would see the tears trickle down many a cheek at his name: he is very dear to us Americans. Do you want to know the reason why? I will tell you. He was a man of compassion; he was very gentle, and was noted for his heart of sympathy for the down-trodden and the poor. No one went to him with a tale of sympathy but he had compassion on them, no matter how far down they were in the scale of society. He always took an interest in the poor. There was a time in our history when we thought he had too much compassion. Many of our soldiers did not understand army discipline, and a great many were not true to the army regulations. They intended to be, but they did not understand them. Many a man consequently went wrong, and they were court-martialed and condemned to be shot; but Abraham Lincoln would always pardon them; and at length the nation rose up against him, and said that he was to merciful, and ultimately they got him to give out that if a man was court-martialed he must be shot, that there would be no more reprieves.
THE SLEEPING SENTINEL.
A few weeks after this, news came that a young soldier had been sleeping at his post. He was court-martialed, and condemned to be shot. The boy wrote to his mother, “I do not want you to think I do not love my country, but it came about in this way: My comrade was sick, and I went out on picket for him; and the next night he ought to have come, but still being sick I went out for him again, and without intending it I fell asleep. I did not intend to be disloyal.”
It was a very touching letter, and the mother and father said there is no chance, there will be no more reprieves. But there was a little girl in that home, and she knew that Abraham Lincoln had a little boy, and how he loved that little boy; and she said if Abraham Lincoln knew how my father and mother loved my brother he would never allow him to be shot, and she took the train to go and plead for her brother; and when she got to the President’s mansion the difficulty arose how was she to get past the sentinel. So she told him her story, and the tears ran down his cheeks, and he let her pass. But the next trouble was how to get past the secretary and the other officials. However, she succeeded in getting, unobstructed, into his private room, and there were the senators and ministers busy with State affairs. The President saw the child, and called her to him, and said, “My child, what can I do for you?” and she told him her story. The big tears rolled down his cheeks. He was a father, and his heart was full; he could not stand it. He treated the girl with kindness, and then having reprieved the boy, gave him thirty days furlough, and sent him home to see his mother. His heart was full of compassion.
And, let me tell you, Christ’s heart is more full of compassion than any man’s. You are condemned to die for your sins; but if you come to Him He will say, “Loose him, and let him go” (John xi.). He will rebuke Satan, and the dead shall live. Go to Him as that little girl went to the President, and tell Him all; keep nothing from Him, and He will say, “Go in peace.”
THE TOUCH OF COMPASSION.
Let me ask the poor backslider, Did you ever feel the touch of the hand of Jesus? If so, you will know it again, for there is love in it. There is a story told in connection with our war of a mother who received a despatch that her boy was mortally wounded. She went down to the front, as she knew that those soldiers told to watch the sick and wounded could not watch her boy as she would. So she went to the doctor, and said, “Would you like me to take care of my boy?” The doctor said, “We have just let him go to sleep, and if you go to him the surprise will be so great it might be dangerous to him. He is in a very critical state. I will break the news to him gradually.” “But,” said the mother, “he may never wake up. I should so dearly like to see him.” Oh, how she longed to see him! and finally the doctor said, “You can see him, but if you wake him up and he dies, it will be your fault.” “Well,” she said, “I will not wake him up if I may only go by his dying cot and see him.” Well, she went to the side of the cot. Her eyes had longed to see him; and as she gazed upon him she could not keep her hand off that pallid forehead, and she laid it gently there. There was love and sympathy in that hand, and the moment the slumbering boy felt it, he said, “Oh, mother, have you come?” He knew there was sympathy and affection in the touch of that hand. And if you, oh, sinner, will let Jesus reach out His hand and touch your heart, you, too, will find there is sympathy and love in it. That every lost soul here may be saved, and come to the arms of our blessed Saviour, is the prayer of my heart!
Jesus, my Saviour, to Bethlehem come,
Born in a manger to sorrow and shame;
Oh it was wonderful blest be His name,
Seeking for me, for me.
Jesus, my Saviour, on Calvary’s tree,
Paid my great debt, and my soul He set free;
Oh, it was wonderful, how could it be!
Dying for me, for me.
[THE NEW BIRTH]
“Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”—John iii. 3
Much less inherit it. He can’t even get a glimpse of the kingdom of God except he be born again. I believe this is the most important subject that will ever come before us in this world. I don’t believe there is any truth in the whole Bible so important as the truth brought out in the third chapter of the Gospel of John.
It is the A B C of God’s alphabet. If a man is unsound on regeneration, he is unsound on everything. That is really the foundation-stone; and he must get the foundation right. If he don’t, what is the good of trying to build a house? Now, Christ says plainly, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” But although regeneration or the new birth is taught so plainly in the third chapter of John, I don’t believe there is any truth in the whole Bible that there is such great darkness about as this great truth. There are a great many like the man that saw men as trees walking. Many Christians do not seem to be clear about this new birth.
BORN A CHRISTIAN.
Only this afternoon, as I was in the inquiry-room, a person came in, and I said, “Are you a Christian?” “Why,” she says, “of course I am.” “Well,” I said, “how long have you been one?” “Oh, sir, I was born one!” “Oh! indeed, then I am very glad to take you by the hand; I congratulate you; you are the first woman I ever met who was born a Christian; you are more fortunate than others; they are born children of Adam.” She hesitated a little, and then tried to make out that, because she was born in England, she was a Christian. There are many who have the idea, that because they are born in a Christian country, they have been born of the Spirit. Now, in this third chapter of John, the new birth is brought out so plain, that if any one will read it carefully and prayerfully, I think his eyes will soon be opened. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; it remains flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit, and remains spirit. So, when a man is born of God, he has God’s nature. When a man is born of his parents, he receives their nature, and they received the nature of their parents, and you can trace it back to Adam. But when a man is born of God, or born from above, or born of the Spirit—that is the way the Holy Ghost puts it in that third verse—he receives God’s nature, and then it is he leaves the life of the flesh for the life of the spirit.
Before I go on I want to say one thing, and that is, what this new birth, or being born of the Spirit, is not. A great many think they have been born again because they go to church. A great many say, “Oh, yes, I am a Christian; I go to church every Sabbath!” Let me say here that there is no one that goes to church so regularly in all London as Satan. He is always there before the minister, and he is the last one out of the church. There is not a church in London, or a chapel, but that he is a regular attendant of it. The idea that he is only down in the slums and lanes and alleys of London is a false idea. He is wherever the Word is preached; it is his business to be there, and catch away the seed. He is here to-night. Some of you may go to sleep, but he won’t. Some of you may not listen to the sermon, but he will. He will be watching, and when the seed is just entering into some heart he will go and catch it away.
A CHRISTIAN BECAUSE BAPTIZED.
Another class say, “Oh, yes, I am a Christian, because I was baptized.” Now, I want to say here that baptism is one thing, and being born again is another. Because a person is baptized, you cannot say that that is the new birth. Would you call that being born from above? You cannot baptize a man into the kingdom of God. Now, bear that in mind. If I could save men by baptizing them, you would not catch me preaching. I would get water and baptize them; that would be the quickest way. It would be no use to be praying and pleading for men to flee from the wrath of God. But you can never get them into the kingdom of God by baptism. Baptism is all right in its place. I am not here crying down church ordinances; I am talking about the new birth: and there are a great many, I believe, being deceived on this one point, that because they have been baptized at some time in their life they have become Christians. But that is not the new birth; that is not being born from above and of the Spirit. Do not let Satan deceive you, my friends, on that point, for it is a very important truth; and we want to have every one here to understand, and I hope the Spirit of God will make plain the difference between baptism and regeneration, or being born of the Spirit.
JOINING THE CHURCH.
There is another class that say, “Oh, yes, I became a Christian when I joined the church.” That is not being born again. What has that to do with the new birth, being united with the church on earth? There are a great many united with the church who are on their way to death and ruin. A great many have no hope of eternal life who are church members. One of the twelve Christ chose to follow Him turned out a hypocrite and a traitor; he was not loyal to Christ at heart. My friends, don’t build your hope of heaven upon some profession of your faith, but bear in mind you must be born of God. Now just let me stop a minute, and you think, and ask yourselves this question, “Have I been born again?” It is the most solemn question that will ever come before you down here, “Have I been born from above? Have I been born of the Spirit?” It is not making some new resolutions. You have made enough of them. I never met any one who had not made some good resolutions in their life. It is not trying to do good. A great many say, “I try to do the best I can, and I think it will come out all right.” What is that to do with the new birth and the new creation? God does not promise salvation to him that tries to do the best he can, but to him that believeth, or that is born of the Spirit; for “except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
THE NEW BIRTH INSTANTANEOUS.
Now, I believe this new birth is instantaneous. I have met a great many people who cannot tell the day or the hour of their conversion; but there must have been a time when they passed from death unto life—when they were born of the Spirit. There must have been a time when their names were written in the Book of Life. They may not be conscious of the day, or the hour, or the week, or the month, or the year; but, my friends, I beg of you to be sure that you have been born of the Spirit. Don’t be deceived upon this one truth, because Christ Himself says, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
THE FLESH CANNOT SERVE GOD.
As I said before, when I was born of my parents I received their nature, I received the nature of the flesh; and I cannot serve God in the flesh. “God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” And before a man can worship God he must be born of God; he must be born of the Spirit. Then with this new birth, with this new life, he can serve God; then the yoke is easy, and the burden is light. A man may as well try to fly to the moon as to serve God before he has been born of the Spirit; it is utterly impossible. The natural man is at enmity against God; his natural heart is at war with God; it always has been, and it always will be. And not only that, but you cannot make it better. God never mends, He creates anew; therefore don’t be trying to patch up that old Adam nature. God says, “It shall never come into my presence.” Therefore God has just set it aside. But He tells us how we are to come into His presence, and how we are to get into His kingdom. This is worthy to be borne in mind. You cannot educate men into it. That is what the world is trying to do. But he that climbeth up by some other way than the Lord’s way, the same is a thief and a robber. You had better be born into it in God’s way.
We have a law in America that no man shall be President of the United States that has not been born on American soil. We have a great many Englishmen come to America, and a great many men from all parts of the world, and yet I have never heard one complain of that law. They say America has the right to say who shall be President. I come here to your country, and I do not complain because you have a Queen to reign over you. What right have I to complain? Has not England a right to say who shall rule it, and who shall be its Queen? Foreigners have no right to interfere. And I would like to ask you this question, Has not God a right to say who shall come into His kingdom, and how we shall come? Now, my friend, God tells us here we are to come into His kingdom by the new birth. We must be born from above, born of the Spirit, and then we get a nature that goes out towards God. If you take a drunken man, and put him on the very pavement of heaven, he will not be happy there. The drunkard doesn’t want heaven. What is he to do there? He has no whisky to drink there, and he has none of his old companions. What is he to do? He would say, “This is hell to me. I don’t want to stay here.” A man that cannot spend one Sabbath on earth among God’s people, what is he to do with that eternal Sabbath, with those that have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb? A man must have a spiritual nature before he wants to go to heaven. Heaven cannot have any attractions to a man until he is born of the Spirit.
THE MORAL NEED THE NEW BIRTH.
Now let us go back to the man to whom Christ said these words. I often rejoice He didn’t say this to the woman at the well, nor to Mary Magdalene. If He had said it to them, people would have said, “Oh, that poor woman needs to be converted; but I am a moralist; I don’t need to be converted. Regeneration will do for harlots, thieves, and drunkards, but we moralists do not need it.” But who did Christ say it to? He said it to Nicodemus. Who was he? He belonged to the house of bishops. Nicodemus stood very high; he was one of the church dignitaries; he stood as high as any man in Jerusalem, except the high priest himself. He belonged to the seventy rulers of the Jews; he was a doctor of divinity, and taught the law. There is not one word of Scripture against him; he was a man that stood out before the whole nation as of pure and spotless character. What does Christ say to him? “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” I can see a scowl on his forehead. He says, “What do you mean by being born again—born from above, born of the Spirit? Now I am old, can I a second time enter my mother’s womb, and be born again?” Jesus saith, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” He didn’t take back what He had said, but He repeated it. I can imagine Nicodemus was like tens of thousands of men in London to-day. The moment you talk to them about regeneration or conversion, there is a scowl on their forehead. They say, “I don’t understand it.” Of course, the natural man doesn’t understand spiritual things. It is a matter of revelation. A great many men try to investigate and find out God. Suppose you spend a little of your time in asking God to reveal Himself to you.
REASON CANNOT UNDERSTAND THIS NEW BIRTH.
I heard some time ago of some commercial travellers who went to hear a man preach. They came back to the hotel, and were sitting in the smoking-room talking, and they said the minister did not appeal to their reason, and they would not believe anything they could not reason out. There was an old man sitting there listening, and he said to them, “You say you won’t believe anything you can’t reason out?” “No, we won’t.” The old man said, “As I was coming in the train yesterday, I noticed some sheep, and cattle, and swine, and geese, all eating grass. Now, can you tell me by what process that same grass was turned into feathers, hair, bristles, and wool?” “Well, no, we can’t just tell you that.” “Do you believe it is a fact?” “Oh, yes, it is a fact.” “I thought you said you would not believe anything you could not reason out?” “Well, we can’t help believing that; that is a fact we see before our eyes.” “Well,” said the old man, “I can’t help but believe in regeneration and a man being converted, although I cannot explain how God converted him.”
CHRIST’S ILLUSTRATION.
Now, the illustration which Christ used to Nicodemus was the wind. “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth.” Now, you cannot see the Spirit of God work in this audience; but I hope and pray He may be working now in the hearts of many, convincing them of sin! Do you believe more than ever that you are a sinner? Well, that is the work of the Holy Ghost. The devil never told you you are a sinner; he tries to make you believe that you are good enough. If you believe to-night that you have sinned against God, that is the work of the Holy Ghost. He is here at work. We cannot see Him, but there are a great many who know He is here. Suppose I should say, “I don’t believe in the wind, and that it must be all imagination; I have lived thirty-seven years, and have never seen the wind. It is folly for men to talk about the wind.” I can just imagine that boy there saying, “Why, I know more than that man; I know there is wind, for it blew my hat off this very day into the mud, and I have often felt it blowing in my face.” My friends, you have never felt the wind more than I have felt the Spirit of God. You have never seen the effects of the wind more than I have seen the effects of the Spirit of God, and of the working of the Holy Ghost, and there are hundreds of witnesses here who would testify the same thing. Yet this invisible power does its work in creation, and the mighty invisible power of God does its work effectively in the spiritual sphere.
New life in Christ means the breaking of old fetters.
GOD CAN CHANGE THE DRUNKARD.
It may be that I am talking now to some poor drunkard here. When he comes into his house his children listen, and hear by the footfall that their father is coming home drunk, and the little things run away and hide from him as if he was some horrid demon. His wife begins to tremble. Many a time has that great, strong arm been brought down on her weak, defenceless body. Many a day has she carried about marks from that man’s violence. He ought to be her protector, support, and stay; but he has become her tormentor. His home is like hell upon earth; there is no joy there. There may be one such here to-night who hears the good news that he can be born again, and receive a nature from heaven, and receive the Spirit of God. God can give him power to hurl the infernal cup from him. God will give him grace to trample Satan under his feet, and the drunkard will then become a sober man. Go to that house three months hence, and you find it neat and clean. As you draw near that home you hear singing; not the song of the drunkard, that is gone, all things have become new. He has been born of God, and is singing one of the songs of Zion:
“Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.”
Or perhaps he is singing that good old hymn that his mother taught him when he was a little boy:
“There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains.”
He has become a child of God, an heir of heaven. His children are climbing up his knee, and he has his arms round their necks. That dark home is now changed into a little Bethel on earth. God dwells there now. Yes; God has done all that, and that is regeneration.
THE WORTH OF GOOD RESOLVES.
Then some of you may have been saying, “I wish Mr. Moody would tell us how we are to become Christians, for he says that we cannot be Christians by trying to do good and by making new resolutions.” Many a time you have been at a meeting like this, and have resolved to turn over a new leaf, and you may now form another good resolution. If you do, you will break it. What are you going to do? If it is a new birth you are to have, you cannot create life. Can you bring life to the dead? All the wise men in London cannot do it. God alone is the author of life; and if you have the new birth, it must be God’s work. When the Jubilee Singers were in the North of England my family went to see them, and my little boy asked why they didn’t wash the black off their faces. I told him it was because they were born black. The Ethiopian cannot change his skin, nor the leopard his spots. You cannot save yourself. There is a man dying—can you put new life into him? Or can you raise up a dead body by saying, “Young man, arise”? That is the work of God. Your souls are dead in trespasses and sins, and only the Lord Jesus Christ can speak life.
THE BEGGAR AND THE PRINCE.
I imagine some of you will say, “Haven’t I anything to do?” Well, you haven’t. Salvation has been worked out for you by another. Many go all round the world in search of honour or possessions. Salvation is worth thousands of times more than any thing earth can produce; but you don’t get it that way. God has but one price for salvation. Do you want to know what it is? It is without money and without price. Rowland Hill said that most auctioneers found they had hard work to get people up to their price, but that he had hard work to get people down to his. “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.” Who will have it now? I say to you, young man, will you have this gift? Suppose I was going over London Bridge, and saw a poor miserable beggar, bare-footed, coatless, hatless, with no rags hardly to cover his nakedness, and right behind him, only a few yards, there was the Prince of Wales with a bag of gold, and the poor beggar was running away from him as if he was running away from a demon, and the Prince of Wales was hallooing after him, “Oh, beggar, here is a bag of gold!” Why, we should say the beggar had gone mad to be running away from the Prince of Wales with the bag of gold. Sinner, that is your condition. The Prince of Heaven wants to give you eternal life, and you are running away from Him.
THE DYING SOLDIER.
Then you say, “If it is not by working in earnest, how am I to be saved?” I will tell you; Scripture will tell you—that is better. Take the illustration Christ used to Nicodemus; you could not have a better. He took him to the remedy: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John iii. 14, 15). Now there is the remedy. How am I to be saved? By looking to Christ; just by looking. It’s very cheap, isn’t it? Very simple, isn’t it? Just look away to the Lamb of God now and be saved. What says the great wilderness preacher? “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” You might say the whole plan of salvation is in two words—Giving; Receiving. God gives; I receive.
I remember, after one of the terrible battles in the American Civil War—I was in the army, tending soldiers—and I had just laid down one night, past midnight, to get a little rest, when a man came and told me that a wounded soldier wanted to see me. I went to the dying man. He said, “I wish you to help me to die.” I said, “I would help you to die if I could. I would take you on my shoulders and carry you into the kingdom of God if I could; but I cannot. I can tell you of One who can.” And I told him of Christ being willing to save him; and how Christ left heaven and came into the world to seek and to save that which was lost. I just quoted promise after promise, but all was dark, and it almost seemed as if the shades of eternal death were gathering around his soul. I could not leave him, and at last I thought of this third chapter of John, and I said to him, “Look here, I am going to read to you now a conversation that Christ had with a man that went to Him when he was in your state of mind, and inquired what he was to do to be saved.” I just read that conversation to the dying man, and he lay there with his eves rivetted upon me, and every word seemed to be going home to his heart, which was open to receive the truth. When I came to the verse where it says, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life”—the dying man cried, “Stop, sir. Is that there?” “Yes, it is all here.” Then he said, “Won’t you please read it to me again?” I read it the second time. The dying man brought his hands together, and he said, “Bless God for that. Won’t you please read it to me again?” I read through the whole chapter, but long before the end of it he had closed his eyes. He seemed to lose all interest in the rest of the chapter, and when I got through it his arms were folded on his breast, he had a sweet smile on his face; remorse and despair had fled away. His lips were quivering, and I leant over him, and heard him faintly whisper from his dying lips, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” He opened his eyes, and fixed his calm, deathly look on me, and he said, “Oh, that is enough; that is all I want”; and in a few hours he pillowed his dying head upon the truth of those two verses, and rode away on one of the Saviour’s chariots, and took his seat in the kingdom of God.
Oh, sinner, you can be saved now if you will! Look and live. May God help every lost one here to look on the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
[THE BLOOD]
“And almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and without the shedding of blood is no remission.”—Heb. ix. 22.
No man can give a satisfactory reason for the hope that is in him if he is a stranger to the “Blood.” At the very commencement of the Bible we find reference made to the subject in Genesis iii. 21: “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” In this verse we get the first glimpse of blood. Certainly God could not have clothed Adam and Eve with the skins of beasts unless He had shed blood. Here, then, we have the innocent suffering for the guilty—the doctrine of substitution in the garden of Eden. God dealt with Adam in grace before He dealt in judgment. Death came by sin. Adam had sinned, and the Lord came down to make the way of escape. God came to him as a loving friend, and not to hurl him from the earth. Adam could have said to Eve, “Though the Lord has driven us out of the garden of Eden, He loves us,” for this coat is a token of love.
God put a lamp of promise into Adam’s hand before He drove him out; for He said, “The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head.” Did you ever think what a terrible state of things it would be if man was allowed to live for ever in his lost, ruined state? It was from love to Adam that God drove him out of Eden, that he should not live for ever. God put the cherubim with a flaming sword there. But now Christ has taken the sword out of his hand, and opened wide the gate, so that we can come in and eat. Adam might have been in Eden ten thousand years, and then be led astray by Satan; but now “our life is hid with Christ in God.” Man is safer with the second Adam out of Eden than with the first Adam in Eden.
Let us next turn to Genesis iv. 4: “And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering.” Cain and Abel were brought up outside of Eden, and had the same parents, and both received the same instruction as to how they were to draw near to God; but
CAIN CAME IN HIS OWN WAY,
while Abel came in the way God commanded. Cain said to himself, “I am not going to bring a bleeding lamb. Here is the grain and the beautiful fruit that I have raised by my industry; and I’m sure it looks better than blood, and I’m not going to bring blood.” Now it was not that there was any difference between these two men, but it was the offering which each brought. One came in the way God had marked out, and the other in a way of his own. Now there are a great many just like that at the present day. They prefer what is agreeable to the eye, as Cain did his beautiful corn and fruit, and they do not like the doctrine of
THE BLOOD OF ATONEMENT.
But any religion that makes light of the Blood is the work of the devil, even if an angel from heaven came down to preach salvation through any other means.
Undoubtedly on the morning of creation God marked out the way a man might come to Him; and Abel walked in God’s way, and Cain in his own. Perhaps Cain could not bear the sight of blood, and so he took that which God had cursed and laid it upon the altar.
THERE ARE MANY CAINITES IN THE CHURCH
even now; and some have got into the pulpit, and they preach against the doctrine of the Blood, and that we can get to heaven without the Blood. From the time Adam went out of Eden there have been Abelites and Cainites. The Abelites come by the way of the Blood—the way God had marked out for them. The Cainites come by their own way. They repudiate the doctrine of the Blood, and say it does not atone for sin. But it is better to take God’s word than man’s opinion.
Again, turn to Genesis viii. 20: “And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt-offerings on the altar.” We have thus passed over the first two thousand years, and have come to the second dispensation. The thought I want to call your attention to is this: The first thing Noah did when he got out of the ark was to build an altar and slay the animals, thus putting blood between him and his sin. The second dispensation is founded upon blood; and these animals were taken through the flood in the ark that they might illustrate the indispensable necessity of the shedding of blood.
ABRAHAM OFFERING UP ISAAC.
Again, in Genesis xxii. 13, it is written: “And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt-offering in the stead of his son.” The ram was typical, and was offered up in the place of Abraham’s son. God loved Abraham so much that He spared his son; but He so loved the world that He would not spare His own Son, but gave Him up freely for us all. It may be that from the top of the mountain Abraham saw a glorious sight. He saw Christ going up Calvary carrying His cross. He saw that mountain peak sprinkled with blood; and he saw that sacrifices were to go on until the true Isaac made His appearance and offered Himself for us all. Abraham had the altar built, and he was ordered to take his only son, and to bind him, and to slay him; and he bound that boy, and everything was ready. He took the knife, and was about to slay him, because it was the will and command of God. He did not know what it meant; but he obeyed.
Would that there were more men like him now, ready to obey God in the dark without asking the reason why! The old man took his son, and he told him the secret that he had hid from him all the journey—that God had told him to offer him up as a sacrifice. And he bound the boy hand and foot, and laid him all ready on the altar; and just when he was about to stretch forth his hand and slay him, he heard a voice from heaven calling to him: “Abraham, Abraham, spare thy son.” God was more merciful to the son of Abraham than to His own, for He gave Him up freely for us all. He opened up to him the curtain of time, and showed him Christ coming in the future; and Abraham saw his sins laid on Christ and was glad.
THE PASSOVER.
In Exodus xii. 13 we read: “And the blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you.” God did not say, When I see your good deeds; when I see how you have prayed, and wept, and cried. No; but “When I see the blood I will pass over you. The blood shall be a token.” What was it saved those men? Was it their good resolutions or their works? It was the blood. “When I see the blood I will pass over you.” Very likely when some of the lords, and dukes, and great men rode through Goshen, and saw the Israelites sprinkling their dwellings, they said they never saw such foolishness, and that they were spoiling their houses. They were to sprinkle the door-posts and lintels of their houses with the blood, but not the threshold. God would not have
THE BLOOD TRAMPLED UPON,
but that is what the world at the present day is doing.
Some preachers speak not of the death of Christ, but His life, because it is more pleasing to the natural ear; but the life of Christ may be preached for ever and it will not save any man, if His death is left out. A live lamb could not have kept death out of the houses of Goshen. God did not say that He wanted a live lamb at every door, but to have the lintels and door-posts sprinkled with the blood of the lamb. People sometimes say, “If I was as good as that minister, that preached the gospel for fifty years”; or, “If I was as good as that mother, who did so and so for her children”; but if we are behind the blood of God’s Son, we are just as safe as any Christian that has ever walked the face of the earth.
It is not a long life of usefulness that makes men and women acceptable to God. We must work for Christ; but we get salvation as a gift, and then begin to work because we cannot help it. All the work a person does before he becomes converted goes for nothing.
The little child down in Goshen behind the blood of the lamb was just as safe as Joshua, or any man in the whole town. The angel of death passed by when he saw the blood. The little tiny fly was as safe in the ark with Noah as the elephant. It was equally the ark that saved the fly and the elephant, and it is
THE BLOOD THAT SAVES
the weakest and the strongest. When death came that night with his sword, he entered the palace of the prince, and went into the houses of the great and mighty, and they all had to pay tribute to death; for the first-born in Egypt was smitten down that night. The only thing that kept death out was death itself. The only way that death can be met is by death. I have sinned, and must die; or get some one to die for me. The great question is—Have you got the token? If death should come after any one of us to-night, are we sheltered behind the blood? that is the point. It is the blood that atones. Not my good resolutions, or prayers, or position in society, or what I have done, but what has been done by another. God looks for the token.
Take another illustration. Suppose a man wanted to go from London to Liverpool, and he got into a railway carriage, he would soon hear the guard running along the platform crying out for tickets. A man might be rich or he might be poor, black or white, he might be learned or unlearned, that was not what the guard wanted to know—he wanted to see the tickets; for the ticket was the token, and if you have got a ticket you pass.
NO DEATH WHERE THE BLOOD WAS.
The Egyptians looked at the Israelites killing a lamb and sprinkling the blood on the door-posts no doubt as a very foolish proceeding, but not one house in the city, upon the doorposts and lintels of which the blood was not sprinkled, escaped; no matter who were the inhabitants, rich or poor, that night there was no difference. There was a wail heard in every habitation, from the palace to the meanest hovel where the blood had not been sprinkled, but where it had been sprinkled death was kept out. That showed clearly the truth, that without the shedding of blood there is no remission. Let no man or woman be guilty of laughing at this doctrine, that “the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.”
In the eleventh verse of the same chapter we read, “And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lord’s passover.” Why you have not got more power is because you don’t feed on the Lamb; and this is why there are so many weak Christians. The Lamb not only atones for our sins, but we are to feed upon the Lamb. We have got a wilderness journey before us, as the children of Israel had. After we are saved we are to feed upon Christ; He is the true bread from heaven. If I don’t feed my soul with the true bread from heaven I am sickly, and have not power to go and work for Christ; and that is the reason, I believe, why so few in the Church have power. Some people think if they get one glimpse of Christ that is enough.
Some think much of their dinner; why should not God’s children think a good deal of
THEIR SPIRITUAL FOOD?
We should no more think of laying in spiritual food to last for ten years than we should bodily food. A good many people are living on stale manna. A man in Ireland said to his boy, “I want you to eat two breakfasts. Do you know why?” The boy said he understood one was for his body and the other for his soul. All Christians should similarly take two breakfasts, for the soul and for the body.
The Passover was to be to the Jews the beginning of months. “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you” (Exodus xii. 2). All the 400 years that they had been in bondage went for naught, because this was the first month of the year to them. And in like manner throughout all the years that we have served the devil, and all the time that we have been in Egypt, whatever good we may have done in this world is to be reckoned as naught. Everything dates back to the Passover night—to the time the blood was put upon the door-posts. All the time we are serving the world goes for naught. If you have not come to Calvary you are losing time. Everything you do on the wrong side of the cross counts for naught; the first thing is to be saved by faith in Christ, and then we commence our pilgrimage to heaven. We don’t start, as some people suppose, from the cradle to heaven. We start from the cross. We have got a fallen nature that is taking us hellward. We must be born of the Spirit, and
SHELTERED BY THE BLOOD,
and then we become pilgrims for heaven.
Each man was to take a lamb for his house. “And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.” The lamb was not too little for a household, but the household might be too little for the lamb. Christ was enough for every household, enough and to spare, and we ought to pray that salvation may come to every member of our households.
Let us next turn to Exodus xxix. 16: “And thou shalt slay the ram, and thou shalt take his blood, and sprinkle it round about upon the altar.” Even Aaron could not come to God until he sprinkled blood round about the altar; and when the high priest went into the holy of holies, he had to take blood with him. From the time when Adam fell there has been no other way by which a man can approach God than by the blood. You cannot have an audience of God until you come by that appointed way. So it has been for 6000 years. When Adam fell in Eden he broke the golden chain that linked humanity to the throne of God, but Christ came and made atonement for that fall.
Again, observe in Leviticus viii. 23: “And he slew it; and Moses took of the blood of it, and put it upon the tip of Aaron’s right ear, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot.” I used to read a passage like this, and say it seemed absurd. I think I understand it now. The blood upon the ear means that we are to hear the voice of God. The unconverted man does not understand the voice of God; and we are told that when the voice of God was heard, the uncircumcised said that it thundered. They did not know the difference between God’s voice and thunder. Without the blood we cannot hear the voice of God and understand it. A man must be sheltered behind the blood before he can hear God’s voice.
The blood upon the hand signifies that a man may
WORK FOR GOD.
You cannot work for God until you are sheltered behind the blood; and until you are sheltered it all stands for naught. You may build churches, endow colleges, pay ministers and missionaries; but it all goes for naught until you are sheltered behind the blood. Don’t let any one deceive you on this point. Don’t let Satan deceive you by telling you that you can get to heaven by some other way. They asked Christ, “What must we do that we may work the works of God?” Perhaps these men had got their pockets full of money, and were ready and willing to build churches. Christ told them that the work of God was that they should believe in His Son. But they were not willing to do such a small thing; they would rather do some greater thing; but that was not what was wanted. You cannot do anything to please God until you believe.
“Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice.” People may work day and night, and even work themselves to death; but they never will do right until they do what God requires them to do.
The blood on the toe of the right foot was to show that Aaron was to walk with God. When Adam fell, communion with God was broken. Before he had walked with God; but the moment he sinned he fell out of communion with Him; and from that time to this God has been trying to get man back into communion. God is full of truth and justice. His justice must be met; and after that has been met He is satisfied. God never walked with men until He put them behind the blood at Goshen. What could stand before them then? They passed through the Red Sea, and God said to Joshua, “Take this country, and no man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life.” In the days of Joshua there were whole regiments of giants; but one stripling from the Lord’s hosts defeated the giant of Gath. If God is with us, the giants will be like grasshoppers; but if God is not with us, it will be different. I would rather have ten men separated from the world than ten thousand nominal Christians who go to the prayer-meeting to-night and the ball to-morrow.
In Leviticus xvi. 14 it is said: “He shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy-seat eastward; and before the mercy-seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times.” It seems as if God originally gave Adam a life by which he held communion with Him; but on the day that he broke the command he lost that communion. And ever since God has been trying to get men back into communion with Himself. But how could God be just and the justifier of sinners? That is done through the Blood of Christ. “The life of the flesh is in the blood.” God demands blood to atone for sin.
MAN’S LIFE WAS FORFEITED,
and he had to die, or pay the wages of death. He could not pay the penalty and live; so he wanted a substitute. Every man had sinned, and could not be a substitute for his fellow; but Christ was sinless, and could become the substitute for man; and He has become that substitute, because He has died in the room and stead of man to satisfy the law. Then the question for each and every one to answer is, whether they will love Him and serve Him who has died to redeem them by His precious Blood.
In Leviticus xvii. 11, we read: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” There may be some who are saying, Why does God demand blood? Some one said to me: “I detest your God; He demands blood. I don’t believe in such a God; for my God is merciful to all.” I want to say, My God is full of mercy! But don’t be so blind as to believe that God is not just, and that He has not got a government. Suppose Queen Victoria didn’t like any man to be deprived of his liberty, and she threw all her prisons open, and was so merciful that she could not bear any one to suffer for guilt, how long would she hold the sceptre? how long would she rule this empire? Not twenty-four hours. Those very men who cry out about God being merciful would say: “We don’t want such a Queen.”
GOD IS JUST.
God is merciful, but He will not take an unredeemed sinner into heaven. If He did, the redeemed would plant the banner of indignant remonstrance round the throne, and there would be a revolt in heaven. God said to Adam, On the day thou sinnest thou shalt surely die. Sin entered, and brought death into the world. God’s word must be kept. I must either die, or get somebody to die for me; and in the fulness of time Christ comes forward to die for the sinner. He was without sin; but if He had committed one sin, He would have had to die for His own sin. The life of the flesh is in the blood; and it is not blood He demands really; it is life, and life has been forfeited. We have sinned, and death must come, or justice must take its course. Glory to God in the highest because He sent His Son, born of a woman, to take our nature and die in our stead, tasting death for every man. You take this blood out of this body of mine, and life is gone.
GOD DEMANDS BLOOD.
He demands life. Man has sinned; therefore life must be forfeited, and I must die, or find somebody to die for me. My friends, I have only just touched this subject. If you read your Bibles carefully you will find the scarlet thread running through the Bible. It commenced in Eden and flows on to Revelation. I cannot find anything to tell me the way to heaven
BUT BY THE BLOOD.
This book (holding up the Bible) wouldn’t be worth carrying home if you take the scarlet thread out of it; and it doesn’t teach anything else; for the blood commences in Genesis, and goes on to Revelation. That is what this book is written for. It tells its own story; and if a man should come and preach another gospel, don’t you believe him. If an angel should come and preach anything else, don’t believe it. Don’t trifle with the subject of the Blood. In your dying hour you would give more to be sheltered behind this Blood than for all the world.
A MOTHER’S LOVE.
In the time of the Californian gold fever a man went to the diggings, and left his wife to follow him some time afterwards. While on her voyage with her little boy, the vessel caught fire; and as there was a powder-magazine on board, the captain knew when the flames reached it the ship would be blown up. The fire could not be got under, so they took to the life-boats; but there was not room for all. As the last boat pushed off, the mother and boy stood on the deck. One of the sailors said there was room for another. What did the mother do? She decided to perish herself in order to save her boy. She dropped him into the boat, and with a mother’s last look, said: “If you should live to see your father, tell him that I died in your place.” Do you think when that boy grew up he could fail to love that mother who died to save him? My friends, this is a faint type of what Christ has done for you and me. He died for our sins. He left heaven for that purpose. Will you go away saying, I see no beauty in Him. May God break every heart here! You will need Him when you come to cross the swelling of Jordan. You will need Him when you go up to the bar of God. God forbid that when death comes it should find you without Christ, and without God, and without hope!
Not only is the vitally important subject of the “Blood of Christ” referred to frequently in the Old Testament, but likewise in many places in the New Testament.
Let us turn to the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, and verses 22-26, “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.” What is this but the bloodshedding and death of Christ? Read also Acts iv. 10; v. 28; vii. 52; viii. 32; x. 39; xvii. 3; xviii. 21; Hebrews ix. 22; 1 Peter i. 19; and many other passages will be found if the word Blood is referred to in a Concordance.
REDEMPTION.
A friend of mine was in Ireland, and saw a little Irish boy who had caught a sparrow, and the poor little bird was trembling and panting in his hand, from which it wanted to get away. It was evidently very much affrighted. The gentleman told the boy to let it go, as the bird could not do him any good; but the boy said he would not let it escape, for he had been chasing it for three hours before he could catch it. The gentleman then offered to buy the bird, and the boy agreed to a price, which was paid. He took the poor bird and held it out on his palm, where it sat for a time, scarcely able to realise the fact that it had got its liberty; but at last it flew away, chirping, as if to say to the gentleman, “You have redeemed me.”
That is an illustration of what is meant by redemption. Satan is stronger than any man upon earth, and there is no match for him but Christ. The lion of Calvary—the lion of the tribe of Judah—He is stronger than the lion of hell. When Christ on Calvary said, “It is finished!” it was the shout of the conqueror. He came to redeem the world by His death.
Once when I was re-visiting my native village I was going to a neighbouring town to preach, and saw a young man coming from a house in a carriage, in which was seated an old woman. I felt interested in them, and asked my companion who they were. I was told to look at the adjoining meadow and pasture, and great barns that were on the farm, as well as a good house. “Well,” said my companion, “that young man’s father drank that all up, and left his wife in the poorhouse. The young man went away and worked until he had got money enough to redeem that farm, and now it is his own, and he is taking his mother to church.” That is another illustration of redemption.
In the first Adam we have lost all, but the second Adam has redeemed everything by His death. A friend of mine who was in Paris went to a great meeting of Jews, at which one of the leading men presided, and that man said the Jews had the honour of killing the Christian’s God; and those Jews stamped and applauded at the statement. They were proud of the act, and cried out, “His blood be upon us, and upon our children,” and that imprecation has been literally fulfilled in their history. Now His blood either cries for our peace and salvation or for our condemnation.
PEACE.
In Colossians i. 20 it is written, “Having made peace through the blood of the cross, by Him to reconcile all things to Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.” That is what the blood of the cross does, it brings peace. In Romans v. it is written, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” In this three things are stated: there is justification for the past as well as peace. As the believer looks back to Calvary, the blood speaks peace and pardon for guilt. Then there is grace for the present, and glory for the future.
In John xix. 34 it is written, “But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith came thereout blood and water.” There is a striking fact intimated in this verse. The spear that went into the side of the Son of God was the crowning act of sin, the culminating crime of earth and hell. I don’t see how they could have done a more cruel thing than that. What act could have been more black and hellish? And the blood came out and covered the spear, and a fountain was thus opened in the house of David for sin. The blood touched the Roman spear, and it was not long before the Roman government became at least nominally Christian. The blood ran down from His side upon the earth, and this earth has been redeemed by Him; for He will have the world by and by. He is
THE TRUE SOVEREIGN,
and He will ere long cast out the prince of darkness, and sway His sceptre from end to end of this earth. A little longer, and He will personally return and set up His millennial kingdom and reign over this earth. He has redeemed the earth by His blood, and He will have all He has redeemed.
ONENESS IN CHRIST.
Has the Blood touched you? The blood of Christ makes us one, brings us into the family of God, and enables us to cry, “Abba, Father.” At the time of the American war, during the days of slavery in America, when there was much political strife and strong prejudice against the black men, especially by Irishmen, I heard a preacher say, that when he came to the cross for salvation he seemed to find a poor negro on one side and an Irishman on the other side, and the blood came trickling down upon them and made them one. There may be strife in the world, but those whom Christ has redeemed He has made one family. We are blood relatives.
When I go before an audience, there is hardly a person I have seen before; but as I begin to talk about the King their eyes light up, and I see they are kinsmen, they are blood relatives, and in a short time I become attached to them. A man may go into a town a perfect stranger, but as soon as he finds out those who love God, they will be one. I wish Christians had more of this oneness. I hope the time will soon come when sectarian walls will be broken down, and people will not want to ask whether you belong to the Established, Wesleyan, or Baptist Churches. If washed in the blood, we are blood relatives. I believe
GOD WILL JUDGE THE WORLD BY THE BLOOD.
“What have you done with that blood?” will be the great question in that day. If we make light of it, and send back an insulting message, saying we don’t stand in need of it, we shall stand speechless before God’s tribunal. If we make light of that blood, what is going to become of our souls?
JUSTIFICATION.
The only way a man can be brought within the family of God is by the blood, as it is said in Romans iii. 24, “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”; and again in Romans v. 9, “Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” Justified from all things from which we could not be by the law of Moses. When God looks into His ledger, there is nothing found against the man who is washed in the blood. One plunge in the crimson fountain, and the sinner is justified in the sight of God. Christ was raised from the grave for the justification of all who put their trust in Him, and such are not only pardoned men but justified men. Justification is more than pardon. It is said of an emperor of Russia that he sent on one occasion for two noblemen who were charged with some conspiracy, and one he found to be perfectly innocent, so he sent him home justified; but the other was proved guilty, but was pardoned. They both returned home, but ever afterwards would stand very differently in the estimation of their sovereign and neighbours. From that may be seen the difference between pardon and justification.
CONFIDENCE.
When a man is justified he can go through the world with his head erect. Satan may come to him, and say, “You are a sinner”; but the reply would be, “I know that, but God has forgiven me through Christ”; as it is written in Revelation i. 5, “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto Him that loved us, and washed us in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God the Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.”
Many people try to come to Christ, but think they cannot come unless they first become good. But He loves all Christians even before their sins are washed away. He loves them, and then washes them in His own blood. It is wonderful love! To think that He loves them first and then washes them in His blood from their sins! There is no devil in hell that can pluck them out of His hand. They are perfectly safe; for they are washed in the blood of the Lamb.
NO REMISSION WITHOUT BLOOD.
It is said in Hebrews ix. 22, “And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood there is no remission.” It is utterly impossible that a man can be saved who makes light of the blood. There is no other name under heaven whereby we can be saved than the name of Christ Jesus. Are we willing to receive what Christ has already done? The salvation of those who trust in Him was already worked out when He said upon the cross, “It is finished.”
In Matthew xxvi. 28 we get the words of Christ Himself: “For this is my blood of the New Testament, which was shed for many for the remission of sins.” That was what Christ Himself said about the blood. He could have saved His life, but He loved the human family so much that He shed His blood for their redemption. He opened that fountain referred to in the lines:
“There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Emmanuel’s veins.”
That hymn will last as long as the Church, and so will others like:
“Rock of ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.”
There is a great deal about the blood in these hymns, and they will all live. Every hymn into which the scarlet thread is woven will live. There is another sweet hymn that will last through all ages:
“Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me.”
In Hebrews x. 19 we read, “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh.” When Christ’s work was done, the veil of the temple was rent from the top to the bottom. God came out of the holy of holies, and man can now go in. He makes all His people in this dispensation kings and priests. Every one can come right into the presence of God Himself. In the Jewish dispensation none but the high priests could enter into the holy of holies; but the veil being rent, God came out and man can go in through the veil of His flesh. “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” Let us hold fast the profession of our faith. The new and living way has been opened by His blood. The only thing that Christ left down here was His blood. When He ascended to heaven, He took with Him His flesh and His bones, but His shed blood was left on this earth.
THE BLOOD HAS TWO CRIES.
It either cries for my damnation, or for my salvation. If I make light of the blood, and trample it under my feet, then it cries out for God’s condemnation; but if I am sheltered behind the blood, there is no condemnation for me. God dealt in judgment with Cain; and when Pilate wanted to know what to do with Christ, he washed his hands and said he was innocent. The Jews said, “Let His blood be upon us and our children, not to save us, but to condemn us.” Would that they had said, “Let His blood be upon us to save us and protect us.” Nearly 1900 years have rolled away, and the Jews are wanderers on the face of the earth without a king. Their having been scattered all these years, what a proof it is the word of God is true! May our prayer be to-day, His blood be upon us and our children, not to condemn us, but to save us. Let that be our prayer, that we may know what it is to be sheltered behind the blood of God’s dear Son. The blood of the cross speaks peace. If I am sheltered behind the blood, there is peace, but there is no peace until my sin is covered. If you had committed sin against a man, you would get no peace until that was forgiven. Men are running after peace; and if it could be bought in the market, many would give hundreds of thousands of pounds to secure it. The blood of Christ speaks peace, and it will bring peace to every guilty conscience and aching heart to-day if you only seek it.
In Hebrews x. 28, 29, we read: “He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” To me these are very solemn verses. I don’t see how any one can sit here and hear these verses read and be content to remain unsaved. “They died without mercy”; but how much more sore will be the punishment of those who live in this age with an open Bible, which tells how Christ died to redeem us, and make us heirs of heaven.
In Revelation xii. 11, we read: “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.” They overcame by the blood. I don’t believe there is a word in the Bible Satan is fearing more than the word “blood.” Judging from past experience, I shall probably receive many letters to-morrow attacking me for what I have said to-day. These letters will say it is heathenish to stand up and preach what would only do for an unenlightened age. May God forgive those who dare to say such things. If you will read your Bible in the light of Calvary, you will find there is no other way of coming to heaven but by the blood. The devil does not fear ten thousand preachers who preach a bloodless religion. A man who preaches a bloodless religion is doing the devil’s work, and I don’t care who he is.
VICTORY THROUGH THE BLOOD.
It is said of old Dr. Alexander, of Princeton Seminary, that when he parted with the students who were going to preach the gospel, he would take them by the hand, and say, “Young man, make much of the blood—make much of the blood.”
As I have travelled up and down Christendom I have found out that a minister who gives a clear sound upon this doctrine is successful. A man who covers up the cross, though he may be an intellectual man, and draw large crowds, cannot touch the heart and conscience. There will be no life there, and his church will be like a gilded sepulchre. Those men who preach the doctrine of the cross, holding up Christ as the sinner’s only hope of heaven, and as the sinner’s only substitute, and make much of the blood, God honours, and souls are always saved where that truth is preached.
I would say,
MAKE MUCH OF THE BLOOD.
May God help us to make much of the blood of His Son. It cost God so much to give us this blood, and shall we try to keep it from the world which is perishing from the want of it? The world can get along without us, but not without Christ. Let us preach Christ in season and out of season. Let us go to the sick and dying, and hold up the Saviour who came to seek and save them, and died to redeem them.
CHRIST WILL CONQUER.
It is said of Julian the Apostate in Rome, that when he was trying to stamp out Christianity he was pierced in the side by an arrow. He pulled the arrow out, and taking a handful of blood as it flowed from the wound, threw it into the air, shouting, “THOU GALILÆAN, THOU HAST CONQUERED!” Yes, this Galilæan is going to conquer. May God help us to give no uncertain sound on this doctrine.
I would rather give up my life than give up this doctrine. Take that away, and what is my hope in heaven? Am I to depend upon my works? Away with them when it comes to the question of salvation. I must get salvation distinct and separate from works, for it is “to him that worketh not, but believeth on Christ.” None will walk the celestial pavement of heaven but those washed in the blood. The first man that went up from this earth was probably Abel. You can see Abel putting his little lamb upon the altar, thus placing blood between him and his sin. Abel sang a song the angels could not join in. There must have been one solo song of redemption in heaven, because Abel had no one to join him. But there is a great chorus now, for the redeemed have been going up for six thousand years, and they sing of Him who is worthy to receive honour because He died to save us from condemnation.
ROBES MADE WHITE THROUGH THE BLOOD.
In Revelation vii. 14, we read: “And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Sinner, how are you going to get your robes clean if you don’t get them washed in the blood of the Lamb? How are you going to wash them? Can you by yourself make them clean? Oh, may we all reach that paradise above! There they are singing the sweet song of redemption, and may it be the happy lot of each of us to join them. It may be only a short time, at the longest, before we shall be there, and shout the song of redemption, and sing the sweet song of Moses and the Lamb. There “they hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and lead them to living fountains of water: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” At that day sceptics and scoffers will pray for the rocks and mountains to fall on them, and cover them from the wrath of God. If you die without Christ, without hope, and without God, where will you be? Sinner, be wise! don’t make light of the blood!
THE DYING SAINT.
An aged minister of the gospel, when dying, said, “Bring me the Bible.” Putting his finger upon the verse, “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin,” he said, “I die in the hope of this verse.” It wasn’t his fifty years’ preaching, nor his long life in the Lord’s service, but the blood of Christ, upon which he relied. When we stand before God’s tribunal we shall be pure, even as He is pure, if we are washed in the blood of the Lamb.
THE PRECIOUS BLOOD.
During the American war a doctor heard a man saying, “Blood, blood, blood!” The doctor thought this was because he had seen so much blood shed upon battlefields, and endeavoured to soothe his mind. The man smiled, and said, “I wasn’t thinking of the blood upon the battlefield, but I was thinking how precious the blood of Christ is to me as I am dying.” As he died his lips quivered, “Blood, blood, blood!” and he was gone. Oh, it will indeed be precious when we come to our dying bed! it will then be worth more to us than all the world! One sin is enough to exclude us from heaven, but one drop of Christ’s blood is sufficient to cover all our sins.
Beware how you treat the gospel message of redemption through the blood.
THE DOWN GRADE.
A stage-driver away on the Pacific coast—as I was told when I was there about three years ago—while lying on his dying bed, kept moving one of his feet up and down, saying, “I am on the down grade, and cannot reach the brake.” As they told me of it, I thought how many were on the down grade, and could not reach the brake, and were dying without God and without hope. I plead with you as a fellow-traveller; don’t go out of this hall without saying, “Heaven is my home, and God is my Father.” Don’t let the scoffers laugh you into hell; they cannot laugh you out of it. The Blood is upon the mercy-seat, and while it is upon the mercy-seat you can enter into the kingdom. God says, “There is the Blood; it is all I have to give. As long as it is there, there is hope for you. I am satisfied with the finished work of my Son, and will you be satisfied?” Don’t leave this meeting until you can claim this as yours.
How dark and sad it is to go to the bedside of a dying infidel or atheist, or one who is dying without the light of the resurrection morn. But if we trust to Christ, death has lost its sting, and the grave its victory.
An eminent minister in America, Alfred Cookman, the Robert McCheyne of his day, was dying, and when his friends were gathered round his couch, waiting to see him depart to be with Christ, his face lit up, and with a shout of triumph he said, “I am sweeping through the gates, washed in the blood of the Lamb!” And this echoes and re-echoes through America to-day: “I am sweeping through the gates, washed in the blood of the Lamb!” May these be our last words, and may an abundant entrance be granted us into the gates of the heavenly city!
Who, who are these, beside the chilly wave,
Just on the borders of the silent grave;
Shouting Jesus power to save,
Washed in the blood of the Lamb.
Sweeping through the gates of the new Jerusalem
Washed in the blood of the Lamb.
[CHRIST ALL IN ALL]
Read Colossians iii. 11.
Christ is all in all to every one who has truly found Him. He is our Saviour, Redeemer, Deliverer, Shepherd, Teacher, and also sustains toward us many more offices, to which I desire to call your attention.
1. If we turn to Luke ii. 10, 11, we find Christ is there announced as our
SAVIOUR:
“Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” We learn to know Christ as our Saviour, to meet Him on Mount Calvary, to look on Him as the bleeding Lamb of God, before we know Him as our Redeemer, Deliverer, and Shepherd. Now, looking round upon this vast assembly, I, who do not know the hearts of the people, cannot know whether you can say that Christ is your Saviour. There are many, I trust, who can say this, and who rejoice in His salvation; while, without being uncharitable, I am afraid there are many who know nothing personally of Jesus as their Saviour.
He is offered to every one of you to-day as a Saviour; “God gave Him up freely for us all,” that we all through Him might be saved. If you are belonging to this world, I can prove that you have a Saviour. If you belonged to some other planet, such as the moon or any of the stars, then I could not say a Saviour was offered to you; for it is not revealed whether the people of these distant worlds, even if they are inhabited, require salvation or not. But this I know, that every man on this globe has a Saviour offered him.
SALVATION FREE TO ALL.
I have no sympathy with those men who try to limit God’s salvation to a certain few. I believe that Christ died for all who will come. I have received many letters finding fault with me, and saying I surely don’t believe the doctrine of election. I do believe in election; but I have no business to preach that doctrine to the world at large. The world has nothing to do with election; it has only to do with the invitation, “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” That is the message for the sinner. I am sent to preach the gospel to all.
After you have received salvation, we can talk about election. It’s a doctrine for Christians, for the Church, not for the unconverted world. Our message is “good tidings, which shall be to all people; for unto you is born this day a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” All people, this Saviour is proffered to you. Accept Him, and God will accept you; reject Him, and God will reject you. Your eternal destiny depends on your refusal or otherwise to accept the proffered Saviour. The case is simply one of giving and taking. God gives; I receive. We must, then, first of all know Christ as our Saviour.
2. But He is still more: He is our