angel, having found an old copy of the everlasting gospel, which the Pope
had kept locked up in his bureau for many centuries, is flying in the
midst of heaven, in sight of all the world. His progress is rapid as the
wings of the wind, and his sweet strong voice is publishing the glad
tidings to all people. But we look for greater things than these.
Following, comes another mighty angel, casting a great millstone into the
sea, and saying—“Thus shall Babylon, that great city, be thrown down, and
found no more at all.” Another follows, crying with a loud
voice—“Babylon is fallen, is fallen!” Another descends with the key and
the chain, and binds the dragon in the bottomless pit. Then appears one
“like unto the Son of Man,” sitting upon a white cloud, and wearing a
golden crown. He thrusts in his sharp sickle, and reaps the harvest of
the earth, and gathers the wheat into his garner, the church. Again the
sickle falls, and the vintage of wickedness is gathered, and cast into
the wine-press of the wrath of Almighty God. Then comes the voice of a
great multitude, as of many waters and mighty thunderings—the blended
minstrelsy of earth and heaven—ascribing salvation and dominion and glory
to him that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb for ever and ever.
The Prince of Darkness, with all his infernal hosts, and all his allies
upon earth, is fearfully agitated, as he witnesses the preparation for
the great decisive battle. “Why so much benevolence? Why so many
societies? Why such extraordinary schemes and efforts?” Nothing
disturbs them so much as the sight of Emmanuel’s troops, with their faces
toward the field of Armageddon, led on by the Captain of their Salvation,
on his white horse, with his vesture dipped in blood. They know that
this is the Lion of the tribe of Judah; and the redness of his apparel,
reminding them of their defeat when he bruised their heads on Calvary,
shoots consternation and anguish through all their ranks; and the gates
of hell tremble at the shaking of the iron rod in his hand, which shall
dash them in pieces as a potter’s vessel. But the saints are rejoicing
in his train; for they know that not one of the faithful shall
perish—that not one of them shall be wounded—that each shall be more than
conqueror, and all shall appear with songs of everlasting joy at the
marriage supper of the Lamb.
And now, my brethren, children of my heavenly Father, of every name and
order, loved with the same love, redeemed with the same blood, called by
the same Spirit, clothed with the same garment, fed on the same manna,
engaged in the same cause—the great Missionary enterprise—as you love the
Savior, as you appreciate his salvation, as you desire the introduction
of his millennial kingdom, we beseech you to give us a liberal
contribution!
We are now ready to receive your money for Missionary purposes; and while
you are casting it into the treasury, let me remind you that your gold
and your silver are beautiful birds plumed for flight, that Christian
liberality is the scissors with which you may clip their wings, and a
short winged bird is better than none. May we all act to-day as stewards
of the Lord, in the immediate presence of our Master, before whom we must
soon appear to account for the use made of our talents; and when the time
of reckoning shall come, may each receive the gracious plaudit—“Well
done, good and faithful servant! thou hast been faithful over a few
things, I will make thee ruler over many! Enter thou into the joy of thy
Lord!” Amen.
SERMON VIII.
THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST.
“_Who_, _his own self_, _bore our sins_, _in his own body_, _on the
tree_; _that we_, _being dead to sins_, _should live unto
righteousness_; _by whose stripes ye were healed_.”—I Peter ii. 24.
WHAT great encouragement to patience and fortitude is afforded the
followers of Jesus, by the apostle’s contrast of the light and transient
afflictions of the present time, with the eternal weight of glory
reserved for them in heaven! How forcible the argument which he draws
from the approaching scenes of another world, to urge Christians in this
to a life of holiness and self-denial! How vivid and terrible his
picture of the dissolution of nature by the great conflagration! Imagine
the heavens wrapped in dissolving flames, and the elements melting to the
centre of the globe. The victorious and inextinguishable fire towers to
the empyrean; the magnificent palace of creation is lost in the smoke of
its own burning; and the ear is stunned, and the soul is horrified, by
the crash of its final fall. “Seeing then, that all these things must be
dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation
and godliness; looking for, and hasting unto the coming of the day of
God;” “using all diligence to make your calling and election sure;” “that
ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless;” that “so
an abundant entrance may be ministered unto you, into the everlasting
kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!”
Such, substantially, is the argument. But the apostle employs another;
the Christian’s obligation to imitate Christ, suffering for him as he
suffered for us, with the same fortitude and resignation, though not to
the same extent, nor for the same purpose. It is in this connection he
uses the language of the text:—“Servants, be subject to your masters with
all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. For
this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief,
suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for
your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and
suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For
even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us,
leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: who did no sin,
neither was guile found in his mouth: who, when he was reviled, reviled
not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to
him that judgeth righteously: who his own self bare our sins in his own
body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto
righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” We are to suffer for
Christ as his disciples and confessors; he suffered for us as our
substitute, our atoning sacrifice and Saviour. Let us attend, first, to
this description of his sufferings; and then to the end for which he
endured them.
I. The text describes Christ in his vicarious sufferings, as _bearing
our sins_; bearing our sins, _his own self_; bearing our sins, his own
self, _in his own body_; and bearing our sins, his own self, in his own
body, _on the tree_,
1. _He bore our sins_. To get a correct understanding of this
expression, we must turn to the record of the ordinance to which it
alludes, which is as follows:—“And when he hath made an end of
reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and
the altar, he shall bring the live goat, and Aaron shall lay both his
hands upon the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the
children of Israel, and all their transgressions, in all their sins,
putting them on the head of the goat; and shall send him away, by the
hand of a fit man, into the wilderness; and the goat shall bear upon him
all their iniquities into a land not inhabited; and he shall let go the
goat in the wilderness.” But this part of the ceremony was preceded by
another, of very solemn import. A goat was selected for a sin-offering.
He was brought before the Lord, and Aaron put his hands upon him, and
devoted him to death. He was slain, and his blood was sprinkled upon the
altar and the mercy-seat. Then the sins of the children of Israel were
laid upon the head of the other goat, and he was led forth, and sent away
into the wilderness, to return no more. Both these goats represented
Christ; who, as our Savior, answers to both; at once, suffering for our
sins, and bearing them away into the land of forgetfulness.
Three things were found continually in the temple; fire, and blood, and
sweet incense. The fire denoted the wrath of God against sin; the blood
prefigured the sacrificial sufferings of Christ; and the sweet incense
typified his intercession at the right hand of the Father, on the ground
of his vicarious death upon the cross. The goat of the sin-offering was
bound and slain; and then burnt up, with the fat thereof, upon the altar.
So Christ was crucified for us without the gates of Jerusalem; and his
humanity was consumed by the fire of God’s holy indignation against sin,
on the altar of his Divinity; while from that altar ascended a column of
the sweetest incense to the heaven of heavens—“Father, forgive them!” In
hell also there is fire, where sinners suffer upon the altars of eternal
justice. Every sacrifice is salted with fire, and the smoke of their
torment ascendeth up for ever and ever. But the black and sulphurous
smoke of the bottomless pit is not a sweet smelling savor unto God, like
the fumes of the sacrifice once offered on Calvary—a sacrifice which
satisfied the claim of Heaven, and expiated the offence of earth.
The form of expression used in our text is one which frequently occurs in
the Old Testament, and signifies the enduring of punishment. Of the
impenitent sinner it is said, “He shall bear his iniquity”—that is, he
shall endure the just punishment of his sins. He shall carry the burden
alone, and for ever sink beneath the load, and mercy shall never come to
his relief. Christ’s bearing our sins, then, signifies his enduring, the
punishment in our stead. Glory to God, that every poor trembling sinner
may cast his burden upon one who is able to sustain it, who has already
sustained it in his stead! The law passed the guilty, and arrested the
guiltless. Jesus willingly gave himself up as the victim, saying—“I am
he; if ye seek me, let these go their way.” His sufferings constitute
the sea, in which are buried for ever the sins of his people; sins of the
greatest magnitude; sins of the deepest dye. The Father, who turned his
back upon the sufferings of his Son, hath said—“I will cast all thy sins
behind my back, into the depth of the sea.” This is the abyss, in which
they are swallowed up, and seen no more.
2. He bore our sins, _his own self_. God and man were parties at
variance. There was but one who could stand between them as mediator,
and he gave himself a substitute and sacrifice for the sinner. Uniting
in his person the two natures, human and Divine, he was fully qualified
for his work; and by once offering himself, he satisfied the demands of
the insulted law, and “became the author of eternal salvation to all them
that obey him.” He offered up himself, without the aid of another; and
it was his own blessed person that he threw between you and the
destroying angel, between you and the mortal plague of sin, between you
and the unquenchable fires of hell.
None but Moses, the mediator, could penetrate the thick darkness in
which, as in a pavilion, God dwelt, upon the mount of terror; and none
but Aaron, the high-priest, dared enter the holy of holies, and he only
once a year, on the great day of atonement, with trembling steps, and
sacrificial blood. So Jesus, the mediator of a better covenant, and
high-priest of the true sanctuary, the sum and substance of all the types
and shadows of the old dispensation, when, in the garden of Gethsemane,
he approached the black and terrible cloud, where God revealed the
terrors of his justice, and the fierceness of his wrath, said to his
disciples:—“Tarry ye here, while I go yonder. Ye cannot go; the place is
too dreadful. I will go alone.” Alone he went; and as he drew near the
furnace, his countenance was marvellously altered, his heart melted in
the midst of his bowels, and the very substance of his life pressed
through the pores of his skin. All the visible fire which flamed on the
summit of Sinai, now breaks forth anew on Calvary; and though unseen by
man, envelopes in its burning the soul and the body of our glorious
Substitute. Behold him rushing between you and the flames, shielding
you, and quenching the flames in his blood!
3. He bore our sins, his own self, _in his own body_. Atonement was
made for the sins of Israel by the blood of slaughtered beasts. But “the
blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the
unclean, sanctified only to the purifying of the flesh.” The blood of
Christ alone has power to “purge the conscience from dead works, to serve
the living God.” It was his own body, that our blessed Redeemer offered
as a sacrifice for our sins, a sacrifice of a sweet savor unto God. The
Divine person bore the punishment of sins in human nature. “It was not
possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.” We
hear the Son saying to the Father:—“Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest
not, but a body hast thou prepared for me. I see that the services of
the altar are of no avail, and are passing away. In burnt-offerings and
sacrifices for sin thou hast no pleasure. At this moment, the great
cause of difference between heaven and earth remains untaken away. The
bills are all uncancelled. The handwriting in the book of the law, and
in the book of conscience, continues in full force unto this day. But
lo, I come to do thy will, O my God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. I
delight to honor its claims, while I save its violaters. I will obey,
even unto the death of the cross, and expiate human transgression by my
meritorious sufferings. Then, as first begotten from the dead, will I
declare the decree which thou didst read to me before the foundation of
the world—‘Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Because I
have bruised thee, and put thee to grief, thou shalt see thy seed, and
prolong thy days; and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in thy hand.
Because thou hast borne the sins of many, thou shall justify many.
Because thou hast been numbered with the transgressors, and made
intercession for them, thou shalt see of the travail of thy soul, and be
satisfied. Because thou hast made thy soul an offering for sin, pouring
it out unto death, I will divide thee a portion with the great, and thou
shalt divide the spoil with the strong. I will make thee king in Zion,
and thou shalt reign for ever and ever!’”
The sufferings of the Son are accomplished, and the promise of the Father
is receiving its fulfilment. The law of the Spirit of Life hath gone
forth; and sinners, with songs of salvation, are crowding to the cross!
4. He bore our sins, his own self, in his own body, _on the tree_. In
Deut. xxi. 22, 23, we find that death by hanging on a tree was deemed an
accursed death. Paul refers to this passage in the third chapter of his
epistle to the Galatians:—“As it is written; cursed is every one that
hangeth on a tree.” By consenting to crucifixion, Christ was “made a
curse for us.” What shame and ignominy did he endure in our behalf! See
him arrayed in royal purple, the reed of scorn in his hand, the crown of
thorns upon his head, and the cross of infamy upon his back. He grows
faint beneath his burden. His murderers, fearing lest his woes should
pass endurance before their cruel thirst for his blood could be satiated,
compel Simon of Cyrene to carry one end of the cross. Thus they move on
to the summit of Calvary. They lay the tree upon the ground, and stretch
the Son of God upon it, and nail his hands and his feet to the wood. It
is reared on high, with its bleeding victim; and there he hangs, before
the gazing world, and the wondering heavens; suffering the most
excruciating death ever invented, the most shameful in the sight of man,
the most accursed in the sight of God. All the springs of consolation
are sealed to the glorious sufferer; and he finds not a single drop of
comfort in his great extremity. True, the fountains of the deep are
broken up, and the windows of heaven are opened; but not to supply him
with drink who saith—“I thirst!” From below burst forth upon him the
streams of hellish rage, a fiery deluge from the mouth of the dragon;
while from above Divine Justice pours down a cataract of wrath,
overwhelming his soul with agony, and baptizing his body with blood.
This is the baptism which he anticipated in talking with his
disciples:—“I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened
till it be accomplished!” Let us pause a moment to contemplate this
baptism. It was the anguish of his soul, wringing the blood from his
person, till the crimson dew stood thick upon his brow, and rolled down
in great drops to the ground. The sufferings of his soul constituted the
soul of his sufferings. “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto
death.” It was not the taunt of the rabble, the derision of the
governors, nor the cruelly lacerating scourge, that Jesus dreaded in the
garden, and deprecated in that mysterious agony. Nor was it the thorns,
the nails, the tree, or the spear. It was the burden, O man! of thy
guilt; the flaming curse of the law; the felt displeasure of the Father
against sin. When the martyrs suffered death for Jesus’ sake, they
rejoiced in the midst of the fire, for the Son of man was there to
sustain them; but when Christ suffered, the Just for the unjust, he felt
the hidings of his Father’s face, and cried after him through the
blackening heavens—“My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me!”
In the Bible we read of two very remarkable trees; “the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the garden,” and the tree of
redemption high planted on “the place of skulls.” Milton has made the
former the theme of his majestic song, which he opens with the following
strain:—
“Of man’s first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our wo,
With loss of Eden, * * * * *
* * * * * sing, Heavenly Muse!”
But let me extol that mysterious tree of life on Golgotha, by which,—
—“One Greater Man
Restores us, and regains the blissful seat!”
“Sing, Heavenly Muse,” of Jesus and his cross! Sing of the wormwood and
the gall, of the strife and the triumph of Calvary! Let us compare these
two trees. By the former, “the first Adam” transgressed, and entailed
ruin upon his posterity; by the latter, “the second Adam” “became
obedient unto death,” and “brought life and immortality to light.” By a
forbidden approach to the one, the chain of the covenant was broken,
Paradise forfeited, God’s image and favor lost, the league with hell
signed, and sealed, and ratified, and the whole earth converted into a
province of the Prince of Darkness, and delivered up to the despotism of
Sin and Death; but four thousand years afterward, the Son of God took his
stand on the other, wrestled gloriously with the tyrant usurpers,
dethroned Satan, condemned and abolished Sin, swallowed up Death in
victory, disannulled the league of earth with hell, restored to believers
the favor and image of God, reopened the gates of the forfeited Eden to
the exiles, and established a new and everlasting covenant of grace. The
blood of Jesus cancelled the debt of man, and quenched the wrath of God;
and from all them that obey him, it will ultimately wash away all the
stains of sin, and all the dust of death. This is the newly consecrated
way into the holy of holies; this is eternal life! “Sing, Heavenly
Muse,” once more!
“We too with him are dead,
And shall with him arise:
The cross on which he bows his head
Shall lift us to the skies!”
Thus, the Son of God, “his own self, bore our sins, in his own body, on
the tree.” The burden beneath which he fainted was our burden, and would
have sunk us to perdition. It was for us he suffered and died. Though
our iniquities were laid on him, they were yet our iniquities. He
endured the punishment in our stead. He stood between us and the
uplifted arm of Justice; and the sword which would have cleft our souls
asunder, was sheathed in Emmanuel’s heart. His righteousness, imputed to
us, and appropriated by faith, is “the righteousness of God, which is
unto all and upon all them that believe,” covering their sins, and
rendering them “accepted in the Beloved.”
Can we pass by mount Calvary, and gaze upon that wondrous sight, and
still remain unmoved? Have we no tears of gratitude and love? Pause we
not to wonder and adore? O the depth of the riches! the riches of his
wisdom! the riches of his grace!
II. Having thus spoken of Christ’s vicarious sufferings, let us notice a
little more particularly the end for which he endured them. “That we,
being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye
were healed.”