sanctification of the soul “by the renewing of the Holy Spirit.” The
“spiritually minded” man is made, through the grace of God, a “partaker
of the Divine nature.” He has received a new principle, whereby his
lusts and corruptions are mortified, crucified, and slain. The right
hand that offended is cut off; the right eye that offended is plucked
out. He delights in the law of God; he feels a strong desire, and makes
strenuous efforts, to conform himself, in heart and life, to its holy
requirements. Made free from the dominion and condemning power of sin,
he still needs, however, the aid of the Holy Spirit, to crucify the old
man; to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present evil world;
to die to sins, and live unto righteousness. In the court of heaven, he
is justified by the righteousness of Christ; but before men, he is
justified by his own righteousness. “Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in
heaven.” Be as a candle, not under a bushel, but on a candlestick,
enlightening all around you. Paul to the Ephesians says that Christ
loved the Church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and
cleanse it with the washing of water by the word; that he might present
it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such
thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. God hath not
called us unto uncleanness but unto holiness. Let us, therefore cleanse
ourselves from all filthiness—from all manner of pollution—of the flesh
and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. For it is written,
Be ye holy, for I am holy; holy in all manner of conversation; holy in
all stations, relations, and conditions of life—as husbands and wives,
parents and children, masters and servants; and this always, and in all
places—at home and abroad, in private and in public, in prosperity and
adversity. Our conversation should be such as becometh the nature and
requirements of the gospel of Christ. Forgetting the things that are
behind, we should be ever pressing forward towards those things that are
before—not as though we had already attained, either were already
perfect; but making perfection our mark; for we know not yet what we
shall be, but one thing we do know—that when he shall appear, we shall be
like him! Then, and not till then, shall we be satisfied, when we awake
in his likeness. We must be conformed to the image of God’s Son in this
world, otherwise we cannot have the enjoyment of him in the world to
come. We must have the spirit of Christ, to love righteousness, and to
hate iniquity. We must imitate his example in zeal and activity, doing
our Father’s work while the day lasts. Die to sin, we must. “For if ye
live after the flesh, ye shall die, but if ye through the spirit do
mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” Mortify therefore your
members which are upon the earth. Put off the old man with all his
deceitful lusts, and put on the new man, which, after God, is created in
righteousness and true holiness. Abstain from those fleshy lusts that
war against the soul; always keeping in mind, that they that are Christ’s
have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts. To die to sin,
implies a perfect hatred of it, deep sorrow and contrition on account of
it, and a constant desire and effort to forsake it. We should
conscientiously use all the means of grace, and depend entirely upon the
grace of God, as that by which alone we can obtain a victory—final and
complete,—over all our enemies, the flesh, the world, and the devil. Be
sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion
goeth about, seeking whom he may devour. Good reason have you to pray
without ceasing, that you may be made strong in the Lord and in the power
of his might. You must put on the whole armor of God, that you may be
able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Your loins must be girt
about with truth. The breast-plate of righteousness you must wear. Your
heart must be protected by the shield of faith, and your feet shod with
the preparation of the gospel of peace. Forget not the helmet of
salvation, nor the sword of the Spirit, nor to write often to the
King—directing to the care of Jesus, that your petitions may not
fail—“Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, and
watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all
saints.” As ye formerly yielded your members servants to uncleanness,
even so now yield your members servants of righteousness unto holiness.
Live unto righteousness. Yield yourselves up unto God, as those that are
alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness
unto God. Conform to his revealed will, and keep an eye single to his
glory in the performance of every duty.
To produce in his people this happy change, was the end of Messiah’s
sufferings. But this was not all, for the apostle adds,—“By whose
stripes ye were healed.” Divine philosophy! supernatural science!
transcending all original conception of men and angels! Who could ever
have dreamed of healing by his stripes, soundness by his wounds, pleasure
by his pains, and life eternal by his death! We are afflicted by the old
inveterate plague of sin, but there is balm in Gilead, and a Physician
there. His blood alone can cure the malady, and that is infallible. All
the way from Bethlehem to Calvary, he was employed in preparing his
materia medica. The Gospel is the great store-house of this precious
preparation. It is always full; it is always free; and the sign over its
entrance is—“Able to save to the uttermost.” The Holy Spirit is
continually making the application, and all who come are cured.
It is a matter of all others the most momentous, that we know our
personal interest in these things. If we be not dead to sins, and alive
unto righteousness—if we be not healed by the stripes of Jesus—his
sufferings upon the cross, and our theoretical faith in their vicarious
character and saving power, will profit us nothing. “If any man have not
the spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” There is a vast difference
between sanctification and morality. A man may perform many excellent
deeds, while the principle that actuates him is averse to true godliness.
Happy are they, whose sins are pardoned, whose persons are justified, and
whose bodies are become temples of the Holy Ghost. The Lord is their God
and Father. They have passed from death unto life, and shall not come
into condemnation. “There is now no condemnation to them that are in
Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit; for the
law of the Spirit of life, in Christ Jesus, hath made me free from the
law of sin and death.”
SERMON IX.
THE PURIFICATION OF CONSCIENCE.
“_How much more shall the blood of Christ_, _who_, _through the
eternal Spirit_, _offered himself without spot to God_, _purge your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God_?”—Heb. ix. 14.
THE Hebrew Christians, to whom the apostle wrote, were well acquainted
with the laws of ceremonial purification by the blood of beasts and
birds, for by blood almost every thing was purified in the service of the
temple. But it is only the blood of Christ that can purge the human
conscience. In speaking of this purification, as presented in our text,
let us notice—_the object_, _the means_, and _the end_.
I. The object of this purification is the conscience; which all the
sacrificial blood shed, from the gate of Eden, down to the extinction of
the fire on the Jewish altar, was not sufficient to purge.
_What is the conscience_? An inferior judge, the representative of
Jehovah, holding his court in the human soul; according to whose decision
we feel either confidence and joy in God, or condemnation and tormenting
fear. His judicial power is graduated by the degree of moral and
evangelical light which has been shed upon his palace. His knowledge of
the will and the character of God is the law by which he justifies or
condemns. His intelligence is the measure of his authority; and the
perfection of knowledge would be the infallibility of conscience.
This faithful recorder and deputy judge is with us through all the
journey of life, and will accompany us with his register over the river
Jordan, whether to Abraham’s bosom or the society of the rich men in
hell. While conscience keeps a record on earth, Jehovah keeps a record
in heaven; and when both books shall be opened in the final judgment,
there shall be found a perfect correspondence. When temptations are
presented, the understanding opposes them, but the carnal mind indulges
them, and there is a contest between the judgment and the will, and we
hesitate which to obey, till the warning bell of conscience rings through
the soul, and gives distinct notice of his awful recognition; and when we
turn away recklessly from his faithful admonitions, we hear low
mutterings of wrath stealing along the avenues, and the quick sound of
writing-pens in the recording office, causing every denizen of the mental
palace to tremble.
There is _a good conscience_, _and an evil conscience_. The work of
both, however, is the same; consisting in keeping a true record of the
actions of men, and passing sentence upon them according to their
deserts. Conscience is called good or evil only with reference to the
character of its record and its sentence. If the record is one of
virtues, and the sentence one of approval, the conscience is good; if the
record is one of vices, and the sentence one of condemnation, the
conscience is evil.
Some have a _guilty conscience_; that is, a conscience that holds up to
their view a black catalogue of crimes, and rings in their ears the
sentence of condemnation. If you have such a conscience, you are invited
to Jesus, that you may find peace to your souls. He is ever in his
office, receiving all who come, and blotting out with his own blood the
handwriting which is against them.
But some have a _despairing conscience_. They think that their crimes
are too great to be forgiven. The registry of guilt, and the decree of
death, hide from their eyes the mercy of God, and the merit of Christ.
Their sins rise like mountains between them and heaven. But let them
look away to Calvary. If their sins are a thousand times more numerous
than their tears, the blood of Jesus is ten thousand times more powerful
than their sins. “He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto
God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.”
And others have a _dark and hardened conscience_. They are so deceived,
that they “cry peace and safety, when destruction is at the door.” They
are “past feeling, having the conscience seared as with a hot iron.”
They have sold themselves to work evil; to eat sin like bread, and drink
iniquity like water. They have bribed or gagged the recorder and accuser
within them. They will betray the just cause of the righteous, and slay
the messengers of salvation, and think that they are doing God service.
John the Baptist is beheaded, that Herod may keep his oath of honor. A
dead fish cannot swim against the stream; but if the king’s conscience
had been alive and faithful, he would have said:—“Girl, I promised to
give thee thy request, even to the half of my kingdom; but thou hast
requested too much; for the head of Messiah’s herald is more valuable
than my whole kingdom, and all the kingdoms of the world!” But he had
not the fear of God before his eyes, and the proud fool sent and beheaded
the prophet in his cell.
A _good conscience_ is a faithful conscience, a lively conscience, a
peaceful conscience, a conscience void of offence toward God and man,
resting in the shadow of the cross, and assured of an interest in its
infinite merit. It is the victory of faith unfeigned, working by love,
and purifying the heart. It is always found in the neighborhood and
society of its brethren; “a broken heart, and a contrite spirit;” an
intense hatred of sin, and an ardent love of holiness; a spirit of
fervent prayer and supplication, and a life of scrupulous integrity and
charity; and above all, an humble confidence in the mercy of God, through
the mediation of Christ. These constitute the brotherhood of
Christianity; and wherever they abound, a good conscience is never
lacking. They are its very element and life; its food, its sunshine, and
its vital air.
Conscience was a faithful recorder and judge under the law; and
notwithstanding the revolution which has taken place, introducing a new
constitution, and a new administration, Conscience still retains his
office; and when “purged from dead works to serve the living God,” is
appropriately called a _good conscience_.
II. The means of this purification is “the blood of Christ, who through
the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God.”
Could we take in, at a single view, all the bearings of “the blood of
Christ,” as exhibited in the gospel, what an astonishing light would it
cast upon the condition of man; the character of God; the nature and
requirements of his law; the dreadful consequences of sin; the wondrous
expiation of the cross; the reconciliation of Heaven and earth; the
blessed union of the believer with God in Christ, as a just God and a
Savior; and the whole scheme of our justification, sanctification, and
redemption, through free, sovereign, infinite, and unspeakable grace!
There is no knowledge like the knowledge of Christ, for the excellency of
which the apostle counted all things but loss. Christ is the Sun of
Righteousness, in whose light we see the tops of the mountains of
immortality, towering above the dense clouds which overhang the valley of
death. All the wisdom which philosophers have learned from nature and
providence, compared with that which is afforded by the Christian
Revelation, is like the ignis fatuus compared with the sun. The
knowledge of Plato, and Socrates, and all the renowned sages of
antiquity, was nothing to the knowledge of the feeblest believer in “the
blood of Christ.”
“The blood of Christ” is of infinite value. There is none like it
flowing in human veins. It was the blood of a man, but of a man who knew
no iniquity; the blood of a sinless humanity, in which dwelt all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily; the blood of the second Adam, who is the
Lord from heaven, and a quickening spirit upon earth. It pressed through
every pore of his body in the garden; and gushed from his head, his
hands, his feet, and his side, upon the cross. I approach with fear and
trembling, yet with humble confidence and joy. I take off my shoes, like
Moses, as he draws near the burning bush; for I hear a voice coming forth
from the altar, saying—“I and my Father are one; I am the true God, and
eternal life.”
The expression, “the blood of Christ,” includes the whole of his
obedience to the moral law, by the imputation of which we are justified;
and all the sufferings of his soul and his body as our Mediator, by which
an atonement is made for our sins, and a fountain opened to wash them all
away. This is the spring whence rise the rivers of forgiving and
sanctifying grace.
In the representation which the text gives us of this redeeming blood,
are several points worthy of our special consideration:—
1. It is _the blood of Christ_; the appointed Substitute and Saviour of
men; “the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world.”
2. It is the blood of Christ, _who offered himself_. His humanity was
the only sacrifice which would answer the demands of justice, and atone
for the transgressions of mankind. Therefore “he made his soul an
offering for sin.”
3. It is the blood of Christ, who offered himself _to God_. It was the
eternal Father, whose broken law must be repaired, whose dishonored
government must be vindicated, and whose flaming indignation must be
turned away. The well beloved Son must meet the Father’s frown, and bear
the Father’s curse for us. All the Divine attributes called for the
offering; and without it, could not be reconciled to the sinner.
4. It is the blood of Christ, who offered himself to God, _without
spot_. This was a perfect sacrifice. The victim was without blemish or
defect; the altar was complete in all its appurtenances; and the
high-priest possessed every conceivable qualification for his work.
Christ was at once victim, altar, and high-priest; “holy, harmless, and
undefiled;” “God manifest in the flesh.” Being himself perfect God, and
perfect man, and perfect Mediator between God and man, he perfects for
ever all them that believe.
5. It is the blood of Christ, who offered himself to God, without spot,
_through the eternal Spirit_. By the eternal Spirit here, we are to
understand, not the third person of the Godhead, but the second; Christ’s
own Divine nature, which was co-eternal with the Father before the world
was; and which, in the fulness of time, seized on humanity, sinless and
immaculate humanity, and offered it body and soul, as a sacrifice for
human sins. The eternal Spirit was at once the priest that offered the
victim, and the altar that sanctified the offering. Without this agency,
there could have been no atonement. The offering of mere humanity,
however spotless, aside from the merit derived from its connection with
Divinity, could not have been a sacrifice of sweet-smelling savor unto
God.
6. It is the blood of Christ, who offered himself to God, without spot,
through the eternal Spirit, _that he might purge your conscience_. As
the typical sacrifices under the law purified men from ceremonial
defilement, so the real sacrifice of the Gospel saves the believer from
moral pollution. Blood was the life of all the services of the
tabernacle made with hands, and gave significance and utility to all the
rites of the former dispensation. By blood the covenant between God and
his people was sealed. By blood the officers and vessels of the
sanctuary were consecrated. By blood the children of Israel were
preserved in Egypt from the destroying angel. So the blood of Christ is
our justification, sanctification, and redemption. All the blessings of
the gospel flow to us through the blood of the Lamb. Mercy, when she
writes our pardon, and when she registers our names in “the Book of
Life,” dips her pen in the blood of the Lamb. And the vast company that
John saw before the throne had come out of great tribulation, having
“washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
The children of Israel were delivered from Egypt, on the very night that
the paschal lamb was slain, and its blood sprinkled upon the doorposts,
as if their liberty and life were procured by its death. This typified
the necessity and power of the atonement, which is the very heart of the
gospel, and the spiritual life of the believer. In Egypt, however, there
was a lamb slain for every family; but under the new covenant God has but
one family, and one Lamb is sufficient for their salvation.
In the cleansing of the leper, several things were necessary; as running
water, cedar wood, scarlet and hyssop, and the finger of the priest; but
it was the blood that gave efficacy to the whole. So it is in the
purification of the conscience. Without the shedding of blood, the leper
could not be cleansed; without the shedding of blood, the conscience
cannot be purged. “The blood of Christ” seals every precept, every
promise, every warning, of the New Testament. “The blood of Christ”
renders the Scriptures “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness.” “The blood of Christ”
gives efficiency to the pulpit; and when “Jesus Christ and him crucified”
is shut out, the virtue is wanting which heals and restores the soul. It
is only through the crucifixion of Christ, that “the old man” is
crucified in the believer. It is only through his obedience unto death,
even the death of the cross, that our dead souls are quickened, to serve
God in newness of life.
Here rest our hopes. “The foundation of God standeth sure.” The bill of
redemption being presented by Christ, was read by the prophets, and
passed unanimously in both houses of parliament. It had its final
reading in the lower house, when Messiah hung on Calvary; and passed
three days afterward, when he rose from the dead. It was introduced to
the upper house by the Son of God himself, who appeared before the throne
“as a lamb newly slain,” and was carried by acclamation of the heavenly
hosts. Then it became a law of the kingdom of heaven, and the Holy Ghost
was sent down to establish it in the hearts of men. It is “the perfect
law of liberty,” by which God is reconciling the world unto himself. It
is “the law of the Spirit of Life,” by which he is “purging our
conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”
III. The end of this purification is twofold:—that we may cease from
dead works, and serve the living God.
1. The works of unrenewed souls are all “dead works,” can be no other
than “dead works,” because the agents are “dead in trespasses and sins.”
They proceed from “the carnal mind,” which “is enmity against God,” which
“is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” How can a
corrupt tree bring forth good fruit, or a corrupt fountain send forth
pure water?
But the blood of Christ is intended to “purge the conscience from dead
works.” The apostle says—“Ye are not redeemed with corruptible things,
as silver and gold, from your vain conversation, received by tradition
from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb
without blemish, and without spot.” The Jews were in a state of bondage
to the ceremonial law, toiling at the “dead works,” the vain and empty
forms, which could never take away sin; and unjustified and unregenerate
men are still captives of Satan, slaves of sin and death, tyrannized over
by various evil habits and propensities, which are invincible to all
things but “the blood of Christ.” He died to redeem, both from the
burdens of the Mosaic ritual, and from the despotism of moral evil—to
purge the conscience of both Jew and Gentile “from dead works, to serve
the living God.”
2. We cannot “serve the living God,” without this preparatory
purification of conscience. If our guilt is uncancelled—if the love of
sin is not dethroned—the service of the knee and the lip is nothing but
hypocrisy. “If we regard iniquity in our hearts, the Lord will not hear
us.” Cherishing what he hates, all our offerings are an abomination to
him; and we can no more stand in his holy presence than the dry stubble
can stand before a flaming fire. He who has an evil conscience, flees
from the face of God, as did Adam in the garden. Nothing but “the blood
of Christ,” applied by the Holy Spirit, can remove the sinner’s guilty
fear, and enable him to draw nigh to God in the humble confidence of
acceptance through the Beloved.
The service of the living God must flow from a new principle of life in
the soul. The Divine word must be the rule of our actions. The Divine
will must be consulted and obeyed. We must remember that God is holy,
and jealous of his honor. The consideration that he is everywhere, and
sees every thing, and will bring every work into judgment, must fill us
with reverence and godly fear. An ardent love for his law and his
character must supplant the love of sin, and prompt to a cheerful and
impartial obedience.
And let us remember that he is “the _living_ God.” Pharaoh is dead,
Herod is dead, Nero is dead; but Jehovah is “the living God,” and it is a
fearful thing to have him for an enemy. Death cannot deliver from his
hand. Time, and even eternity, cannot limit his holy anger. He has
manifested, in a thousand instances, his hatred of sin; in the
destruction of the old world, the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah, the
drowning of Pharaoh and his host in the sea; and I tell thee, sinner,
except thou repent, thou shalt likewise perish! O, think what punishment
“the living God” can inflict upon his adversaries—the loss of all
good—the endurance of all evil—the undying worm—the unquenchable fire—the
blackness of darkness for ever!
The gods of the heathen have no life in them, and they who worship them
are like unto them. But our God is “the living God,” and “the God of the
living.” If you are united to him by faith in “the blood of Christ,”
your souls are “quickened together with him,” and “the power which raised
him from the dead shall also quicken your mortal body.”
May the Lord awaken those who are dead in trespasses and sins, and revive
his work in the midst of the years, and strengthen the feeble graces of
his people, and bless abundantly the labors of his servants, so that many
consciences may be purged from dead works to serve the living God!
“There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Emmanuel’s veins,
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.
“The dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain in his day;
And there may I, as vile as he,
Wash all my sins away.
“Dear dying Lamb! thy precious blood
Shall never lose its power,
Till all the ransomed sons of God
Are saved to sin no more!”
SERMON X.
THE CEDAR OF GOD.
“_Thus saith the Lord God_; _I will also take of the highest branch
of the high cedar_, _and will set it_; _I will crop off from the top
of his young twigs a tender one_, _and plant it upon a high mountain
and eminent_; _in the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant
it_; _and it shall bring forth boughs_, _and bear fruit_, _and be a
goodly cedar_; _and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing_; _in
the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell_; _and all the
trees of the field shall know that I_, _the Lord_, _have brought down
the high tree_, _and have exalted the low tree_—_have dried up the
green tree_, _and have made the dry tree to flourish_. _I_, _the
Lord_, _have spoken_, _and I have done it_.”—Ezek. xvii. 22–24.
YOU perceive that our text abounds in the beautiful language of allegory.
In the context is portrayed the captivity of the children of Israel, and
especially the carrying away of the royal family, by the king of Babylon.
Here God promises to restore them to their own land, in greater
prosperity than ever; and to raise up Messiah, the Branch, out of the
house of David, to be their king. All this is presented in a glowing
figurative style, dressed out in all the wealth of poetic imagery, so
peculiar to the orientals. Nebuchadnezzar, the great eagle—the
long-winged, full-feathered, embroidered eagle—is represented as coming
to Lebanon, and taking the highest branch of the tallest cedar, bearing
it off as the crow bears the acorn in its beak, and planting it in the
land of traffic. The Lord God, in his turn, takes the highest branch of
the same cedar, and plants it on the high mountain of Israel, where it
flourishes and bears fruit, and the fowls of the air dwell under the
shadow of its branches.
We will make a few general remarks on the character of the promise, and
then pass to a more particular consideration of its import.
I. This is an _evangelical_ promise. It relates to the coming and
kingdom of Messiah. Not one of the kings of Judah since the captivity,
as Boothroyd well observes, answers to the description here given. Not
one of them was a cedar whose branches could afford shadow and shelter
for all the fowls of heaven. But the prophecy receives its fulfilment in
Christ, the desire of all nations, to whom the ends of the earth shall
come for salvation.
This prophecy bears a striking resemblance in several particulars, to the
parable of the mustard-seed, delivered by our Lord. The mustard-seed,
said Jesus, “is the least of all seeds; but when it is grown, it is the
greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air
come and lodge in the branches thereof.” So the delicate twig of the
young and tender branch becomes a goodly cedar, and under its shadow
dwell all fowl of every wing. The prophecy and the parable are alike
intended to represent the growth and prosperity of Messiah’s kingdom, and
the gracious protection and spiritual refreshment afforded to its
subjects. Christ is the mustard plant, and cedar of God; and to him
shall the gathering of the people be; and multitudes of pardoned sinners
shall sit under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit shall be
sweet to their taste.