What He Has Done, Is Doing, And Will Do.
HIS PAST APPEARING. WHAT HE HAS DONE.
WHILE speaking on what the Lord has done, I want to point out that there are two sides of the Lord’s work―God’s side, and ours―which it is very important for the soul to get hold of, if there is to be solid rest and peace before God. God’s side is this, that― “Now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Heb. 9:2626For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. (Hebrews 9:26)). That was at the end of the ages, during which man had been on probation or trial.
What was the end of all that trial? It proved that man was hopelessly at a distance from God, sinful, and without strength, hence already lost. It is a great thing to see that the Lord Jesus Christ came to seek and save that which is lost. Man must be redeemed, and there comes in the necessity of the cross―the death of Jesus―when He presented to God the blood of atonement, in virtue of which sin is put away from before Him, and the believing sinner’s sins are blotted out from the eye of God. John the Baptist proclaimed this when, on the banks of the Jordan he exclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” There is coming a day when Christ will eradicate every bit of evil from this world.
In the meantime, what do those gain who come under the benefit and blessing of His work You will see, all through Scripture, that it is Christ personally, who is the object of faith, but, whoever believes in Him personally, comes under the benefit of all the work that He accomplished, when He came “to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” That is, His death, sufferings, and shed blood effected atonement, thus meeting all God’s righteous claims, so that God is now able, in righteousness, to bless man. He does not come out and now forgive the sinner on the ground that He is merely gracious and tenderhearted, but on the ground that He is righteous. Christ was abandoned by God, in righteousness, when, upon the cross, and there truly He was bearing the judgment due to man. What is the consequence? The man that clings to Christ escapes that judgment. If you turn to, God, and believe in His blessed Son, what is the case with you? You stand before God in all the fragrance, the value, and abiding efficacy of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now mark this, every Christian should know that he is “accepted in the Beloved.” Perhaps you do not. Then you do not know the gospel. The gospel brings you the glad tidings of what God is, as revealed in the Person of His blessed Son. The glad tidings is all about Christ, the glory of His Person, and the grandeur of His work. On the other hand, the law is all about us. People like the law because it talks about them, and they like to be talked about. They like to feel that they are appealed to and have to do something. There is not a word about me in the gospel: it is all about Christ. “Oh,” you say, “has God nothing for me?” I did not say that. God has got everything for you if you will have it, but the gospel is not about you. It tells us that Christ has gone into death. What to do? “That He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” That is indeed good news. Why some of you here tonight have had nothing but fears, doubts, and uncertainty all the days of your life. You have been living in the cold, damp cellar of uncertainty. I wish I could pull you right out into the sunshine of the love of God.
Jesus has gone into death to destroy the devil, your captor, and deliver you, the poor captive. I have known the blessedness of this glorious gospel over fifty long years now, and the fifty-first year is better than the first. It is a grand thing to be a Christian and to know the gospel. “Oh,” but you say, “surely you have doubts and fears?” What about? Do I doubt who He is? No. Do I doubt what He has done? No. Everything is wrapped up in Christ. He is our life, and He is our peace. Doubters, I wish I could get you out of your doubts tonight. There are a terrible lot of doubters in Blackheath as elsewhere. I find them everywhere. For every Christian with a bright, beaming, happy face, rejoicing in Christ all the day long, I can find two that have doubts and fears. Sometimes they feel they are saved, and sometimes they are afraid they are not.
I would like to pull you out of “Doubting Castle,” and plant you in a new situation tonight, in the company of those who know what the grace of Christ is. I know that the Son of God has taken my place on the cross, that He has met my captor, Satan, destroyed his power, and loosed my bonds. We have all been in the prison house, so to say, but the blessed Son of God has come into this prison house, He has burst open the door, broken the lock, and the devil is not able to repair that lock. The glory of the gospel is that it lets you out into the sunshine, into the knowledge of the love of God, to live in the enjoyment of Him who is love.
Well now, beloved friends, you may say I am giving you more gospel than instruction for Christians. Be it so. Could you wish for anything better than the gospel, the revelation of what God is? You are going to enjoy him forever, are you not? Do you know what the Shorter Catechism of Scotland says? It begins thus: “What is man’s chief end?” The answer is very good, “To glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.” Do you agree with it? You say, “I do.” Then when are you going to begin to enjoy Him? If your sins are not forgiven, how can you enjoy Him? You are keeping at a distance from Him. Christ is the victor over Satan, and He has gone on high, and there He sits in glory, a proof of the work that He, has wrought, in virtue of which we get a place before God.
Then we read that “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.” There you come to our side of the gospel. “As it is appointed unto men once to die (that is, the portion of man naturally), but after this the judgment (that means the great white throne. None but the lost are at that great white throne, hence that means being lost for eternity); so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.” You say, “How many? Whose sins did He bear? “Many” is God’s answer. You go straight to Him tonight, and say, “Lord Jesus, am I among the many for whom Thou didst die?” If I had never known that I was among the “many,”
I would find out tonight. I would not be left out in the cold for eternity. It is far too important a matter to be left over unsettled.
He was “once offered to bear the sins of many.” If He bore those sins, He must bear the consequences. What were they? Death and judgment. He took the cup of judgment, the forsaking of God, and He drained that cup on the cross. Christ received the stroke, and the sword of divine judgment that ought to have been sheathed in my bosom was sheathed in His. As the apostle says, “The Son of God loved me, and gave Himself for me,” glorious words. Do they not move you? Perhaps someone says, “I do not feel quite sure whether He died for me.” How could you be sure of it? Suppose you saw your name in the Bible, and that Jesus died for you, would that do? If you think so, you are like a young woman in Burntisland, where I was preaching some forty years ago. She was very unhappy and anxious to be saved. I said to her, “Tell me your name.” “Janet Brown,” she replied. “If you saw in the Bible that Jesus died for Janet Brown,’ would that satisfy you?” “Oh yes,” she said. “Stop a bit,” I replied, “I know half a dozen lassies called Janet Brown, which of the seven did He die for?” “I see that will not do,” she replied. “Well,” I asked, “are you a sinned” “I am an awful sinner,” she said, weeping bitterly. “Then you have just to believe what the Bible says, He died for sinners. You have just to take, believe, and receive the sinner’s Saviour, and you will find peace and pardon.” Thank God! she found Jesus that night, and has rejoiced in Him ever since.
Now if you have any doubts, I hope by the grace of God, you will have them no more. If He has not put away those sins of yours, they never can be put away. The reason is very simple. You never can put them away, and He won’t. You say, Why? He is not coming to die again. If the work that He did when on the cross, has not been sufficient, and efficient to blot out your sins from the sight of God, they can never be blotted out. What you have to learn tonight is that the finished work of Christ has settled that question once and forever.
Then you will be able to understand how it is that “unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time, without sin unto salvation.” He will not then touch the sin question. When He came the first time He took our sins away; when He comes the next time He will take us away. Do you love Him? Is He the object of the faith and affection of your soul. I want to know whether your heart has been reached. There must be affection for Christ, and how could there be anything else but affection when you learn His love? As the Apostle John says: “Herein is love with us made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear... We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:17-1917Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. 18There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. 19We love him, because he first loved us. (1 John 4:17‑19)).
W. T. P. W.
(To be continued.)