SHUTTING, SEALING, AND
COVERING;
OR, MESSIAH’S
GLORIOUS
WORK
DELIVERED
ON LORD’S DAY MORNING,
SEPTEMBER
24, 1882.
BY
C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE,
Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy
holy
city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of
sins, and to
make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting
righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint
the most Holy. Daniel
9:24.
The Lord God appointed a set time for the coming of His Son
into the
world; nothing was left to chance. Infinite wisdom dictated the
hour at
which the Messiah should be born, and the moment at which He
should be
cut
off. His advent and His work are the highest point of the purpose of
God, the hinge of history, the center of providence, the
crowning of the
edifice of grace, and therefore peculiar care watched over every
detail.
Once in the end of the world hath the Son of God appeared
to put away sin
by
the sacrifice of Himself, and this is the event before which all other
events must bow. The studious mind will be delighted to search
out the
reasons why the Messiah came not before, and why He did not tarry
till yet
later ages. Prophecies declared the date; but long before
infallible wisdom
had
settled it for profoundest reasons. It was well that the Redeemer came:
it was well that
He came in what Scripture calls the fullness of time, even
in these last
days.
Note, again, that the Lord told His people somewhat darkly,
but still with a
fair measure of clearness, when the Christ would come. Thus He cheered
them when the heavy clouds of woe hung over their path. This prophecy
shone like a star in
the midst of the sorrow of
the period when
Christ came there was a general expectation of Him. Holy
men
and women, diligent in the study of the Scriptures, were waiting for
Him: Simeon was waiting for the consolation of
for
redemption in
but
the Samaritans expected Him, for the woman at the well exclaimed, “I
know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ.”
Even in heathen lands
there was remarkable cessation from stir and battle; an unusual
peace
reigned over all the nations, and the hush of expectation ruled
the hour-
No war,
or battle’s sound,
Was
heard the world around:
The
idle spear and shield were high uphung;
The
hooked chariot stood
Unstained
with hostile blood;
The
trumpet spoke not to the armed throng;
And
kings sat still with awful eye,
As if
they surely knew their sovran Lord was by.
Men were looking out for the coming One; for the corn of
earth was ripe
for
the reaper. Men were on the tiptoe of expectation, and wondered when
the
promised Prince would arrive. Alas, they
knew Him not when He
appeared. After this fashion are things at the present moment with
regard
to
the Second Advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. “Of that day and of that
hour knoweth no man”; but it is known unto God, and fixed in the roll of
His eternal purposes. “Known unto God
are all his works from the creation
of the
world,” and especially those grand
works which concern the person
of
our adorable Lord Jesus. He shall come as God hath appointed: the
vision of His glory shall not tarry. He has given us suggestive
hints as to
that glorious appearing; and He has plainly taught us to be looking for and
listening unto the day of the Lord. Among His last words are these, “Surely
I come quickly”:
these are words of consolation as well of warning. He
bids us watch constantly for the coming of the Lord, that it overtake us not
as
a thief in the night; and He assures us that He will descend from heaven
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God:
wherefore comfort one another with the glad tidings, and whenever
your
hearts sicken because of abounding sin, hear ye with the ear of
faith the voice of
promise crying, “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh.” Rest assured
that He cometh who will in the fullest and most manifest sense finish
transgression, and make an end of sin, and bring in everlasting
righteousness. The advent of the Well-beloved is the consolation of His
mourning saints. Both at His first and second appearings
the Lord not only
cometh to drive away the wicked as chaff, but also to comfort and
exalt
His elect: it is a day that shall burn as an oven, and yet
to the redeemed it
will be the gladdest day that ever dawned.
The first advent of our Lord is spoken of in our text as
ordained to be ere
the
seventy weeks were finished, and the city should be destroyed; and so it
was
even as the prophet had spoken. I shall not occupy your time by
attempting to fix the beginning and the end of the period intended by
the
seventy weeks, and the seven weeks and three-score and two weeks.
That
is
a deep study, requiring much research and learning, and I conceive that
the
discussion of such a subject would be of no great practical use to us
this Sabbath morning. You will be better nourished upon the Lord Himself
than upon times and
seasons. Suffice it to believe that Jesus
Christ our
Lord, the Messiah, came exactly as it was prophesied, and
remained on
earth as it was foretold He should do: in the middle of the
predestined
week He was cut off, when He had completed three years and a half of
saving ministry, and within another period of like length the
gospel was
preached throughout all nations, and Messiah’s peculiar relation to
was
cut off. At another time it may afford you profitable contemplation if
you
consider the four hundred and ninety years from the decree of the king
for
rebuilding to the overthrow of
We will at this present hour survey the work of the
Messiah-that is His
Hebrew name, or of Christ, which is the Greek
interpretation thereof. Let
us
survey the work of the Anointed. Secondly, let us inquire as to our
participation in it; and then, thirdly, let us contemplate the
consequences
which follow upon us being sharers in it, or upon our not being
participants
in it. Oh for a measure of the anointing, that we may fitly meditate
upon
our
great theme. Come, Holy Spirit and rest upon us.
I. First,
Let us survey the Messiah’s work. According to my text it divides
itself into two grand works, which two works subdivide themselves
in each
case into three particulars.
The first work of our Lord Jesus Christ is the overthrow of evil, and it is
thus described,- “To finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins,
and to
make reconciliation for iniquity.” But
our Lord’s labor is not all
spent upon down-pulling work; He comes to build up, and His
second
work is the setting up of righteousness in the world, described again by
three sentences: “To bring in everlasting righteousness, and
to seal up the
vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.”
The first work of the Messiah is the overthrow of evil.
This overthrow of
evil is described by three words. If I were to give you a literal
translation
from the Hebrew I might read the passage thus:
According to learned men, those are the words which are
here used, and the three put
together are a singularly complete description of the putting away
of sin.
First, it is shut
up: it is, as it were, taken prisoner, and confined in a cell;
the door is fastened, and
it is held in durance: it is out of sight; held to a
narrow range; unable to
exercise the power it once possessed. In a
word, it
is
“restrained”-so
the margin of our Bibles reads it. The Hebrew word
signifies to hold back, to hold in, to arrest, to keep in prison, to
shut in or
shut up. Its dominion is finished, for sin itself is bound. Christ has led
captivity captive.
But it is not enough to shut up the vanquished tyrant,
unless he be shut up
forever; and therefore, lest there should be any possibility of
his breaking
loose again, the next sentence is, “To seal up.” The uses of
the seal are
many, but here it is employed for certainty of custody. Just as when Daniel
was
thrown into the lions’ den for the king sealed the stone with his own
signet and with the signet of his lords; or, better still, as
when our divine
Master was laid in the grave, they rolled the stone to the
mouth of the
sepulcher, and His enemies set a seal and a watch, lest His body
should be
stolen by His disciples. In His case,
Vain the
stone, the watch, the seal,
Christ
has burst the gates of hell.
But sin cannot thus arise. It is imprisoned in the
sepulcher of Jesus, and
never can it come forth; for the seal royal of the immutable God
is set upon
the
door. Thus
is sin placed doubly out of sight: it is shut up and sealed up,
as
a document put into a case and then sealed down. “Finished” and “made
an
end of” are the two words used in our authorized version, and they give
the
essence of the meaning. To borrow a figure from current events,-Arabi,
the
Egyptian rebel, is shut up as our prisoner, and his defeat is sealed,
therefore his rebellion is finished and an end made of it. Even thus
is it with
transgression: our Lord has vanquished evil, and certified the same
under
the
hand and seal of the Omnipotent, and therefore we may with rapture
hear Him say, “It is finished,” and also behold Him rise from the dead to
seal our justification.
Yet, as if this might not suffice, the next term in the
Hebrew is to cover up;
for
the word to make reconciliation or expiation is usually in the Hebrew to
cover over. “Blessed is the
man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin
is covered.” Christ has come
to cover sin, to atone for it, and so to hide it.
His glorious merits and substitutionary
sufferings and death put away sin
so
completely that God Himself beholds it no more. He has blotted it out,
cast it into the sea, and removed it from us as far as the
east is from the
west. The two former
sentences speak of finishing transgression and
making an end of sin, and these expressions are full and
complete, while
this third one explains the means by which the work is done, namely, by an
expiation which covers up
every trace of sin. Thus in the three
together we
have a picture of THE UTTER EXTINCTION OF SIN BOTH AS TO ITS
GUILT AND ITS
POWER, AY, AND ITS VERY EXISTENCE! It is put into the dungeon and the door is shut upon it;
after this the door is sealed and then it is covered up, so that the place of
sin’s sepulcher cannot be seen anymore forever. Sin was
aforetime in God’s sight, but through Christ Jesus we read, “Thou has
forgiven the iniquity of
thy people; thou has covered all their sin; thou hast
taken away all thy
wrath.” Sin was in God’s way till Christ
shut it up, and
now
it pushes itself no more into the sight of the Lord. Sin was always
breaking loose till Jesus sealed it up, and now it cannot come
forth to lay
any
accusation against the justified.
The three words might be put into one word by saying Christ has made
a
clean sweep of sin of
every kind. Whatever may be its special development,
whether it be transgression, which means the breaking of bounds,
or sin,
which is any want of conformity to the law, or iniquity-that is
to say, inequity,
or
the want of equity, a default in righteousness; in all forms in
which it can be described Christ has shut it up, sealed it up, and
covered it
up by His atoning
sacrifice once for all. The depths have
covered it; if it be
searched for, it cannot be found; our blessed Scapegoat has carried
it away
into the land of forgetfulness; it shall not be mentioned against us anymore
forever. Those three words contain infinitely more of meaning than I
have
either space or ability
to set forth.
Observe, dear friends, that the
terms for sin are left in an absolute form. It
is
said, “to finish transgression,” “to make an end of sins,” “to make
reconciliation for iniquity.”
Whose transgression is this? Whose sins are
these? Whose iniquity is it? It is not said. There is no word
employed to set
out
the persons for whom atonement is made, as is done in verses like
these- “Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it”; “I lay
down my
life for the sheep.” The mass of evil is left unlabeled, that any penitent
sinner may look to the
Messiah and find in Him the remover of sin.
What
transgression is finished? Transgression of every
kind. But what sins are
made an end of? Sins of every sort-against law and against gospel, against
God and against men, sins past, sins
present, sins to come. And what
iniquity is expiated?
Every form of iniquity, whatever falls short by
omission, whatever goes
beyond by commission. Christ in this
passage is
spoken of in general
terms as removing sins, transgressions, and iniquities
IN THE MASS. In other places we
read of the objects of His substitution but
here all is left indefinite to encourage all. He gives us no catalogue of
offenses; for where should He write it? The very heavens could not
hold
the
enumeration; but He just takes the whole, unformed, horrible, black,
disgusting mass, and this
is what He does with it-He encloses it, fastens it
up, and buries it
forever. In the words of our version He finishes it,
makes
an end of it, and
makes expiation for it. The Messiah came
to wipe out and
utterly destroy sin, and this is, and will be, the effect of His
work. Put all
the
three sentences into one and this is the sum of them.
Indulge me for a few minutes while I take the sentences
separately and
press each cluster by itself. And first notice that it is said
he came to finish
the
transgression. As some understand it, our Lord came that in His death
transgression might reach its highest development, and sign its own
condemnation. Sin reached its finish, its ultimatum, its climax, in the
murder of the Son of God. It could not proceed further: the course of
malice could no further go. They had stoned the prophets and
killed
everyone that was sent unto them; but now He came, and God said, “They
will reverence my
Son,” but they did not; on the other hand,
they cried,
“This is the heir; let us kill Him, and the inheritance
shall be ours.” Sin
finished itself when it brought forth the death of the Son of God.
It could
produce no riper fruit, for no supposable crime can exceed the
putting to
death of Jesus our Lord. Now hath sin finished itself, and now
hath Jesus
come to finish it. “Thus far,” saith He, “thou shalt go, but no further: here
in
my wounds and death shall thy proud waves be stayed.” Sin virtually
committed suicide when it slew the Savior, for His death became its
death.
The kingdom of sin was overthrown in that day when it smote
the Prince
of
Peace: then was a period put to the dominion of evil; and, to come back
to
the Hebrew, the Lord restrained
transgression, and Satan was bound
with a great chain. “The times of this ignorance God winked at; but now
commandeth all men everywhere to repent.” Sin may no longer range
unchecked. Sin is now arrested and held under warrant, restrained
under
the
bonds of law; and from the day of our Lord by the preaching of the
gospel sin has become more and more shut up as to its reigning
power.
Some men have been altogether delivered from the rule of
evil, and other
men
who remain its slaves yet go not to such a pitch of outward riot as
they would have done had not Christ appeared. Sin is being besieged; it
skulks behind its earthworks; its sorties are becoming fewer and
less
forcible; and though it is still powerful, the hour of its pride is
passed, its
head has received a deadly wound: the age has come in which the victory
of truth and
righteousness is guaranteed by the death of Jesus Christ our
Lord. Thy finis is written, O transgression! Written by the
pierced hand!
Thy huge volume has in it writing long enough and grievous
enough, full
enough of blasphemy against God and of evil towards men; but now
the
Lord Jesus takes the pen from thee, and thou shalt write no more, as thou
hast done. The huge leviathan of evil has met its match, and is placed under
the
power of the Avenger. Thus saith the Lord, “Behold,
I will put my
hook in thy nose and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn
thee by the way
by which
thou camest.”
The Lord hath set bounds to the
transgression
which aforetime broke
all bounds. Where sin abounded, grace doth much
more abound. Sin is
shut up that grace may have liberty. This is one part of
our
Lord’s great work: all glory be unto His name, He has accomplished it
with power, and the power of the enemy is broken.
Now take the second sentence, which in our version is, “To
make an end
of
sin.” Messiah has come to proclaim so free, so rich, so gracious a
pardon to the sons of men that when they receive it sin virtually
ceases to
be:
it is made an end of. The man that is in Christ, and hath Christ for his
covenant Head, is this day so delivered from all sin whatsoever,
that he
may
boldly ask the question, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of
God’s elect?” If Christ has made an end of sin there is an end of it:
the
matter is ended, and
no more is to be said. Down among the dead
men let
sin
lie, forever buried by the right hand of the conquering Savior.
But the Hebrew has it “to seal up sins.” Now I take it to
mean just this.
There are certain handwritings which are against us, and
they would be
produced against us in court but by order of the judge all these
handwritings are sealed up, and regarded as out of sight: no man dare
break the seal, and no man can read them unless the seal be
broken;
therefore they will never be brought against us. They have become
virtually
null and void. Everything that can be brought as an accusation against
God’s people is now sealed up and put out of the way once
for all, never to
be
opened and laid to their charge before the living God. Or, if you regard
sin
as a captive prisoner, you must now see that by Christ’s death the
prison wherein sin lies is so sealed that the enemy can never
come forth
again in its ancient power. Sin could once sit on the highest
mountain, and
look over the world and say, “All this is mine”; and the embodiment of sin
could come to Christ and say of all the kingdoms of the world,
“All these
will I give thee,” as though he claimed them all for his own. But it is not
so
today. The mountain of the Lord’s house is this day exalted upon
the top
of
the hills, and though as yet all nations do not flow unto it, yet a glorious
company comes streaming up to the temple of the living God, and
that
company shall increase from day to day. As when a brooklet groweth to a
stream, and the streamlet rises to a river, and the river swells
till it rolls in
fullest force into the shoreless main,
so is it yet to be with the ever-growing
the
earth with blessing. Evil, thou canst not reign! Jesus has come and
overcome thee Himself, and taught man to vanquish thee! Thou canst
not
come again to the crown thou once hadst, for the
seed of the woman hath
broken thy head: He shall reign
forever and ever, and thou shalt die!
Hallelujah! The coffin of sin is both shut up and fastened
down with the
seal of Christ’s victory.
But now, the last expression is in English, He hath come
“to make
reconciliation for iniquity”; that is, to end
the strife between God and man
by
a glorious reconciliation, a making again of peace between these twain;
so
that God loveth man, and, as a consequence, man loveth God. In the
blessed atonement of Christ, God and man meet at a chosen
meeting-place.
Christ is Jehovah’s darling and our delight. A slain Savior
is well pleasing
to
God, and oh, how pleasing He is to a sinner who is deeply under a sense
of
sin! Here,
here is that mercy-seat sprinkled with blood where man may
speak to God without
fear, and
where God doth speak to man without
wrath. Here
righteousness and peace have met together; mercy and truth
have kissed each other. Oh, glorious reconciliation which Christ has made
by
honoring the law in His life and in His death.
Now, take the Hebrew for it, and read the sentence thus,-to
cover iniquity.
Oh, what bliss this is: to think, dear friends, that sin is
now once for all
covered! Not as though it lay rankling there beneath some coverlet
through
which fire might burn, or lightning strike; but Christ’s
covering is such that,
if
you could heap hell over sin, it were not so hidden; and if you could pile
worlds upon it, were not so concealed; and if all heaven bowed to
overlay
it,
it were not so out of sight as when Jesus buried it deeper than the lowest
depths, where no
memory can remember it, or mind perceive it.
Our
guilt shall vanish quite away,
Though
black as hell before,
Shall
be dissolved beneath the sea,
And shall be found no more.
This is what is to be done with the whole kingdom of evil,
as well with the
power of it as with the guilt of it. Dagon is to fall and to be
broken, and the
very stump of him is to be demolished. As when the darkness flies before
the sun, not a
trace of its blackness is left, so is sin to be destroyed utterly
from the redeemed of
the Lord. It is not merely the guilt of
sin that is shut
up
and sealed and covered, but sin itself, its power, its dominion, its
habit,
its
defilement, the dread that comes of it, and the fear and the burning of
heart which it engenders.
All the foul birds of sin’s filthy cage must fly
away, never to return, chased away by the glorious work of Him who shall
save His people from their sins. For this the Messiah was cut off, and this
by
His death is achieved.
O love!
thou bottomless abyss!
My sins
are swallow’d up in thee;
Cover’d is my unrighteousness,
Nor
spot of guilt remains on me.
While Jesu’s blood, through earth and skies,
Mercy,
free, boundless mercy cries!
I fail to describe this triumphant overthrow of sin and
Satan. I have neither
wisdom nor language answerable to such a theme. I invite you now
for a
few
minutes to consider the second work, namely, the setting up of
righteousness. This is set before us in three expressions: first, in the
words
“to bring in everlasting
righteousness.” And what is that? Why, His own
righteousness which is from
everlasting to everlasting, and will never be
taken way from those
who have it, and will never cease to be their beauty
and their glorious
Jesus. The work of Christ in His life and death is
by God
imputed to His people:
indeed, it is theirs because they are one with Christ.
He is the Lord their righteousness, and they are the
righteousness of God
in
Him. Saints are so righteous in Jesus Christ that they are more righteous
than Adam was before he fell, for he had but a creature righteousness, and
they have the righteousness of the Creator: he had a righteousness which
he
lost, but believers have a righteousness which they can never lose, an
everlasting righteousness. Nor is that all the meaning of our text:
those to
whom God imputes righteousness, to them also He imparts righteousness.
He makes them pure in heart, He changes their desires, He makes them
love that which is
right and just and good, and so He gives them grace to
lead godly, sober,
honest, and holy lives. This righteousness
shall not be
crushed out of them, for the work of the Spirit shall continue
until they
shall become perfect, and be meet to dwell with God in light. Happy are
those spirits to
whom Christ gives an everlasting righteousness, for theirs is
the kingdom and in
it they shall shine forth as the sun. They
are right and
they shall be right; they are true and they shall never degenerate into
falsehood; they are God’s own children and they shall go on to
develop the
image of Christ, their elder brother, till they shall be without
spot or
wrinkle or any such thing. THIS CHRIST CAME TO DO! He imputes and
imparts
righteousness, and thus brings in everlasting righteousness as the foundation
of His kingdom.
Next, in order to the setting up of a kingdom of
righteousness He is come
that He may “seal up vision and prophecy.” That is, by fulfilling all the
visions and the prophecies of the Old Testament in Himself, He
ends both
prophecy and vision. He seals up visions and prophecies so that
they shall
no
more be seen or spoken; they are closed, and no man can add to them;
and
therefore-and that is the point to note-THE
GOSPEL IS FOR EVER
SETTLED TO REMAIN ETERNALLY
THE SAME! Christ has set up a
kingdom that shall never be moved. His truth can never be changed
by any novel revelation. If any man come to you and say, “I am a prophet!” bid
him go and find believers among the foolish for to you Jesus has sealed up
prophecy and vision, and
there is to be no more of it. There is no need of it, because in Christ God
has spoken all He
means to say concerning the way of salvation. Until such
time as Christ Himself shall come the canon is complete; and though there
be
many voices crying, “Lo, here!” and “Lo, there!” and some so
fascinating that they might deceive, if it were possible, the very
elect, yet
those whom Christ has chosen know the Shepherd’s voice, and “a
stranger
will they not follow, for they know not the voice of strangers.” Brethren,
there always was something better yet to come in all times till
Christ
arrived; but after the best there cometh none. A certain
philosopher taught
this; the next philosopher taught that, and the next one contradicted this
and
that, and taught another thing; while another master arose and
contradicted all who went before. So man groped as in the dark for the
wall; but now the day has dawned, and the true light shineth, for Christ
hath appeared. This, then, is an essential part of the setting up of that
which is good-namely, TO SETTLE
whereon
we may stand steadfast, immovable. The candles are snuffed out because
the
day itself looks out from the windows of heaven. Rejoice in this, beloved. God
makes you righteous in
Christ and with Christ, and in order that you shall
never be perplexed with
change, He sets aside all other teachers, THAT
CHRIST MAY BE YOUR ALL IN ALL!
Then, as if this were not enough, and truly it would not be
enough, He is
also come to anoint the Most Holy, or the Holy of Holies, as you may read
it.
And what means this? Nothing material, for the Holy of Holies, the
place into which the High Priest went of old is demolished, and
the veil is
rent. The
most holy place is now the person of the Lord Jesus Christ; He
was
anointed that God might dwell in Him. Together with Christ the Holy
of
Holies is now His church, and that church was anointed or dedicated
when the Holy Ghost
fell at Pentecost, to be with us, and to abide in us
forever. That was a
noble part of the setting up of the great kingdom of
righteousness, when tongues of fire descended and sat upon each of the
disciples, and they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit
gave
them utterance. This is Christ’s work, for which He came, and for which
He ascended on
high, to set up the truth, to set up righteousness, and to
make it
everlasting by the dwelling of the Holy
Ghost in the
in the midst of
the sons of men.
Thus you see, in six ways, which condense themselves into
two, our Lord
set
about His lordly enterprise. Heaven rings with the praises of the
Messiah who came
to destroy the work of sin, and to set up the kingdom
of righteousness
in the midst of the world.
II. Let
us now inquire as to our participation in these two works. I will put
a
few questions as briefly as I can, and I pray God, the Holy Ghost, that
every one of us may honestly answer them.
First, dear brethren, Christ has come into the world to do
all this good
work, but has He done it for us? “God so loved the world,
that he gave his
only begotten Son.” What for? “That whosoever believeth in him might not
perish.” There is a general aspect to the atonement, but there is
quite as
surely a special object in it. God loved the world, and therefore
He gave
His Son. But to what end did He give His Son? Here is the answer,
“That
whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have everlasting
life.”
There was a special eye to believers. Come, then, have you
believed? The
first question that is to help you to answer that inquiry is
this-Is your sin
shut up as to its power? “Sin shall not have dominion over you” if Christ is
in
you. How is it between your soul and evil? Is there war or peace? Once
you
loved sin; you could not have enough of it. Is it so now? Do you still
delight in evil? For if you do, the love of God
is not in you. Can you still
put
forth your hand to iniquity as you once did? Then do not pretend that
Christ has done anything for you. If you are a believer,
your sin may not be
absolutely dead, but it is shut up for dead: it is fast held in the
condemned
cell. It may still breathe, but it is crucified with Christ. How it tugs to
get
its
hands loose from the nails! How it struggles to get its feet down from
the
tree! But it cannot, for He that nailed it there knew how to drive nails,
and
how to fasten the offender to the tree. Do you begin to grow weary of
iniquity? Is it distasteful and unpleasant to you? And when looking
over the
day
you perceive where you have spoken unadvisedly or acted hastily, or in
any
other way soiled your character, do you feel as if you would fain wash
out
every spot with tears? If it be so, Christ has begun with you: He has
come to shut up your sin, and to end its reign: it shall no more have
dominion over you. It may be in you, but it shall not be on the
throne: it
may
threaten you, but it shall not command you: it may grieve you, but it
shall not destroy you. You are under another Master: you serve
the Lord
Christ. Judge you how this matter fares with you.
The next question arising out of the text is, Is your sin sealed up as to its
condemning power? Have you ever felt the power of the Holy Spirit in
your soul, saying to you, “Go in peace; thy sins which are many, are all
forgiven thee?” Have you clutched that promise, “He that believeth
in him
is
not condemned?” Have you believed in Jesus? Has that blessed word,
“There is therefore now no condemnation,” breathed a deep
calm over
your spirit? Some of you do not know what I mean; but others of you do.
Oh, what bliss, what a heaven it is to know, “I am washed
in the blood of
the
Lamb-I am delivered, clean delivered from every sin, past, present, and
to
come, as to any possibility of its being laid to my charge. Christ has put
my
sins into a bag, sealed them up, hurled that bag into the sea, and flung
them out of existence, and they are gone, never to be found again any
more.” He has made an end of sin. Come, dear hearer, do you know
anything about this? If you do not, it is the one thing you want to
know,
and
until you know it you will never have any rest to your spirit, but you
will be tossed to and fro as upon a raging sea. “There is no peace, saith my
God, to the wicked.” There is no peace to any of us till Christ hath made
an
end of our sin. How is it with your hearts?
And next, is your sin covered as to its appearance before
God? Has the
Lord Jesus Christ made such an expiation
for your sin that it no longer
glares in the presence of the Most High, but you can come unto
God
without dread? Can you hopefully say, “Lord God, thou seest no sin in me,
for
Thou has covered me with the righteousness of Christ, and washed me
in
His blood?” Did you ever feel the sweetness of that? It is rapture! I can
recollect times when I have been driven to doubt whether it could be
true,
it
seemed too good; and then again, when my faith has revived I have said,
“Good as it is, it is true, for it is like God to do these
great marvels, and to
put
away the sins of His people and cover them once for all.” Oh then there
has
been a joy within my spirit not at all like the joy of harvest, or the joy
of
marriage, or the joy of a firstborn child in the house. No; it is a joy like
the
bliss of angels, deep, unspeakable, mysterious, divine. Have you ever
felt it? You will feel constantly if Christ comes to dwell with you: you
will
then be assured in your heart that He has made an end of your sin.
Further, let me question you about the next point. Has the
Lord Jesus
Christ made you righteous? Do you glory in His blood and righteousness,
and
do you now seek after that which is pure and holy? “Be not deceived;
God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap.”
If we continue in sin we shall perish in sin. He is saved
who comes out
from evil and seeks to live honestly, righteously, soberly, after the manner
of
the godly and the saintly. Is it so with you? Is there a great and deep
change in your spirit, so that you now love those good things
which once
you
despised and ridiculed in others? Oh, if you cannot answer my poor
questions, how will you stand before the judgment-seat of God when
He
shall test you as with fire?
Furthermore, are the prophecies and visions sealed up as to
you? Are they
fulfilled in you? When God declares that He will wash us and make us
whiter than snow, is it so with you? When He declares that He
will cleanse
our
blood, which has not yet been cleansed, is it so with you? When He
says, “A new heart also will I give them, and a right spirit will I put
within
them: and I will write my law upon their hearts”; is it so with you? Are you
fishing about after empty dreams and fancies, or have you laid
hold upon
the
old prophecies and the ancient visions, and discovered the substance of
them to be deeply wrought in your very heart?
Nor is this all: are you anointed to be most holy to the Lord?
Are you set
apart that you may serve Him? Has the Holy Spirit come upon you,
giving
you
a desire to do good? Have you a wish to rescue the perishing, a
longing to bring the wandering sheep back to the great Shepherd’s
fold? Is
the
Spirit of God so upon you today that you can truly say, “I am not my
own;
I am bought with a price?” Jesus, the Messiah, came to do all these
things, and if He has not done them to you, then He has not come
to you;
you
are still a stranger, still far off from Him. Oh, may the Lord make you
desperately unhappy till you come to Jesus: may you never know what
quiet means till you find it at the pierced feet! From this hour
may you
breathe sighs, and may every pulse be a new agony of spirit, till
at last you
can
say, “Yes, the Messiah was cut off, and cut off for me, and all that He
came to do He did for me, and I am a sharer and a partaker in it all.”
III. Lastly,
we have but a brief interval in which to speak of the results of
participating in all this. The results! I want a week to speak of them
in.
They are, first of all, security. How can that man be lost whose
transgression is finished, and whose sin has ceased to be? What is there
for
him
to dread on earth, in heaven, or in hell? If Christ has put away my sin, I
cannot die; if Christ has washed away my guilt, I cannot be
condemned; I
am
safe, and may triumphantly sing-
More
happy, but not more secure,
The glorified spirits in heaven.
Wherefore,
rejoice in this.
And now, inasmuch as you are secure, you are also
reconciled to God, and
made to delight in Him. God is your friend and you are one of the friends
of
God. Rejoice in that hallowed friendship, and live in the assurance of it.
Now you have the anointing, do not doubt it. Christ has
made it yours by
His death. The Spirit of the Lord resteth
upon you; you are fit for service;
set
about it without further question. The anointing is upon you; you are
most holy to the Lord; so let your life be wholly consecrated. Your heart
ought to be, and shall be by the Spirit’s power, as holy as that
innermost
shrine into which no unauthorized foot ever intruded, into which
only once
in
the year the high priest went, and then not without blood. God dwelleth
in
you, and you in God. Oh, blessed consequences-you shall soon dwell
with Him forever!
But now suppose when I put the question you had to shake
your head and
say,
“No, it is not so with me.” Then hear these few sentences. If the
Messiah has not done this for you, then
your sin will be finished in another
way-sin, when it is finished, bringeth
forth death. An awful death awaits
you-death unto God, and purity and joy. Woe, woe, to you. Death on
the
pale horse pursues you, and will overtake you soon. Then will one woe be
past, but another will follow it. If Christ has never made an end of your
sin,
then mark this, your sin will soon make an end of you, and all your hopes,
your pleasure, your boasting, your peace will perish. Oh, terrible end of
all
that is hopeful within you. You shall be a desolation
forever and forever.
Has not Christ reconciled you? Then mark this, your enmity
will increase.
There is no peace between God and you now, but soon will
the war begin
in
which He must conquer, and you, never yielding, will continue forever
more to hate God, and to find in that hate your utmost torment, your
fiercest hell. Have you never had the righteousness of Christ
brought in?
Then mark this, your unrighteousness will last forever. One
of these days
God will say, “He that is unholy, let him be unholy still:
he that is filthy, let
him
be filthy still.” That will be the most awful thing that can ever happen
to
you. You have heard of the fable of Medusa’s head: whoever looked
upon it when it was held up was turned to stone, and one day, sinner, you
shall look at death, and it will petrify your character so that
it shall be
forever what it is when death came to you. Where death finds you,
there
judgment shall find you, and there eternity shall leave you. Oh,
wretched
soul, to have nothing to do with the everlasting righteousness of Christ!
Are not the prophecies fulfilled in you, the prophecies of
mercy? Then
listen. The prophecies of woe will be written large across your
history.
“The wicked shall be turned into hell, with all the nations
that forget God.”
Beware, ye that forget God, lest He tear you in pieces, and
there be none
to
deliver. I will not detain you with many such words of terror, but
through the Old Testament they roll like peals of thunder, nor is
the New
Testament less stern towards him that goeth
on in his iniquity and will not
turn unto the Christ.
Lastly, will you never be anointed to be most holy? Then
remember,
holiness and you will stand at a distance forever, and to be far
off from
holiness must necessarily be to be far off from heaven and
happiness. Sin is
misery; in it lies both the root and the fruit of eternal woe.
Purity is
paradise: to be right with God is to be right with yourself and all
created
things; but if ye will not be holy, then must ye by force of your
own choice
be
forever tossed about upon the restless sea of wretchedness. God save
you, brothers and sisters; God save you for Christ’s sake. Amen