(Extract From a Gospel Address.)
GREAT things have been accomplished for you, dear believer in Christ; but God’s heart will never be at rest until you know it, because you will never enjoy it till you know it, and you will never know it till you believe it. I want to speak of a few of the simplest blessings of the gospel, but before I begin I solemnly warn any unbeliever here, that so long as he remains an unbeliever not one of these blessings are his. It is quite possible to pass muster among other professed Christians; but the question is, Are you really a believer on the Lord Jesus Christ? If not, God distinctly declares that His judgment rests upon you. Therefore when I speak of these blessings do not make a mistake in the matter. Not one of them belongs to an unbeliever, though every one of them belongs to the feeblest Christian. It is not a question of how much faith you have; you might have very great faith, but if it rests in something short of the blood of Christ you will be lost forever. I might have very great faith in a vessel when I go on board her, but if she is capsized in mid-ocean my faith in the vessel does not avail me much.
Some are troubled because they cannot remember the time when they were really converted it was such a gradual work with them that they cannot fix a special date. They hear of someone who can fix the exact hour, and because they cannot do so they are troubled about it. Now I could not tell you what awoke me this morning. I could not tell you exactly what hour I awoke. I could not tell you how many minutes it took to fully wake me up. But one thing I know, I am awake now. Perhaps you may not be able to point to the exact day when you believed in Jesus; but can you look into His blessed face in glory and say, “Lord, Thou art worthy of my confidence, and Thou hast got it”? If so, you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. It was God who produced the sense of need in your soul. It was the Spirit’s work to bring you to repentance, and give you desires after Christ; and if you have come to Him in the most trembling way possible, He declares that believing on Him you shall never be confounded.
Now there are two things in these verses I want specially to bring before you. One is, that which has taken place outside the believer; and the other, what takes place within him. Many confound these two things, and are made miserable; they are looking inside for that which only an outside look can produce. Look carefully at the two verses, and you will see what I mean, “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:2424Who 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. (1 Peter 2:24)). “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” (Rom. 5:55And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. (Romans 5:5)). Note the words―
“ON THE TREE”
and
“IN OUR HEARTS.”
God does not tell us that we get justified through the Holy Ghost shedding abroad His love in our hearts, but that we are justified, that is, saved from all charge of sin, through Him who went to the tree and died for us.
The only One who can give us peace about our sins is the One who bore their judgment. The Holy Ghost did not do this. Christ did. Speaking of Jesus our Lord raised from the dead, Paul says, in Romans 4:2525Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. (Romans 4:25), “Who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.”
Now if the Son of God, who knew no sin, was delivered for our offenses, the guilty sinner, believing on Him, the risen One, is delivered from his offenses. Some people seem to think they can be saved by believing that God loves them well enough to pass by their sins without judgment; that He loves them so well that He thinks as lightly of their sins as they do. But they only betray their utter ignorance of the God they speak about. I doubt much if such souls were ever really in the presence of God. They can sentimentalize about God’s love at the expense of His holiness, but God saves sinners righteously. Romans 3 shows that He cannot save me because I am righteous. Nothing can be plainer than that, because it says, “There is none righteous.” But the great wonder of the gospel is this, He saves because He is righteous. Now God’s righteousness does two things. He righteously deals with my sins in the person of Jesus on the cross, and He righteously places the One who died for me on the throne of His glory. In order, therefore, to have a full gospel you must have these two righteous acts before you.
In the country I once saw an old guidepost. The arms were so much out of adjustment that instead of pointing horizontally, one was pointing up to the sky, and the other down toward the earth. I said to the friend who was with me, “That is a very poor guidepost but a very good preacher.” The faithful preacher must point in two directions―down to the cross where the judgment was received, the work finished; and up to the glory where the Man sits who finished it.