Part 13 (2/2)

6. It is the blood of Christ, who offered himself to G.o.d, 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d in newness of life.

Here rest our hopes. ”The foundation of G.o.d standeth sure.” The bill of redemption being presented by Christ, was read by the prophets, and pa.s.sed unanimously in both houses of parliament. It had its final reading in the lower house, when Messiah hung on Calvary; and pa.s.sed three days afterward, when he rose from the dead. It was introduced to the upper house by the Son of G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d.”

III. The end of this purification is twofold:-that we may cease from dead works, and serve the living G.o.d.

1. The works of unrenewed souls are all ”dead works,” can be no other than ”dead works,” because the agents are ”dead in trespa.s.ses and sins.”

They proceed from ”the carnal mind,” which ”is enmity against G.o.d,” which ”is not subject to the law of G.o.d, 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 G.o.d.”

2. We cannot ”serve the living G.o.d,” 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.” Cheris.h.i.+ng 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d in the humble confidence of acceptance through the Beloved.

The service of the living G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.dly 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_ G.o.d.” Pharaoh is dead, Herod is dead, Nero is dead; but Jehovah is ”the living G.o.d,” 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 peris.h.!.+ O, think what punishment ”the living G.o.d” 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 G.o.ds of the heathen have no life in them, and they who wors.h.i.+p them are like unto them. But our G.o.d is ”the living G.o.d,” and ”the G.o.d 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 trespa.s.ses 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 G.o.d!

”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 G.o.d Are saved to sin no more!”

SERMON X.

THE CEDAR OF G.o.d.

”_Thus saith the Lord G.o.d_; _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. 2224.

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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d, 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.

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