I.
THE Apostle Peter, in writing to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who were elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ (I. Pet. i. 1-2) reminds them that the means whereby they were redeemed from the empty, vain life they had hitherto lived was the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifested in these last times for those who, by Him, believed in God (I. Pet. 19, 20). The price paid was not in corruptible things, such as silver and gold, but in something far beyond the most precious of earth’s greatest and rarest treasures — it was “the precious blood of Christ.” It was worthy of notice that our Lord’s first visit to Jerusalem was when the redemption money required by the Mosaic law was to be paid, and His last visit was when the redemption price of His people was to be paid not in silver and gold but in His own precious blood. Everyone who reads the Scriptures with any care must be impressed with the frequency of the references to the sacrificial blood in the old economy and the no less impressive references in the New Testament to the shed blood of God’s great sacrifice—our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. From the early dawn of history down to the eventful day when our Lord announced, “It is finished,” the thoughts of God’s people were kept fixed on the shedding of blood which was to take away
the sins of a countless number. And believers of the New Testament dispensation have their thoughts directed back to the shedding of that blood which speaketh better things than that of Abel and forward to the day when, through the mercy of their God, they shall join in the song to Him who was slain and who redeemed them to God by His blood (Rev. v. 9).
As we read God’s Word we are met with the announcement full to overflowing with tremendous significance—”without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin”—the import of which is not lessened but deepened by the apostolic statement that the gifts and sacrifices offered to God continually on Jewish altars could not make him that did the service perfect. But over against this failure of the blood of the sacrifices the Apostle directs our attention to the blood of Christ “who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God,” and in doing so purged the consciences of His people from dead works to serve the living God. In this way infinite Wisdom found a solution to the perplexing question: How could God be just and justify a sinner? Nay, how could there be even the possibility of salvation for sinful men? Lying deeply imbedded among other mysteries in the words—”without the shedding of blood there is no remission”—lies the inexplicable mystery of iniquity. These words tell us that there is something in the nature of sin that neither omniscience nor omnipotence can take away. We make that statement with all reverence and in the full consciousness of our limited faculties failing to grasp all the bearings of the august theme, but if there was a way whereby omniscience or omnipotence could remove sin would there have been Gethsemane and Calvary?
Of old God in the covenant He made with Noah ordained that blood was not to be eaten, and in the Mosaic law whosoever would “eat any manner of blood” was to be cut off from among the people (Lev. xvii. 10) and the reason assigned for this prohibition was that “The life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul” (Lev. xvii. 11). These words clearly indicate the symbolic import of the shedding of blood and the inhibitions that warned the Israelite of the sacredness of blood, “for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” Here, in a nutshell, we have the key to the New Testament doctrine of the shed blood of the Lamb
of God. It was shed to make an atonement, and any doctrine of the atonement, though it lay tremendous stress on many aspects of that marvellous work, utterly fails to understand the New Testament teaching if it leaves out of account the shedding of the life-blood of the Son of God for the remission of the sins of many. It is the laying down of that life voluntarily with complete resignation to the divine will by One who was the God-Man that constitutes the efficacy, the infinite efficacy of the atoning work of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. It is well that the Church of the living God should meet often at that cross where the Lord of Glory died and read in the words—”It is finished: and He bowed His head and gave up the ghost” her legal right to a life that shall never end. Justice demanded no less a price than life—it is the greatest it could ask and it is the greatest that could be given, and when the Lord’s blood was shed the life was in it. Is it any wonder, therefore, that the Church of God in every age and generation should delight in the doctrine which speaks of the blood that set her free and sealed her right to the blessings in the everlasting covenant for ever. An age which has become finical in the things of God, but which can swallow without the slightest sign of squeamishness the works of the devil, turns away from the doctrine of a blood atonement as if it were confronted with some barbaric rite of a savage tribe. This attitude of mind, so prominent in Modernist teaching, is a direct arraignment of God’s truth as set forth in the Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament. It is an attempt to rob the Church of Christ of a doctrine dear to the saints of God which has encouraged them in their battle with sin and cheered them on the way until the happy day shall come when they shall sing the song of God’s redeemed to Him whose blood was shed for them and who obtained eternal redemption for them.
(To be continued).
Be patient, then, my brethren; but how long? To the coming of the Lord. But when will that be? The coming of the Lord draws nigh.—John Bunyan.
The righteousness by which we stand just before God, from the curse, was performed long ago by the person of Christ.—John Bunyan.
The Down-Grade Movement.*Short Gleanings from C. H. Spurgeon.
I.
“WE live in perilous times: we are passing through a most eventful period; the Christian world is convulsed; there is a mighty upheaval of the old foundations of faith; a great overhauling of old teaching. The Bible is being made to speak to-day in a language which to our fathers would be an unknown tongue.”
“We should greatly object to the sniffing about for heresy which some speak of; but in this case the heresy is avowed, and is thrust forward in no diffident style.”
“A new religion has been initiated, which is no more Christianity than chalk is cheese; and this religion, being destitute of moral honesty, palms itself off as the old faith with slight improvements, and on this plea usurps pulpits which were erected for Gospel preaching. The atonement is scouted, the inspiration of Scripture is derided, the Holy Spirit is degraded into an influence, the punishment of sin is turned into fiction, and the resurrection into a myth, and yet these enemies of our faith expect us to call them brethren, and maintain a confederacy with them.”
“. . . College, for example, continues to pour forth men to take charge of our Churches, who do not believe, in any proper sense, in the inspiration of the Scriptures, who deny the vicarious sacrifice on the Cross, and hold that, if sinners are not saved on this side of the grave they may, can, or must be on the other. And the worst of it is, the people love it.”
“What havoc false doctrine is making no tongue can tell. Assuredly the New Theology can do no good towards God or man; it has no adaptation for it. If it were preached for a thousand years by all the most earnest men of the school, it would never renew a soul, nor overcome pride in a single human heart.”
*The movement which Mr Spurgeon denounced has gone on with increasing momentum since his time. Were he alive to-day he would be horrified at the open, barefaced denial of God’s truth made by so many in the professing Church.—Editor.
“So much of subtlety is mixed up with the whole business, that the sword seems to fall upon a sack of wool, or to miss its mark.”
“The fount of inspiration is not now within the Book, and with the Holy Spirit, but within the man’s own intelligence. We have no longer, ‘Thus saith the Lord,’ but ‘Thus saith Modern Thought.’ We used to debate upon particular and general redemption, but now men question whether there is any redemption at all worthy of the name.”
“Truth has its coat turned inside out, and then is dragged up and down the street in scorn. They make a straw man, and carry him about as a guy, hoping afterwards to burn him. Fine sport for children but great folly for men.”
“Differences of judgment upon minor matters, and varieties of mode in action, are not now under question; but matters vital to religion. Others may trifle about such things; we cannot and dare not.”
“We who believe Holy Scripture to be the inspired truth of God cannot have fellowship with those who deny the authority from which we derive all our teaching.”
“They have all the liberty in the world, and we would be the last to abridge it: but that liberty cannot demand our co-operation. If these men believe such things, let them teach them, and construct Churches, Unions, and Brotherhoods for themselves. Why must they come among us. When they enter among us un-awares, and are resolved to stay, what can we do? The question is not soon answered; but, surely, in no case will we give them fellowship, or profess to do so.”
“Yet professedly sound believers are in full accord with these outspokenly heterodox men, and are linked with them in set and formal union. Is this according to the mind of the God of Truth?”
“It used to be generally accepted in the Christian Church that the line of Christian communion was drawn hard and fast at the Deity of our Lord: but even this would appear to be altered now. In various ways the chasm has been bridged, and during the past few years several ministers have crossed into Unitarianism, and have declared that they perceived little or no difference in the two sides of the gulf.”
“Numbers of easy-minded people wink at error so long as it is committed by a clever man and a good-natured brother, who has so many fine points about him.”
“It is thought to be mere bigotry to protest against the mad spirit which is now loose among us. Pan-indifferentism is rising like the tide; who can hinder it? We are all to be as one, even though we agree in next to nothing. It is a breach of brotherly love to denounce error. Hail, holy charity! Black is white; and white is black. The false is true; the true is false; the true and the false are one. Let us join hands, and never again mention those barbarous old-fashioned doctrines about which we are sure to differ. Let the good and sound men for liberty’s sake shield their ‘advanced brethren’; or, at least, gently blame them in a tone which means approval.”
“Another great evil is the want of decision for the truth among truly good men, those who are our brethren in the faith of our Lord Jesus, but who do not seem to have made up their minds as to separation from error. Good, easy men! They are all for peace! Sitting on the fence seems to be a popular position among professors just now.”
“Hitherto (and this matter is now merely in its beginning), the chief answer has come from the public teachers, and as far as their public answer is concerned, it amounts, at its best interpretation, to the admission that there may be a little amiss, but not enough to speak about. They are sorry that a few brethren go rather too far, but they are dear brethren still.”
“Brethren, we want grace to say, ‘I can be poor; I can be ridiculed; I can be abused; but I cannot be false to my Lord.'”
“I make no personal references, but I see the spirit of compromise concerning holiness and sin, truth and error, far too prevalent. The spirit of compromise comes not of the Spirit of God, but of the spirit of the world. It is always wisest and best to exhibit clear decision upon fundamental points; we must draw the line distinctly, and then stand to it firmly. Do not alter your course because of winds and currents. Do not try to make things pleasant all round.”
“Multitudes of religious professors have abandoned all care about principles lest they should be suspected of intolerance.”
“I bid you note that you are not allowed to present honey before the Lord. I really wish that some of our brethren who are overdone with honey would notice that.”
(To be continued.)
Notes of a Sermon
BY REV. NEIL CAMERON.
Preached on Saturday of the Communion at St Jude’s
24th April, 1926.
“For she said, if I but touch His clothes, I shall be made whole” (Mark v. 28).
WE have in this chapter the extraordinary miracle that the Lord performed in the country of the Gadarenes on a man that could not be kept in order by anyone in the country, although they used the strongest things they could think of, yet they could not bind him, so he was a terror to the place. We are told that when he saw Jesus he ran and fell on his knees before Him and began to pray that he would not send the evil spirits out of the country, but give them leave to go into the swine. Jesus gave them leave, and the swine ran down a steep hill and were choked in the sea. When the poor Gadarenes saw this they began to pray Jesus to depart out of their coasts; because they lost their swine. Worldly trials cannot go away without leaving some effect, and we may rest assured that we will either be hardened and worse, or else be bettered by them. It is truly very sad when adverse providences cause people to turn Christ away from them.
We find that when He came to the other side of the sea (for it is always the case that when any pray Christ to leave them) others will gladly receive Him. We as a people, are like that now—praying Christ to leave our coasts, but others will be very glad to receive Him as their guest. When He came across the sea a ruler of a synagogue came to Him beseeching Him, and praying Him, that He would come and lay His hands on his little daughter for she lay at the point of death, for he believed that if He would do so she would be well. On His way to this man’s house, we are told that this woman stopped His progress, and before He moved on again, some came and told Jairus that his daughter was now dead, and that he should not trouble the Master further, but Christ told him to believe that He was one who could not only deliver from sickness but from death itself. The ruler of the synagogue was not disappointed in this. We believe this is the way with those who have got true saving faith, they will be many times feeling that their faith is dying, yea dead; but yet they never lose their
confidence in this, that Christ is able even to quicken the dead.
Let us now notice a few things concerning this woman. We are told that she had been twelve years suffering from a disease that would certainly end in death if it were not cured, and that she went to all the physicians she could think of, and had spent all that she had trying to get herself cured, but instead of getting better, she was worse. But she heard of the fame of Jesus and the extraordinary cures He was performing, and how all kinds of troubles were being cured by a word spoken by Him. This brought her to the conclusion that He was also able to cure her. Let us notice three things that are true of the experiences of those who are truly God’s people.
- They have all realised that they have a disease that none can cure but the Son of God. Others can get their diseases cured easily, but that is not the case with God’s people.
- The effect that the report of the Gospel concerning Jesus Christ has on the mind of this people, which is “if I could just touch the hem of His garment, I would be whole.”
- The effect that always follows the touch by faith of the garment of Christ in which He came out of the ivory palaces.
I. We have first to consider the condition of every child of Adam as regards the disease he has, and which will end in eternal death if it is not removed. We are by nature unconscious of this disease. There have been many cases of one having a disease, yet never feeling the least pain, and who was surprised to find out that he is just at death’s door when all the time he thought he was strong and healthy. This is the way with the children of men who are unconscious of the disease of sin, and alas! how many there are that never have as much as one groan over this disease, and how few, exceedingly few, that feel this loathsome disease in their hearts and minds. But we hear in the Scriptures, “Thine arrows sharply pierce the heart of the enemies of the King; and under thy subjection the people down do bring,” and it is in that day that Christ takes His bow and lets fly an arrow at the heart of the sinner that there is a wound opened which none can cure but Christ Himself. It is an easy matter to cure the wounds of some—just like the dog that cures himself by licking the wound with his own tongue, but that is not the way
with those who are wounded by the Holy Ghost—no man can cure that wound.
I am going to mention two or three things which those who have felt this wound will do. First, they realise that the wound they have now will end in death. They were speaking before about death, but yet they were not believing that they were to die, but now, not only a natural death but eternal death stares them in the face, and that causes the poor sinner to begin to seek some way by which he can be saved from death. As you have heard often, when a sinner sees that he has a disease that will end in death, he will betake himself to his own obedience, or to what he can do himself in order that he may cure himself or have peace with God. This is the hope to which every unconverted sinner betakes himself, whatever he may have been taught before as to God’s way, he goes away to this. Some were allowed to spend a long time trying to pacify their own conscience and to satisfy the demands of God’s law, doing all they possibly could, but you find it stated in Scripture more clearly than any man could put it that although you gave all your substance to feed the poor, and although you gave your body to be burned it would avail you nothing. All those who are taught of God know this that all they can do will avail nothing, and they must give up that physician. You hear of many going to heaven in our day on account of their charity, etc., but that first physician will not do for these, for they learn that “By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight.”
The second physician is this—men go to have peace of conscience to religion, prayers, and even go the length of standing in the pulpit, earning heaven and the favour of God by their own religion. They become religious and think that, if they got a place or name in the Visible Church, that would make up for the whole. I would say this, that if you have been saved by grace, you have finished with that physician, for you have to mourn that anything you can do is of no value in face of death, judgment, or an endless eternity. You will have to say like this woman that instead of being better you are far worse although you would take twelve years at it, you are far worse, for it is the wrong way, the Pharisee’s way. In connection with this physician to whom the poor sinner in his folly goes, he will never give up until he is absolutely baffled. He will even try to take part of Christ’s work and part of his own, like
the Pharisee, making a great deal of his prayers, fastings, charity, etc.; but at the same time realising that he needed to get something from the Most High. Do what you can, and Christ will make up for the rest. This is the creed of our day. But, however long the poor sinner may be at this, he will have to learn that this will not do his turn. He will find that this is a vain way of seeking deliverance; for if he is to be cured or saved it must be altogether of grace, and all the honour will belong to Christ; for it is by His Word and Spirit that he is brought to a sense of his need. He comes now to the end of all he could think of; he tried his own works to make him a good man and found he could not do it; he tried what he could do in religious matters, God’s service on Sabbath and week-days, and that in order that he might save himself, but alas! he found out that this would not help; he tried again to mix up the obedience and death of Christ with his own works, but this would not do, and the poor sinner does not know now what to do. Who can help him? He has now gone through the whole programme and finds himself worse than he was at the beginning.
II. In the second place—the effect that the report of the Gospel has got upon poor sinners, who realise that they are undone. Others may be hearing it preached in St Jude’s, some for thirty years, but it is to them like “a tale that has been told,” and they continue on in spiritual death and carelessness; but that will not last always. It is not so with the sinner who has been convinced of sin. The sinner into whose heart the Lord of Glory shot the arrow which could not be withdrawn by any power or wisdom of man—no one could heal it now. It is an easy matter to heal what the arm of flesh has done, but when the Spirit does it, I can assure you the sinner feels it is something that will end in eternal death if not removed by God himself.
When the report of the Gospel comes, as this woman was hearing of His fame that went out throughout the land, and the fame of Christ as the Physician for perishing men went out into this land in the past, and on account of how this is dying out now, men are dying the eternal death. This report came to the ears of this woman who had for twelve years been doing all she could and applying to all the physicians she heard of to help her, and now she has spent all that she had. She was empty-handed, but instead of being better, she was worse, and it would not be a bad sign on yourself that, after you had done all that you could, you would be find-
ing yourself to-day worse instead of better. It would not be a bad sign at all that when we are hearing the fame of Christ, that not only is He able to save, but able to save to the uttermost, you would believe it and go to Him. She heard that many had come to Him in just as desperate a condition as she was in herself, and they were certainly healed, for she had probably seen them, and you have seen them too. You cannot deny that you saw some in the world who had been turned from darkness to light, and the effect of this on her was, “If I could but touch—just touch—the hem of His garment, I would be made whole”; for we are told that “faith cometh by hearing.”
Faith is an extraordinary thing, and it comes always through hearing the report of the Gospel concerning Christ’s merit and power to save and His mercy towards perishing men; for “He despised not nor abhorred the afflicted’s misery; nor from him hid His face, but heard when he to Him did cry.” This is the way it was with yourself if you have got saving faith; you were hearing reports for many years about the power of Christ to save guilty men like you—”The whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick.”
On the day that God’s Spirit convinced you of sin, righteousness and judgment, He set you to try now to see whether you could reconcile yourself to God and you learned that you could not, that all these ways of seeking deliverance were vain and useless; although in our day most men preach this doctrine of works. When you were awakened you learned that you could do nothing, and yet you had a disease that would end in death unless your sins were washed in the blood; that unless you were justified freely through the merit of that blood, you were undone, undone for ever; but when you began to hear the report of Christ—His willingness to save the lost—that it was just for that purpose He came into the world, not to call the righteous, for God knows no such men, but that He came to call sinners to repentance and to reconcile them to God by His own blood. When you heard this, you began now to make up your mind. This is the Christ I must go to—”It is to Christ I must go.” It is not only that I hear that He is able to save to the uttermost the most desperate cases among men altogether, but the sinner will have to say, “I have seen them with my eyes and talked with them who were as ruined as I am and they were saved by Him.” They have two proofs—God’s Word and the sinner who has been saved—that God is
able to save to the uttermost. You are not left at all with an excuse, you have God’s Word for it, that He is able to save even you, and you have your experience in the world that you saw sinners like yourself who were delivered from the power of sin; although sin was in them yet that it ceased to be the ruling power in their hearts and minds.
All this moves the sinner to come to the conclusion that this woman came to, and faith, my friends, is here already. It is really faith that comes to the conclusion, “If I may but touch His clothes, I shall be made whole”—that is faith—faith in the merit of Christ and His power to save; but there is such a thing within the sinner that is saved as a receiving of Christ actually and resting on Him alone for salvation. For a man to have this in his mind—”If I may but touch”—that is works, but she went away and actually did touch the hem of His garment. There is such a thing in faith as the sinner receiving Christ in his arms by the Gospel in a promise. It is there you can touch the garment of Christ, and it is faith that does it. The moment you receive a passage of God’s Word and light upon it from heaven and the grace of faith to receive Christ in the free offer of that promise that was given to you, you felt this immediately—a peace with God coming into your own conscience, and felt that that which was going to cause death was immediately healed. “Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement,” and I do not say at all, but that you felt at that moment that all your sins for ever were removed; not only peace with God, but forgiveness of all your sins, and peace with your own heart and mind, and you thought that they would never trouble you again. If you have saving faith, you felt peace with God, peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost, and you may have thought that actual sins and all the sins of your nature had completely been removed; but I am not going to enter into that further.
III. We shall notice now in the last place something as to the good result of this on the woman; not only that she got a cure—she had a physical cure—but I am speaking of a spiritual cure; for it is very applicable to the work that God does in the soul that is saved. The first thing she wanted to do was to hide herself when she got the cure, and indeed she was greatly indebted to Him, not only to make known but to praise Him, that she got the cure, instead of hiding herself, but you find
here that she tried to hide herself. She did not wish it to be known; she did not wish to make a public profession. Whether it was bashfulness or not, she did not wish it to be known that she had come to this conclusion, and that she had put it to the test, but you find that she was not left here. We cannot believe that it was because Christ did not know, that He asked—”Who touched me?” No, that was not the reason; He had another thing in view when He said it. But you find that when all denied, the woman herself came up and told the whole truth how she came to this conclusion, and the reason she had for it, and the effect she felt immediately that she touched the hem of His garment, that she immediately felt that she was cured. She got two things in connection with that confession, and so would you. The first is: it is not at all you or anything you can do that can bring you to the conclusion in your own mind that you have saving faith. It is not by anything that you can do, although it is your duty to do all you can; it is from God’s Word. You see this woman, that endeavoured to hide herself so that she would not be publicly known in the world, although she got this great relief, she did not want that it should be known. But He made it known, and the effect was this—she had an assurance that her faith was saving faith. I do not know anything under these broad heavens that I would prize more than to have an an assurance that it is saving faith I have myself. That is the first thing she had.
The second thing was, she was asked to go and be whole of this disease—she had God’s word that this disease was not to come back and make her as she was before—a dying woman. This is true of spiritual matters too. The sinner that is saved by faith and that received from God’s Word a proof that he has really saving faith in him—that is a thing that is worth all the labour that is spent to make it sure—immediately you are sure that you have saving faith, you are sure that sin will not be your ruin—Never. “None perish that Him trust.” No one ever did or ever shall. And this poor woman had this going back to her own home—that she was sure she was free from her plague. Did this mean that she was well from her plague—that sin was not going to cause her any further trouble—that she was to be free that day, like the faith we had in Glasgow about thirty years ago under Moody and Sankey, who were saying that since they believed they never had anything but peace and joy? Was this how she was? No. This doctrine to her would be like the language Joseph heard in
Egypt—a language he could not understand. That is not the way here, although it was said to her: “Be whole of thy plague.” Sin was there still. Sin is in man’s nature. I heard that Dr Kennedy said in a prayer that some were wondering why God did not remove the sinfulness of His people’s nature as completely on the day of justification as He removed their guilt, but he said: “Thou hast a wise purpose in it all.” The sin is there, and if you read carefully the Word of God, you will see that it was God’s people who were complaining of sin—not the world—but the people of God who are harassed with sin in their hearts and minds—not at all King Saul; it was godly David; and such men that prayed “Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me.” Sin is there and it will continue to be there, not only in your soul, and heart and mind, but it will continue to be in your body until you lay aside your body in death, and if you have not learned that sin has corrupted all the members of your body as well as your soul, you have not learned all that you must learn before you are eternally saved.
Sin is in the eyes. You see the Psalmist praying: “Turn thou away my sight and eyes from viewing vanity.” Those who are cured by the Son of God have learned that they have to suffer much from sin in the eyes, and how what they see and hear move the corruption in their hearts and minds. If we were to say that she would have no trouble from sin, we would be wrong. If you are cured, you will be burdened with a disease that is loathsome and that fills your loins with pain; you will have no rest although your greatest desire is to get rid of it; but, you can rest assured of this, that that will not end in death. “Be cured of your plague.”
The second thing is you learn much by it; there is such a statement as this in one of the Psalms, “Lest thy people forget, destroy not these,” and you will find plenty within and without to keep you from forgetting your need of coming to your knees; yea, your need of help from heaven. Your own sinfulness will be sending you often to your knees if I know anything of the corruption of my own heart and mind; as a godly minister in the north said, who had a very wicked wife, when someone at dinner asked if he would heartily drink the health of his wife; “Yes,” he said, “I can do that as easily as anything ever I did, for I can say this about her, what you cannot say of your wives, that she
sends me seven times to my knees in a day, which I would not do if I had not got her,” and if your sins will be sending you seven times a day to your knees, you should be thankful that they make you go to the physician so often in the day, for there is plenty in the fountain that He opened for uncleanness.