(Luke xi, 21, 22.)
By REV. JAMES MACLEOD, Greenock.
(Continued from page 297.)
“Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? This that is glorious in His apparel, travelling in the greatness of His strength? I that speak in righteousness mighty to save” (Isa. lxiii. 1). “I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions” (Pro. viii. 12). “Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isa. vii. 14). “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” (Matt. i. 23). “I and my Father are one” (John x. 30). “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people” (Luke xxiv. 19).
He came to destroy the works of the devil. He came to redeem sinners from death. It was necessary that He should glorify God in our nature, exalt the law that we profaned, and satisfy the claims of holy justice. How could this be accomplished unless He took bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh, a true body, and a reasonable soul? In the person of Emmanuel, we have God with us. “The Father and I are one” is an intimation to us that He is co-equal and co-eternal with the Father. That He is able to glorify God in our nature: destroy the works of the devil: and redeem His people from the lost, ruined, cursed condition that their God-dishonouring rebellion brought upon them. Satan had to be cast out of his stronghold, and all his malicious weapons taken from him. Emmanuel was able and willing to do all this glorious work. “And their nobles shall be of themselves, and their Governor shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause Him to draw near, and He shall approach unto me: for who is this that engaged His heart to approach unto me? saith the LORD” (Jer. xxx. 21). It was by death the devil conquered the soul. It was by life the soul was to be redeemed. “I have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do” (John xvii. 4). These words were uttered shortly before He actually suffered on the cross. He glorified God in our nature as the Surety of His people. He was the Lamb of God for His people. The Lamb without blemish. He prepared Himself for the sacrifice that eternal justice demanded of the Surety.
That meant that He would have to die. He willingly submitted to the will of God. “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart” (Ps. xl. 8.) He was tempted by the devil. He was persecuted by wicked men. He had the solemn and painful sense of being deserted—“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring. O my God, I cry in the daytime but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent” (Ps. xxii. 1-2). Here we have He of whom it was written, “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys” (Song. ii. 1). Tender, loving, merciful, gracious, holy, and the perfume of eternal love pouring forth in His gracious word to His troubled disciples on the eve of His offering Himself up to God “for a sweet smelling savour.” The offended justice of God had to be satisfied. The elect of God were under debt to justice that they could not pay. The Surety alone was able and willing to pay their debt by His own life. His infinite love to His own eternal justice, to the glory of God, and to His people whom He came to redeem. The purpose of God was to save the elect with an everlasting salvation. This could not be done till eternal justice was satisfied. Justice demanded the death of the sinner. God was offended by the sin of Adam, and his children. Christ alone could render satisfaction to offended justice and glorify God as the Surety of His people. He took their law place.
It was as God with us that he could satisfy justice and glorify God. If He had been a mere man that would not satisfy justice, neither could He say, “I have glorified thee upon the earth.” For poor, blind sinners who see nothing in Christ but a man are lost; and if they continue in that state of mind will be lost for ever. The Modernist is a lost man. He may be called a “Doctor of Divinity,” but if not changed in his state and nature by the grace of God he is lost! When the proud Pharisee addressed Him “as good master” he was rebuked for his hypocrisy. If Christ had been a mere man He could not “be good,” hence the sharp rebuke. Satan verily thought He was another son of Adam but when his head was crushed on the cross of Calvary his power over the elect of God was forever gone. “Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great and He shall divide the spoil with the strong because He has poured out His soul unto death: and He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isa. liii. 12). In infinite love He prayed on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke xxiii. 34). When all the powers of darkness assailed Him, the world attacked Him, the heavens darkened before Him, a deep sense of desertion filled His righteous soul (Ps. xxii. 1), and His soul made an offering for sin; there He stood alone (of the people were none with Him), they all forsook Him, and fled: the highest angel in heaven had to stand aside, for our High Priest was to enter into heaven (into the holiest of all) with His own blood there to appear in the presence of God for us.
“For Christ is not entered into the holy place made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” (Heb. ix. 24). When the High Priest came out alive on the great day of atonement in Israel the people knew then that God accepted their sacrifice. We read of Zacharias (the father of John the Baptist), “And when he came out, he could not speak unto them: and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple; for he beckoned unto them and remained speechless” (Luke i. 22). When Christ rose from the dead on the third day the angel’s message was, “Come and see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and, behold, He goeth before you into Galilee, there shall ye see Him” (Matt. xxviii. 6-7). From the throne of heaven He declared unto them the will and purpose of God towards all that shall be saved of the human race to the end of time. “Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (Matt. xxviii. 19-20). “The disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.” No wonder! By His death He had destroyed him that had the power of death—the devil. As Dr. Owen puts it so powerfully when he says that His death was the death of death! “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil” (I John iii. 8).
From the womb of the virgin mother to the cross of Calvary; and from there to the immediate presence of God with His own precious blood, “having obtained eternal redemption for us.” His resurrection from the dead according to the Scripture is the evidence to all believers that they were accepted in the Person of their beloved Saviour. “Blessed be God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (I Peter i. 3). Here we have a full-orbed gospel of the glorious love, mercy, and wisdom of our God! God glorified, the law honoured, justice satisfied, the power of the devil over all the elect of God destroyed, an empty grave, a risen Saviour! “Oh, that my words were now written! Oh, that they were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in a rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me” (Job xix. 23-27).
Third: “He divideth the spoils.”
Christ promised his tried and bewildered disciples, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you” (John xiv. 18). Ever near, ever loving, and engaged in the salvation of His people, He would not leave them in a cold dead world without comfort, light, knowledge, and divine fellowship. His own personal presence was to be removed from them. The Holy Spirit was to come and make His holy abode in their heart, and reveal to them what they did not understand. He was to begin at Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms. From the Genesis of creation to the Amen of the book of Revelation! We read in another part that the spoils of war were to be divided. Regarding King David after he recovered the people that the Amalekites took away, and took all the spoil from them, he returned to the place where the two hundred were that were so faint that they stayed by the brook Besor, and when David came near the people he saluted them; but all the wicked men, and men of Belial were determined that they would not get of the spoil, only their wives, and children. “Then said David, ye shall not do so my brethren, with that which the Lord has given us, who has preserved us, and delivered the company that came against us into our hand. For who will hearken unto you in this matter? but as his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff; they shall part alike. And it was so from that day forward, that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel to this day” (I Sam. xxx.; see Ps. lxviii. 12). The spoils of war! “And having spoiled principalities, and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Col. ii. 15).
It is for Christ’s sake that the Holy Spirit comes to awaken the dead. The sinner is dead to God, but serving the devil as the prodigal son was while he was away from his father’s house. The sinner must be called to life by the creating power of the Holy Spirit. When awakened by the Holy Spirit he finds the truth of God verified in his soul, and conscience that he is lost, and under the wrath and curse of God in his soul, mind, person, eating, drinking, and in all he ever did: like the woman of Samaria. Like David, Paul, Moses, Samuel, Jeremiah, James, Peter, and the beloved John. The “strong man” was in the palace till the Spirit of God poured divine light into the dark dungeons of the soul and also life. What a sight! The peace of death was broken forever. The alarm of war was sounded. The law of God thundering death, the wrath of God in the conscience, and the curse of God on the person! The peace of death gone for ever! He knows now “that there is no peace saith my God to the wicked” (Psalm 1) with all its high and dreadful imprecations against the wicked is his lot. How his life had been spent in the service of the devil! Living in the world without God. His former joy and pleasures turned into gall and wormwood. Bitterness of death in his soul. No place on earth, no company, not even the brute creation, fit for him. Heaven closed against him. Hell wide open to receive his guilty soul. The eternal grave of the wicked! No God, no hope! No light, all darkness. Trembling at the thought of meeting God. All the threatenings of the Bible his lot! “This is thy lot, the portion of thy measure from me, saith the LORD, because thou hast forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood” (Jer. xiii. 25). The lie of the devil, “Ye shall be as gods,” had to be put out by the truth of God.
Many, yea, millions think that the devil is out when he is lying snugly and coiled up like a sleeping serpent in their souls! Much religion in the mouth and the devil in possession of the palace. Satan is not concerned about tongue religion. It suits him well for his malicious objective is to keep the poor sinner fast asleep like the foolish virgins. When the Holy Spirit takes possession no peace and no quarter is given. The devil must go. Satan is a burglar. He had no authority or right to enter into the soul from the beginning, and verily the Holy Spirit will show no mercy, nor tenderness, to the murderer and malicious thief. The lusts of the flesh, and the pride of life must be burnt up. The high look, the proud head must also come down. He hears that the “companion of fools shall be destroyed.” The old company must be left behind. When the Holy Spirit declares “that by the works of the law no flesh can be justified in the sight of God,” all false and sinful thoughts of being saved by his own reformation and efforts perish. When the commandment came sin revived, and I died! Sin revived in his memory, conscience, will, affections, and what a sight of a ruined life. “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself.” When the time to favour is come, they will hear such words as these, “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes” (Hosea xiii. 14).
When Christ is revealed to the soul as the conqueror of the devil, hell, death, and as the only Mediator between the soul and God, what peace, love, mercy, light and divine consolation takes possession of it! What they saw in Christ in that day no tongue can tell. The peace of God in the soul through the blood of the Lamb of God. The conscience singing of mercy and judgment. In Christ they saw that God was forever glorified in their salvation. Under the conviction of sin they could not see this, but now it is made clear to them that God is glorified in the finished work of Christ, and has infinite pleasure in saving them for Christ’s sake. This humbles them in the dust before the Lord. They are like little children looking up and drinking in the milk of the Word of God. The Holy Spirit feeds them as a nurse feedeth the infant baby. “I have loved thee with an everlasting love” is to them the wine on the lees, well refined” (Isa. xxv. 6). “I rejoiced at thy Word as one that findeth great spoil” (Ps. cxix. 162). It was the most wonderful spoil that any sinner (unexpectedly) received in the providence of God.
Christ received gifts for men. The gift of eternal life. He paid the price of their redemption in His own blood. Faith is the gift of God. Faith is the hand that receives, and the Holy Spirit unites the soul to Christ. It is by faith they do stand. It is all of grace, free grace, sovereign grace, promised grace; and in every time of need, grace, and more grace! “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost: which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour: that being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus iii. 5-7). The believer is an heir of God and joint-heir with Jesus in all the blessings of the covenant of grace. As the spouse shares all that her husband has, so the people of God, being united by faith to Christ, share the spoils that Christ their Saviour gained for them by His blood.
The modern teaching that salvation is by works, social works, kindness, politeness, total abstaining will not keep poor sinners for one moment from hell. No doubt the foolish virgins were very polite, genteel, and possibly moral in public, if not in private, but when the call of death came all was lost in a moment! The poor believer is wholly dependent upon Christ—His blood, priesthood, kingship, merits, love, and mercy from the moment he was cut away for ever from a broken covenant; and taken in through the blood and mercy of God into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. The devil can never regain his former seat in the soul, but he will try as Pharaoh attempted to take the children of Israel back to Egypt. Let no self-confidence, pride, and “I am a professing man (or woman),” a preacher, a Church member of long standing, so am not afraid of falling now”—any of these weapons will bring you down to most painful experience. “Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD.” “But the just shall live by faith” (Hab. ii. 4; Rom. i. 17; Gal. iii. 11; Heb. x. 38).
We have noticed that Christ alone can save sinners from the power of darkness, from the lusts of the flesh, and the pride of life. The modern teaching is opposed to the teaching of the Holy Spirit. The covenant made with Adam was forever lost in the fall of Adam. The covenant of grace is an eternal covenant ordered in all things and sure. We say that the covenant of grace is eternal, as we read in Galatians, third chapter, “And the Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying in thee shall all nations be blessed.” It was the same “gospel” that saved Paul, that saved Abraham—different administration, the same Spirit. Abel had the gospel in the type: the Apostle John in the fulfilment of the promise, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Gen. iii. 15). There is only one covenant of grace; it being called the “New Covenant” signifies only the different mode under which it is administered. And the “New Covenant” under the present dispensation and administration is the eternal covenant of grace.
It was through the blood of the covenant that Abel, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Paul, Peter, and Mary Magdalene were reconciled, justified, adopted and sanctified. You are to look to Christ alone for salvation and safety for time and eternity. Seek light, grace, and mercy through Jesus Christ. When in danger of falling into the snares of the devil, and when the world casts but its well sugared baits to lead you into the path of the destroyer, seek to be kept and guided. Pray much, and pray earnestly, but do not lean on your prayers. Do not listen to flatterers that preach and teach that you need not be afraid, “that God is merciful, and that your heavenly Father will take care of you.”
Christ will purge and sanctify His people as if they never had sinned against God. They will be pure and holy at last. The once ruined soul will be as pure as if it had never sinned through the blood of Christ—no spot, or wrinkle will be left on any of them. While in this world corruption and depravity meet them in almost all things, but that is for a little while. The days of their mourning shall be ended in a moment. They were reconciled through His blood. They are sanctified through His blood. Their faith, hope, duties, yea, all their religion is through the blood of the Lamb. It was so with Moses, David, Paul, the Martyrs, the Reformers, and all believers, and will remain so to the end of time.
“What I say unto you I say unto all, watch.”