“Without shedding of blood is no remission” (Hebrews 9.22.)
Introduction. I will show you three fools. The first is the wounded soldier who asks the surgeon, not if there are any means of healing, but about what sword or Russian he was wounded by. He is bereft of his senses. The second is the captain speculating on where the storm took its rise instead of engaging himself to avert disaster. The man is clean gone mad. The third fool I will find among yourselves. You are sick and wounded with sin. And you ask, ‘Sir, what is the origin of evil?’ You are mad, sir, spiritually mad. You should ask, ‘How can I get rid of the evil? Are there any medicines? Is there a physician?’ Ah! you trifle with subtleties while you neglect certainties. The fact is, there is evil. And the solution is our chosen text. It is a worldwide truth, an essential law of God’s moral government. The very heathen have an inkling of it; the truth lies deep in the human breast. The blood-shedding that is meant is that of a Man—a God. There dripped blood in his sweat, blood from his brow, his back, his hands, his feet, and his side. This is the shedding of blood without which there is no remission of sin for you. Were our hearts what they should be, we would bleed away our lives in sorrow over this death. This murder was a deicide, the killing of a God.
(1) A Negative Expressed. There is no remission without blood—the blood of Jesus Christ. You may disbelieve many things the preacher utters. But this is God’s utterance. The negative is divine in its authority. Bow yourselves to it. Some men will say that God’s way of saving men is cruel, though in truth it exhibits boundless love. So it must be, sirs; you despise your own salvation. Our text is decisive in its character. Can’t I get my sins forgiven by repentance? Not without shedding of blood. By sinning no more? Not without shedding of blood. The text is universal in its character. May a king get pardon without it? ‘Without shedding blood there is no remission.’ May the wise man? No. The benevolent man? No. ‘Without shedding of blood there is no remission.’ This is a leveling gospel. Put away your money-bags; roll up your diploma; cover that coat of arms. No hope for the best, any more than for the worst, without this shedding of blood! The text is perpetual in its character. The truth will never alter. Forgiveness can never be procured, nor the conscience cleansed, except by faith in that sacrifice. There is no use for you to satisfy your hearts with any thing less than what satisfied the Father and appeased his justice.
(2) A Positive Implied. With shedding of blood there is remission. This is a present fact. The law had demanded his blood. Death had held him. Why the open, untenanted tomb? I will tell you. The debts are paid; the sins are canceled; the remission and redemption are obtained. He has ascended into heaven with his blood to appear before God for us. God is merciful, but just also. God is just, and yet the justifier through the death of Christ. None of us ever met a man who thought he had his sins forgiven except through the blood of Christ. The Muslim does not say so, nor the infidel, nor the legalist. Do you feel you are lost? I am so glad of it, for there is remission by the blood-shedding. Do you see that Man on the cross? If Jesus died for you, you cannot be lost. Christ died in vain for no one. Are you convinced of sin? Believe in his name and you cannot be lost. Do you say you are no sinner? Then I do not know that Christ died for you. Sir, I have nothing to say to you except this, ‘The wrath to come! the wrath to come!’
Selection from Conclusion. “Do you feel yourself to be guilty, my hearer?…Let this verse be the language of your heart; adopt it and make it your own: ‘A guilty, weak, and helpless worm,/In Christ’s kind arms I fall;/He is my strength and righteousness,/My Jesus and my all.’”
No comments:
Post a Comment