The Spurgeon Series 1857 & 1858. Charles H. Spurgeon

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СКАЧАТЬ otherwise you have denied the Scriptures and turned aside from God. Some truths I utter, perhaps, have little better basis than my own reasoning and inference, which are of little value enough; but this I utter, not with quotations from God’s Word to back up my assertion, but from the lips of God himself. Here it stands in great letters, “There is no remission.” So divine is its authority. Perhaps you will kick at it: but remember, your rebellion is not against me, but against God. If any of you reject this truth, I shall not argue; God forbid I should turn aside from proclaiming his gospel, to dispute with men. I have God’s irrevocable statute to plead now, here it stands: “Without shedding of blood there is no remission.” You may believe or disbelieve many things the preacher utters; but this you disbelieve at the peril of your souls. It is God’s utterance: will you tell God to his face you do not believe it? That would be impious. The negative is divine in its authority; bow yourselves to it, and accept its solemn warning.

      9. But some men will say that God’s way of saving men, by shedding of blood, is a cruel way, an unjust way, an unkind way; and all kinds of things they will say of it. Sirs, I have nothing to do with your opinion on the matter; it is so. If you have any faults to find with your Maker, fight your battles out with him at last. But take heed before you throw the gauntlet down; it will go badly with a worm when he fights with his Maker, and it will go badly with you when you contend with him. The doctrine of atonement when correctly understood and faithfully received, is delightful, for it exhibits boundless love, immeasurable goodness, and infinite truth; but to unbelievers it will always be a hated doctrine. So it must be sirs; you hate your own mercies; you despise your own salvation. I do not pause to dispute with you: I affirm it in God’s name: “Without shedding of blood there is no remission.”

      10. And note how decisive this is in its character: “Without shedding of blood there is no remission.” “But, sir, cannot I get my sins forgiven by my repentance? if I weep, and plead, and pray, will not God forgive me for the sake of my tears?” “No remission,” says the text, “without shedding of blood.” “But, sir, if I never sin again, and if I serve God more zealously than other men, will he not forgive me for the sake of my obedience?” “No remission,” says the text, “without shedding of blood.” “But, sir, may I not trust that God is merciful, and will forgive me without the shedding of blood?” “No,” says the text, “without shedding of blood there is no remission”; none whatever. It cuts off every other hope. Bring your hopes here, and if they are not based in blood, and stamped with blood, they are as useless as castles in the air, and dreams of the night. “There is no remission,” says the text, in positive and plain words; and yet men will be trying to get remission in fifty other ways, until their special pleading becomes as irksome to us as it is useless for them. Sirs, do what you like, say what you please, but you are as far off from remission when you have done your best, as you were when you began, except you put confidence in the shedding of our Saviour’s blood, and in the blood shedding alone, for without it there is no remission.

      11. And note again how universal it is in its character. “What! may not I get remission without blood shedding?” says the king; and he comes with the crown on his head; “May not I in all my robes, with this rich ransom, get pardon without the blood shedding?” “None,” is the reply; “none.” Now comes the wise man, with a number of letters after his name — “Can I not get remission by these grand titles of my learning?” “None; none.” Then comes the benevolent man — “I have dispersed my money to the poor, and given my bounty to feed them; shall not I get remission?” “None”; says the text, “Without shedding of blood there is no remission.” How this puts everyone on the same level! My lord, you are no bigger than your coachman. Sir, squire, you are no better off than John that ploughs the ground; minister, your office does not serve you with any exemption — your poorest hearer stands on the very same footing. “Without shedding of blood there is no remission.” No hope for the best, any more than for the worst, without this shedding of blood. Oh! I love the gospel, for this reason among others, because it is such a levelling gospel. Some people do not like a levelling gospel; nor would I, in some senses of the word. Let men have their rank, and their titles, and their riches, if they will; but I do like, and I am sure all good men like, to see rich and poor meet together and feel that they are on the same level; the gospel makes them so. It says, “Keep your money bags, they will not procure you remission; roll up your diploma, that will not get you remission; forget your farm and your park, they will not get you remission; just cover up that escutcheon, that coat of arms will not get you remission. Come, you ragged beggars, filthy offscourings of the world, penniless; come here; here is remission as much for you, ill-bred and ill-mannered though you are, as for the noble, the honourable, the titled, and the wealthy.” All stand on the same level here; the text is universal: “Without shedding of blood there is no remission.”

      12. Notice too, how perpetual my text is. Paul said, “there is no remission!” I must repeat this testimony too. When thousands of years have rolled away, some minister may stand on this spot and say the same. This will never alter at all; it will always be so, in the next world as well as this: no remission without shedding of blood. “Oh! yes there is,” one says, “the priest takes the shilling, and he gets the soul out of purgatory.” That is a mere pretence; it never was there in the first place. But without shedding of blood there is no real remission. There may be tales and fancies, but there is no true remission without the blood of propitiation. Never, though you strained yourselves in prayer; never, though you wept yourselves away in tears; never, though you groaned and cried until your heart strings break; never in this world, nor in what is to come, can the forgiveness of sins be procured on any other ground than redemption by the blood of Christ, and never can the conscience be cleansed but by faith in that sacrifice. The fact is, beloved, there is no use for you to satisfy your hearts with anything less than what satisfied God the Father. Without the shedding of blood nothing would appease his justice; and without the application of that same blood nothing can purge your consciences.

      13. II. But as there is no remission without blood shedding, IT IS IMPLIED THAT THERE IS REMISSION WITH IT. Notice well, this remission is a present fact. The blood having been already shed, the remission is already obtained. I took you to the garden of Gethsemane and the mount of Calvary to see the bloodshedding. I might now conduct you to another garden and another mount to show you the grand proof of the remission. Another garden, did I say? Yes, it is a garden, fraught with many pleasing and even triumphant reminiscences. Aside from the haunts of this busy world, in it was a new sepulchre, hewn out of a rock where Joseph of Arimathea thought his own poor body would presently be laid. But there they laid Jesus after his crucifixion.

      14. He had stood as surety for his people, and the law had demanded his blood; death had held him with strong grasp; and that tomb was, as it were, the dungeon of his captivity, when, as the good shepherd, he laid down his life for the sheep. Why, then, do I see in that garden, an open, empty grave? I will tell you. The debts are paid, the sins are cancelled, the remission is obtained. How do you think that is so? That great Shepherd of the sheep has been brought again from the dead by the blood of the everlasting covenant, and in him also we have obtained redemption through his blood. There, beloved, is the first proof.

      15. Do you ask for further evidence? I will take you to Mount Olivet. You shall behold Jesus there with his hands raised like the High Priest of old to bless his people, and while he is blessing them, he ascends, the clouds receiving him out of their sight. But why, you ask, oh why has he thus ascended, and where is he gone? Behold he enters, not into the holy place made with hands, but he enters into heaven itself with his own blood, there to appear in the presence of God for us. Now, therefore, we have boldness to draw near by the blood of Christ. The remission is obtained, here is the second proof. Oh believer, what springs of comfort are there here for you.

      16. And now let me commend this remission by the shedding of blood to those who have not yet believed. Mr. Innis, a great Scotch minister, once visited an infidel who was dying. When he came to him the first time, he said, “Mr. Innis, I am relying on the mercy of God; СКАЧАТЬ