The Universal Remedy 2
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The best cure for indifference will be found in the stripes of Jesus. See the bloody sweat drops, O believer, and will you not melt? See Jesus kissed of the traitor, led away with a rabble guard, slandered by deceitful witnesses, tried by cruel adversaries, buffeted by soldiers, defiled with spittle; see him afterwards hounded along the streets of Jerusalem, and then fastened to the transverse beam; behold him bleeding out his blessed life for love of us who were his enemies, and if this tragedy does not melt you, what will? O God of Heaven, if we feel no tenderness in the presence of your dying Son, of what hell-hardened steel must our souls be made!
At times believers are subject to the paralysis of doubt, and as my friend has said just now in his request for a remedy, that paralysis may be attended also with a stiffness of the knee-joint of prayer; and when these two complaints go together, we suffer under a complicated disease for which it is not easy to prescribe; and yet it is easy for the Lord to do so, see here the remedy- "With his stripes we are healed." The blood of Christ is a deadly thing to unbelief. A sight of the Crucified strikes unbelief dumb, so that it cannot mutter a single questioning word; while faith begins to sing and to rejoice as she sees what Jesus did, and how Jesus died.
Who would not pray as he sees Jesus' blood upon the mercy-seat? The consideration of the new and living way which Christ has opened by his blood, a view of the veil of the Savior's body rent by his death, will, if anything, induce men to pray. I think I could use arguments which might be blessed to drive men to their knees, such as the danger of a prayerless spirit, such as the enriching influence of the mercy-seat, such as the delights of communion with God, and many other things, but after all, if the cross does not draw a man to his knees nothing will; and if a contemplation of the sufferings of Jesus do not constrain us to draw very near to God in prayer, surely the chief remedy itself has failed.
There are some saints who have numbness of soul: the stripes of Christ can best quicken them; deadness dies in the presence of his death, and rocks break when the Rock of Ages is seen as cleft for us.
"Who can think, without admiring?
Who can hear, and nothing feel?
See the Lord of life expiring,
Yet retain a heart of steel?"
Many are subject to the fever of pride, but a sight of Jesus in his humiliation, dying for sinners, will tend to make them humble. Pride drops her plumes when she hears the cry, "Behold the Man!" In the society of one so great, enduring so much scorn, there is no room for vanity.
Some are covered with the leprosy of selfishness, but if anything can forbid a man to lead a selfish life, it is the life of Jesus, who saved others- himself he would not save. Misers, and gluttons, and self-seekers, love not the Savior, for his whole conduct upbraids them! Upon some the fit ofanger often comes; but what can give gentleness of spirit like the sight of him Who was as a lamb dumb before her shearers, and who opened not his mouth under blasphemy and rebuke? If any of you feel the fretting consumption of worldliness, or the cancer of covetousness- for such base diseases as these are common in Zion- still the groans and grief's of the Man of sorrows, the acquaintance of grief, will prove a cure. All evils fly before the Lord Jesus, even as the shadows vanish before the sun. Lash us, Master, to your cross! no fatal shipwreck shall we fear if fastened there. Bind us with cords to the horns of the altar; no disease can come there. His sacrifice purifies the air.
Through Hell itself might we go, Savior, all unharmed with its pestilent vapor, if we could but have your cross before our eyes. It were not possible that all the blasphemy of devils and of the vilest of men could pollute our spirits for so much as a moment, if your blood were always sprinkled on the tablets of our hearts, and your deep humiliation always present in our minds. Forgetfulness of his stripes lands us in disease; but the sweet remembrance of the passion and a blessed absorption in the mystery of the Master's death, will surely cast out all evils from us, and keep us from returning to them again.
IV. I must now pass on to yet a fourth point. Observe carefully, THE CURATIVE PROPERTIES OF THE MEDICINE OF WHICH WE HAVE BEEN SPEAKING. You have heard of some of the diseases in detail as well as the cure on a large scale; now observe the curative properties of the medicine; for all manner of good this divine remedy works in our spiritual constitution. The stripes of Jesus when well considered arrest spiritual disorder. The man is brought to view his Lord as suffering for him, and a voice says to his rising lusts, "Hitherto shall you come, but no farther. Here at Calvary shall your proud waves be stayed." My feet had almost gone, my steps had well-near slipped, had not my Master's cross stood before me, as a most effectual barrier to stop me in my fall. Many a man has gone post haste onward unchecked by any power until a vision of the Man, the crucified Man, has appeared before his eyes, and he has been brought to a blessed halt.
Read the memorable life of Colonel Gardiner, for what happened to him literally has happened to tens of thousands spiritually- they have been enlisted to sin, and sold to Satan, but a sight of the Savior slain for sinners, has made them pause, and henceforth they have no longer dared to offend. Now, it is a great thing for a physician to find a remedy which will hold the disease within bounds so that it reach not the direst stage of malignity; and this the cross of Christ does, it binds in chains the fury of unhallowed passion.
What a miraculous power the grief's of Jesus have upon the believer! Though his corruption is still within him yet it cannot have dominion over him, because he is not under the law but under grace. It is a happier fact still that sin shall before long be utterly abolished, but to stay it meanwhile until it is eradicated is no small thing.
This medicine, in the next place, quickens all the powers of the spiritual man to resist the disease. "By his stripes we are healed," because a sight of Jesus Christ quickens our newborn nature. It forbids us to live at the poor dying rate so natural to our sluggishness. We cannot have Christ before our eyes and yet go slumbering on to Heaven as though spiritual work were but a dream, or a mere child's play. He who has really gone into the hall where Christ was scourged, and seen the streams of blood as they poured down his furrowed shoulders, and felt that they were all for him, has had his spiritual pulse quickened and his whole spiritual life stirred. This fire has helped to burn sin out of its nest. This power within the soul has set up a counter-action and pushed back the advancing powers of iniquity.
The stripes of Jesus Christ also have another curative effect; they restore to the man that which he lost in strength by sin. There is a recuperativepower in this sacred medicine! He brings my wandering feet back to the ways, which I forsook, and the way back is by the cross. He restores my soul, and the food he gives me to feed upon is his own flesh and blood. After sin has brought us into sickness, and sickness into weakness, there is no restorative under Heaven that is equal to living in a constant daily sense of the vicarious sufferings of Jesus Christ. His sweet love so clearly shown in his torments at Golgotha encourages us; we feel that with such a Savior ever caring for us, we have no need to be alarmed.
This medicine also soothes the agony of conviction. Anguish of heart vanishes when Jesus is seen as bearing the chastisement of our peace. He who gets to Christ's cross and trusts in him feels that sin is still present in him, and mourns over it, but yet he rejoices because he understands that Christ has overcome his enemies, and led them captive at his chariot wheels. "I shall overcome," says he; and the sharpness of the present struggle is not felt. "My sin is forever put away," says he, for Jesus died, and there is no room for remorse, or terror, or despair. Drink of the spiced wine of atoning love, and remember your misery no more, O you sin-burdened heir of immortality.
But best of all, the stripes of Christ have an eradicating power as to sin. They pull it up by the root; they destroy the beasts in their lair; they put to death the power of sin in our members. I know not how near to perfection in this life a believer may be brought, but God forbid that I should set up some low degree of grace as being all that a saint can reach this side the grave. I dare not limit my Master's power as to how far he may subdue sin even in this life in the believer, but I expect never to be perfect until I shuffle off this mortal coil; yet the grand result is none the less glorious;absolute perfection is our heritage; we shall be freed from the least tendency to evil; there will remain in us no more possibilities of sinning than in the person of our Lord himself. We shall be as pure as the thrice holy God himself as immaculate as the ever-sinless Savior; and all this will be through our Master's stripes.
Sanctification, after all, is by the blood of Christ. The Holy Spirit works it, but the instrumentality is the blood. The Holy Spirit is the Physician, but the sufferings of Christ are the medicine. Sin is never destroyed except by faith in Jesus. All your meditations upon the evil of sin, and all your shiverings at the punishment of it, and all your soul humblings and prostration's will never kill sin. It is at the cross that God has set up a mighty gibbet upon which he hangs sin forever, and puts it to death; it is there at Golgotha, but only there. The great execution ground of our iniquity, is there where Jesus died.
Wrestling believer, you must go to your Lord's agonies, and learn to be crucified with him unto sin, for else shall you never know the are of mastering your evil passions and being sanctified in the spirit. I have thus tried to open up the healing force, which dwells in the stripes of Jesus.
5. Now just a moment or two in the fifth place- I am afraid you will think my divisions are very many and very dry, but still that I cannot help- I want you to review for a minute THE MODES OF THE WORKING OF THIS MEDICINE. How does it work? Briefly, its effect upon the mind is this. The sinner hearing of the death of the incarnate God is led by the force of truth and the power of the Holy Spirit to believe in the incarnate God. The cure is already begun. The moment the sinner believes, there is the axe laid at the root of the dominion of Satan. He no sooner learns to trust the appointed Savior than his cure has certainly commenced and will shortly be carried on to perfection.
After faith comes gratitude. The sinner says, "I trust in the incarnate God to save me. I believe he has saved me." Well, what is the natural result? The soul being grateful, thankful, how can it help exclaiming, "Blessed be God for this unspeakable gift!" and "Blessed be this dear Son who so freely laid down his life for me!" It would not be natural at all; it would be something less even than humanity, if the sense of such favor did not begetgratitude.
The next emotion to gratitude is love. Has he done all this for me? Am I under such obligations? Then will I love his name.
The very next thought to love is obedience. What shall I do to please my Redeemer? How can I fulfill his commandments and bring honor to his name? Do you not see that the sinner is getting healed most rapidly? His disease was that he was altogether out of unison with God, and resisted the divine law, but now look at him! With tears in his eyes he is lamenting that he ever offended; he is groaning and grieving that he could have pierced so dear a friend, and put him to such sorrows, and he is asking, with love and earnestness, "What can I do to show that I loathe myself for the past, and that I love Jesus for the future." Now he goes a step farther and he burns with hatred against the sins which slew the Lord. "Did my sins slay Christ?
Was it my iniquity that nailed him to the tree? Then I will have vengeance upon my sins: there is not one that I will spare. Though it nestle in my bosom I will tear it out, and if it shall entrench itself so that I cannot drive it forth except by losing an eye or an arm, it shall come forth; for not one of this accursed crew will I harbor within my spirit." Now the man's sacred zeal and burning indignation is issuing a search warrant, and he is going through and through his nature to search for Sin, crying meanwhile, "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."
Now, beloved, do you not see that all the healthy faculties of the new-born nature are by the griefs of Jesus set strongly at work, and even though sin may still remain within, there is a vitality about the new born nature which will certainly cast out those baser powers, and, by God's grace, make the man fit to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light?
6. It is scarcely necessary for me to say any more, except to remark, in the sixth place, that this medicine deserves to be commended to all of you this morning, because of IT'S REMARKABLY EASY APPLICATION. I have shown you how it works, and what it cures, and whom it cures.
Now, there are some physical medicines which would be curative, but they are so difficult in administration, and attended with so much risk in their operation, that they are rarely if ever employed. But the medicine prescribed in the text is very simple in itself, and very simply received- so simple is its reception that, if there be a willing mind here to receive it, it may be received by any of you at this very instant, for God's Holy Spirit is present to help you. How, then, does a man get the stripes of Christ to heal him?
Why, thus. First, he hears about them. Now, you have heard often of my Lord's stripes. Next, faith comes by hearing; that is, the hearer believes that Jesus is the Son of God, and he trusts in him to save his soul. Then, having believed, the next thing is, whenever the power of his faith begins to relax, he goes to hearing again, or else to what is even better, after once having heard to benefit, he resorts to contemplation; he resorts to the Lord's table that he may be helped by the outward signs; he reads the Bible that the letter of the word may refresh his memory as to its spirit, and he often seeks a season of quiet, such as David had when he sat before the Lord, closing his eyes and shutting up his heart to all beside the things of Heaven; he views Christ groaning in the garden, pictures him upon the bloody tree, sees him suffering, and so acquires for himself all the benefit which can be drawn from the stripes of the Crucified. All you have to do, poor sinner, is simply to trust and you are healed. And all you have to do, O backsliding saint, is but to contemplate and to believe again. Beloved, we must let the old image be stamped afresh upon our soul, we must have the picture cleaned as it were- it has been turned with its front to the wall, turn it round and sit and study it again. Renew your old acquaintance with the sweet lover of your soul, return to the love of your espousals, repair to Calvary, tarry in Gethsemane, live with Jesus wherever he may be; in retirement, considering, meditating, reflecting upon what he has done for you. This is the simple mode of application.
7. All I have to say in conclusion is, since the medicine is so efficacious, since it is already prepared and freely presented, I do beseech you TAKE IT.Take it, brethren, you who have known its power in years gone by. Let not backslidings continue, but come to his stripes afresh. Take it, youdoubters, lest you sink into despair: come to his stripes anew. Take it, you who are beginning to be self-confident and proud. You need this to bring you on your faces again in prostration before your Lord. And, O you who have never believed in him, on this morning of clear shinings after the rain may the Lord give you also to come and trust in him, and you shall live.
"Oh," writes one to me this week, "I have believed that Jesus died for me, but it does not keep me from sinning in any way whatever. Our minister says that if we believe that Jesus died for us we shall be saved." No, no, but that is not the gospel, and such a belief is not faith at all. I did not wonder that a poor creature should have tried such a gospel and found it to fail. Do not these men say that Christ died for everybody, and then declare that if you believe he died for you (which he must of necessity have done if he died for everybody) then that will save you, and yet there are scores and hundreds who are proofs to the fact that it does not save them, but that they can believe this universal redemption and live as they did before?
This is faith, namely to trust Jesus Christ. It is the only saving faith. You cannot rely on him and remain unhealed; you cannot take Jesus for your confidence and remain just as you were, for there is a potency about Christ, as applied by faith, which changes the character, and makes the sinner a new man to the praise and glory of God. May my Lord bless you for his own sake. Amen.
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