THE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” We know no past appearing of God in human flesh except th a t which ended with a sacrifice to put away sin. Let us go a step further with our text: once only does the Lord appear for the purpose of putting away sin. He came once to do it, and he has done it so well th a t there is no need for him to offer any further sacrifice. “This man, after th a t he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down.” He will never ap pear a second tim e for th e pu tting away of sin. It was his purpose once; bu t he has so fulfilled it th a t it will never be his purpose again. He has so pu t away sin by the sacrifice of himself th a t be will never need to offer a second sacri fice. No L arg er Hope If any of you here are entertaining some “larger hope,” I would say to you— Hope what you please; but remember, th a t hope without tru th at the bottom of it, is an anchor w ithou t a holdfast. A groundless hope is a mere delusion. Wish what you will; but wishes without prom ises from God to back them are vain Imaginings. Why should you imagine or w ish fo r ano th er method of salva tion? Rest you assured th a t th e Lord God th ink s so highly of th e one sacrifice for sin, th a t for you to desire ano ther is evil in his sight. If you reje ct th e one sacrifice of th e Son of God, th e re re mains no hope for you; nor ough t th e re to be. Jesus did it alone; he did no t only seem to do it, b u t he actually achieved th e pu tting away of sin. He blotted out the handw riting th a t was against us. He finished transgression and made an end of sin; and brought in everlasting righteousness when he died upon th e cross.
1236 accessible; in th e fullest sense “once in the end of the world hath he appeared.” Oh, the glory of this gracious epiphany! This is the g reatest event in history: th e invisible God has appeared in hu man form. The text tells us very precisely th a t in th is first coming of our Lord he ap peared to put away sin. Notice th a t fact. By his coming and sacrifice he accom plished many things; but his first end and object was “to put away sin.” You know what th e modern blabbers say: they declare th a t he appeared to reveal to us the goodness and love of God. This is true; but it is only the fringe of the whole truth. The fact is, th at he revealed God’s love in the provision of a sacrifice to put away sin. Then, they say th a t he appeared to exhibit perfect manhood, and to let us see what our nature ought to be. Here also is a tru th ; bu t it is only p art of the sacred design. He ap peared, say they, to manifest self-sacrifice, and to set us an example of love to others. By his self-denial he trampled on the selfish passions of man. We deny none of these things: and yet we are indig n an t a t th e way in which th e less is made to hide the greater. The g reat Object of Our Lord’s Coming was not to live, but to die. He hath •appeared not so much to subdue sin by his teaching, as to put it away by the sacrifice of himself. The master purpose which dominated all th a t our Lord did, was not to manifest goodness, nor to perfect an example, but to put away sin by sacrifice. Do not let us think of Jesus without remembering the design of his coming. I pray you, brethren, know not Christ without his cross, as some pretend to know him. We preach Christ; so do a great many more: but, “we preach Christ crucified;” so do not so many more. We preach concerning our Lord, his cross, his blood, .his death, and upon the blood of his cross we lay g reat stress, extolling much “the precious blood of
I do not need, I hope, to linger here to warn you th a t it is of no use to expect th a t God will put away sin in any other way than th a t which at so great a cost he has provided. If sin could have been INSURE YOUR INVESTMENTS FOR THE LORD
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