T he B lessed A ssurance of the V icarious S ufferings of C hrist to E xpiate S in
WANT TO PUT before you some blessed assurances from God’s Word, which truths, I trust, you will re member through the years as a staff of support in time of trouble, and will carry in your memory as long as life lasts. How blessed it is that we are in posses sion of things that are unshakable! Nothing is more apparent in our time than the lack of restfulness and repose. We are living in the most nervous, strange, un certain day of the world’s history. Jeremiah, speaking by the Spirit of God, prophesied that toward the end of the age the Wicked would be like the troubled sea which
In 1 John 3:4 we read: “And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins.” This pillar of faith which sets forth the purpose of Christ’s coming into the world is as steadfast as ever, despite the storms of hell that have raged against it for nearly two thousand years. The emissaries of the infernal world have set themselves to destroy it and everything that expresses it to mankind. Take for instance William Cowper’s
wonderful hymn:
could not rest; in our day it is a restless multitude that greets our gaze. One cannot walk along the streets of any great city without noting that many human faces are marked with anxiety and restlessness. Even in the house of God where we gather to worship Him who said, “Be careful for nothing,” one sees faces marked by depres sion and fear. We live in a rush, constantly apprehen sive of danger, and this spirit of the age has its effect upon the hearts and minds of many of God’s people. This same spirit of restlessness characterizes the re ligious world. Many are in a quandary, not knowing what to believe. The spirit of doubt and skepticism pervades our institutions of learning, and many young men and women are asking the question: “Can we be sure of anything in regard to God and destiny?” There fore, it is good for us to note some of the blessed as surances God’s Word brings to us—the unshaken and unshakable pillars of our Christian faith. Over against the skepticism and unbelief of the atomic age I want to ring the changes on the word know. This was a great word with the apostle Paul and with other writ ers of the New Testament. Paul was a knowso Chris tian, as were all believers who down through the cen turies had a ringing testimony for God. Let us then consider four passages of Scripture which contain four great assurances for the Christian: 1 John 3:5; Romans 8:28; 2 Corinthians 5:1; and 1 John 3:2.
There is a fountain filled with blood Drawn from Immanuel’s veins; And sinners, plunged beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains.
No lines have ever been so caricatured, abused or assailed as these. Sir Edward Arnold, author of The Light of Asia, stated that these words were absolutely shocking to his mind. Matthew Arnold described the hymn as “The language of an unbalanced dreamer.” On the other hand, it has been used of God to lead thou sands to Christ. The number of lives which have been changed by its message is greater than the number of people who have heard about the Arnolds. I would rather have written those words than to have been the author of all of the books of all of the Arnolds and their kind! To these enemies of the cross, the blood of Jesus Christ is of no more value to the immortal soul than the blood of Paul or any other martyr. But in the midst of this babel of sounds and speculation about the purpose of the coming of Christ into the world, every believer can say triumphantly, “We know why He for sook a throne in glory and went to the cross with its •ignominy and shame—we know that He was manifested to take away our sins!” I once stood by the bedside of a young man and watched his life ebb away. He was greatly concerned about his soul. I said, “Laddie, let me read this verse to you: ‘For he hath made him to be sin for us, who
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