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THE KING’S BUSINESS
as to how this red mark is actually to be hung out.” He need have been in no such puzzle, no such dilemma. Moses had a word right out o f God’s mouth for that very crisis o f the crisis—“Take you a bunch o f hyssop, and strike the lintel and the two side posts.” God actually conde scending to tell a man how to sprinkle the blood! Had you thought o f it ? He left no loop hole by which a man might be lost if he wanted to be saved himself, and to save his wife and his children. Salvation is the same yet. I tell you, my friends, that if in the great day any soul is found on the wrong side o f things as regards Christ who sits on the judgment seat, you will be standing there in Absolute silence; or if you speak, you will be calling wildly on the rocks and the mountains to hide you. And you will be crushed by the awful silence. LOSS INEXCUSABLE I f lost, you will be inexcusable. So shall I. The man here tonight in this tabernacle the farthest from grace, and the farthest from evangelical faith, is bound to say with me, that, after such a scheme or plan o f salvation, If ariy Israelite was lost, it was entirely his own blame. God did what God could. He made it so plain that the wayfaring man, though a fool, could not- err therein. So now, the bunch o f hyssop represents to me that personal act o f yield ing obedient faith by which I claim my share in the atoning, redemptive work. What was the hyssop ? Well, so far as I can gather from Scripture, it was a very common plant. You remember that when the range o f Solomon’s botanical knowl edge is being indicated, it is said that Sol omon spoke o f trees from the hyssop that grows out o f the wall to the cedar that is in Lebanon. What a poor salvation if God had said, “Take a sprig o f cedar.’” What an easy salvation it was when He said, “ Take a bunch o f hyssop”—that would grow where everybody could get at it? Instinctively the father’s hand went for it, and used it. There is something in the powers o f your soul and mine that is com-
See the innocent holy man, holy as the lamb, without blemish and without spot. See Him hang there upon, the Cross. Mark the Roman soldier as he thrusts that spear into His side, and out there comes blood and water. And, remember this: There is the last blood that shall ever be shed for human sins. The red stream that did not even begin here, though I may say, in a sense it did begin here—this red stream o f blood shed for the remission of sins flowed and flowed and flowed, for without shedding o f blood there was no remission, but there is the last blood that shall ever be shed for human sins, and God help you if you reject that. “ There remaineth no mote sacrifice for sin, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indig nation that shall devour the adversaries.” That is how God’s W ord puts it, standing beside Christ on the Cross. Ah, unbelief gets its right name there—“the adversaries.” That' is what I tried to say a little while ago. Faith— for we will have you come to it—faith is lacking not for want' o f under standing; it is because o f a proud, unsub dued,, imperious will that will not bend to the simplicity o f faith in Christ; and those that will not bend must be broken, and they shall be. “Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken, but on whom soever it shall fall it shall grind him to powder.” MEETING THE CRISIS N' The bunch o f hyssop had its meaning. What was- that bunch o f hyssop? It cer tainly played rto small part in the deliver ance o f an Israelite’ and o f his family that evening. “Take,” sajd God—Ah, I like that —“Take a bunch o f hyssop, and dip it in the f blood,” I can imagine, for example, an Israelitish father, whose mind and heart are really moved by the occasion, when the blood of that lamb was shed and caught in the basin, saying to himself—and it would have been no bad sign o f his intel lect or his heart, “ Now, I have come to the crisis of this crisis. What if I should go wrong here ? What a great pity it is that Moses had no word from the Lord’s mouth
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