3554. Our Magnificent Saviour

A Sermon Published On Thursday, March 8, 1917.

He shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant shall justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. {Isa 53:11}

For other sermons on this text:

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3465, “Suffering Christ Satisfied, The” 3467}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3554, “Our Magnificent Saviour” 3556}

   Exposition on Ex 29:38-46 Isa 53 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3458, “Redeeming the Unclean” 3460 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Isa 53; 55:1-7 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2534, “Greatest Gift in Time or Eternity, The” 2535 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Isa 53 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2290, “God’s Unspeakable Gift” 2291 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Isa 53 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2499, “Christopathy” 2500 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Isa 53 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2827, “Redeemer Described by Himself, The” 2828 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Isa 53 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2840, “Laying the Hand on the Sacrifice” 2841 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Isa 53 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3436, “Christ Glorified” 3438 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Ps 38 Isa 53 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2911, “Cases of Conscience” 2912 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Ro 6 Isa 53 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3347, “Things to be Remembered” 3349 @@ "Exposition"}

1. Every word of the text is especially full of meaning. There are passages of Scripture which are like the rooms of a royal palace, which may not have in them gold and silver, though there are precious things; but this text is the strong-room of the King’s house—the richest, rarest treasures are here. When we preach the doctrine of our text, we are preaching the very marrow of all theology—the very pith of the gospel—the essential oil of the good news which brings salvation. I shall not tonight, therefore, have any time to give you illustrations, nor shall we have any time for anything like oratory; but simply to speak right on, in explaining the deep truths which lie before us. May God open our ears, and may every heart receive the truth which is able to save your souls; for I may truly say when preaching on this text, “Incline your ear, and come to me. Hear, and your soul shall live”; for now we are dealing with the main business of your souls, and expounding on what God presents as the only way of redemption for the sons of men.

2. There are two points in the text. You observe there are two classes. There is the Lord Christ, and there are the many. We will take these two classes in order, and you will perceive in a moment that these are both represented in a threefold character. And our first point will be the Lord Jesus in his threefold character; and the second will be the many in their threefold character.

3. I. To begin, then, where all must begin:—OUR BLESSED LORD HIMSELF IN HIS THREEFOLD CHARACTER. You have him here in a threefold character. First, the servant—“my righteous servant”; secondly, the sin bearer—“he shall bear their iniquities”; thirdly, the justifier—“he shall justify many.”

4. To begin, then—Christ, the servant—“my righteous servant.” Be astonished, oh you heavens! He who distributes crowns and thrones, and is “God over all, blessed for ever,” condescends to become a servant. He came into this world and “was made in the appearance as a man; and, being found in appearance as a man, he became obedient”—obedient to his Father’s will, “obedient even to death.”

5. Think of Christ for a few minutes, and you perceive that first he is a servant to God. In a certain sense he became the servus servorum—the servant of servants—washing our feet and wiping them with a napkin; but now in the text he is represented as serving God. Whereas we were servants who ran away from our Master, Christ came to take our place, whereas we were disobedient servants, he came to fulfil our obedience for us—took our position of service, of which we had proved ourselves to be unworthy. He served his Father, and did his will. According to the verse which precedes the text, he served God not only with his body, but with his soul—and yet again in the verse in which our text is found, “He shall see the travail of his soul.” The service that Christ rendered to God was partly that of his body, for he suffered weariness in the diligent obedience to his Father’s will; but his mind went with it; every power and every passion of his nature was sweetly obedient to the divine will. The zeal which he had for God’s glory ate up not only his body, but his very soul. He served God, as alas! we do not as we should, with all his heart, and soul, and strength.

6. And notice he was an ardent servant, for the text speaks of the travail of his soul. Read it as the labour of his soul, as if he threw his soul so fully into it that his soul laboured in the service of God; or read it, if you wish, as travail, and you know the meaning of that word, which we will cover with a veil. All of his powers and faculties were full of pain so that he might serve his God. He suffered in his service, and he served in his suffering, not only with all the power he had, but bowing the fulness of his strength into the service which he rendered to God. In the text he is called a righteous servant, as if he had rendered an account to God, and God had found it in every jot and tittle to be correct—a righteous servant, fulfilling all righteousness, carefully doing so—a righteous servant, without any need to add a word about some little slips or failings; for in him was no sin—no sin in his life, and no sin in himself. The prince of this world searched him, but he found nothing in him; he was without the slightest offence, “holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.” Christ, then, as a servant to God was an accepted servant. We know he was, for God himself calls him “my righteous servant.” Now think—I will not enlarge further—think, beloved, of this. This is your Lord, whom angels worship, who became an obedient servant to God for your sake, and discharging his work so as to get the reward of “Well done, good and righteous servant!” His merits are yours, believer; all that he has done is yours; you are “accepted in the Beloved.” The Lord receives you for Jesus’ sake, and in Christ he is well pleased with you. There is a sweet truth to begin with. Roll it under your tongue as a dainty morsel. He is my righteous servant.

7. But the text takes Christ in his second character—and we must be brief on each—as the sin bearer. “He shall bear their iniquities.” The most amazing thing in all this book of wonders is this—that God should become man, and, then as man, should bear the sin of his people. We have sometimes heard foolish people ask, “Where is the doctrine of substitution in Scripture?” to which I would answer, “Where is it not?” Take it out of the Scriptures, and there is positively nothing left. It is the main and cardinal doctrine of revelation that Christ stood in the sinner’s place, and throughout this chapter it is the wonderful teaching over and over, and over and over again. “The chastisement of our peace was upon him.” “He was numbered with the transgressors.” “He bore the sin of many”; or, as in the text, “He shall bear their iniquities.” It does not say, “He shall bear the punishment of their iniquities”; that is true, and follows as a matter of course; but the iniquities of his people were in very truth laid on him; and as in type on the scapegoat the sins of Israel were laid, so in truth, and not in type, nor metaphor, nor figure, but in very deed and of a truth, the sins of God’s people were transferred from them and laid on the head of Christ, the Son of God, who stood in their place. Words cannot be more plain. “He shall bear their iniquities.” When did he bear their iniquities? I answer, in a certain sense he bore them from of old; for he was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world; but in actual fact he bore them through his painful life. Read these words: “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him struck, struck by God, and afflicted.” That thirst, that hunger, those pangs he often felt throughout his life of weariness and woe—those were caused by sin being laid on him. It was not possible that he should be perfectly happy while sin was on him; it would have been impossible for him to have been unhappy had not sin been imputed to him.

8. He bore our sins, next, at the judgment seat of Pilate and of Herod. Please follow the words of the text, “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he did not open his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment; and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living.” And why? “For the transgression of my people he was struck.” He was numbered with the transgressors when he stood at Pilate’s judgment bar. He was condemned to die a malefactor’s death; and on the Roman records there stood the name of Jesus of Nazareth, condemned to die because he had been accused of saying that there was another king, and that another kingdom was about to be set up. He was bearing our sins before Pilate’s judgment bar.

9. But especially on the tree; for there we have it, “When you shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed.” “He, himself, bore our sins in his own body up to the tree,” and on the tree, always being a sin bearer up to that moment when he said, “It is finished”; for then he bore sin no longer. He cast it all away into his own sepulchre; he hurled it into the wilderness of forgetfulness; and now the sin of his people cannot be found. It has ceased to be. Christ has “finished transgression. He has made an end of sin, and brought in everlasting righteousness” for his people.

10. Now let us pause here a for little while and think over this amazing mystery. The way in which God is pleased to save us from our sin is by laying our sins on his own Son, and making him suffer for those sins as if those sins had been his own. Why, do you think, did he choose such a method? Was it not like this? First, by this he satisfied his own justice. Why brethren, if we had lain in hell for ever, yet divine justice would not have been fully justified; for after thousands of years of suffering there would still remain an eternity of debt due to God’s justice, and the debt would not be paid. And let me say, if God had annihilated all the sinners whoever lived at one stroke, he would not have so honoured his justice as he did when he took sin and laid it on his Son, and his Son bore divine wrath which was due for that sin; for now there has been rendered to divine justice a full equivalent, a complete payment for all the dishonour which it suffered; and I know of no other conceivable way by which such a payment could have been rendered.

   He to the utmost farthing paid

   Whate’er his people owed.

He suffered what they should have suffered, and now God’s law stands in all its integrity. It has not dismissed the penalty. The penalty has been executed. The sword has awaked against the shepherd, although the stroke was due to the flock.

11. Moreover, God, in choosing Christ to suffer in our place has been pleased to lay help on one who is mighty, on one who is mighty to save. Oh my soul, delight in the thought that Christ was my substitute! If I had been told that an angel had done his best to save me, I should feel unsafe. If I had been told that all the holy men in all the world had striven to save me, I should have felt insecure; but if the very Christ of God himself, the Eternal One, has condescended to bear my iniquities, why, then, should I fear? The mighty Saviour, the Almighty Saviour, can surely put away my sins. There is help laid on one who is mighty.

12. The Lord also laid our sins on Christ because it was Christ’s desire that it should be so. Do you remember how he said, “I have a baptism to be baptized with”? It was the baptism of his sufferings. “And how am I constrained until it is accomplished!” And long before that he had said, “Lo, I come; in the volume of the book it is written of me, ‘I delight to do your will, oh God; yes, your law is in my heart.’” And then he adds, “Sacrifice and offering you would not have, but you have prepared a body for me.” and he longed to come and in that body bear his people’s sins, and in that body prove that he had a love for them which many waters could not quench, and floods could not drown; for down into the depths he would go with his beloved Church, and never come up again until he could bring her up with him, as he has done, to the praise of the glory of his grace. Therefore, you see, God is honoured, his grace is honoured, we ourselves are comforted, we have a mighty Saviour, and Christ’s own longings are satisfied by having sin laid on him.

13. Moreover, beloved, the forgiveness of sin, through laying it on Christ, is made to show to all mankind and to all other created intelligences the tremendous evil of sin. Here were a people whom God desired to save, but he could not. His justice did, as it were, tie the hands of his mercy. Sin was so hateful to him that he could not blot it out and forget it. He must punish it, and I do not know of any way by which he could have shown his abhorrence of sin so greatly as when he bruised his own Son. A man may show his indignation about a crime in many ways, but surely in none so much as when he sees that crime on his son, and he says, “No, I cannot reveal my love to you. While that crime is on you, you must suffer for it,” and

  ”Heaven’s Eternal Darling bleeds.”

Because sin was laid on him, and the Father would not smile, he cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” A greater Abraham unsheathed his knife to slay a greater Isaac, and no angel intervened. The Saviour died the death. These are words that we speak. Do we know their meaning? When you are racked with pain, you begin to guess the pain the Saviour suffered; and, perhaps, when we are ourselves in the pains of death, we shall begin to have a little more fellowship with Jesus. But all for our sakes the blessed Lord bore the wrath of God so that God might show that sin, even when laid on his Son by imputation, was so horrible to him that he would not let him escape. He must be bruised. “It pleased the Father to bruise him; he has put him to grief.”

14. And do you not think, beloved, that God chose this way of pardoning sin to show his great love as well as his great abhorrence of sin? Behold how he loves us! What kind of love is this that God has shown to us—that when we were still enemies, he gave his Son to die for us? There is one sweet reason that Jesus gives why he died for his people. You remember it. He “loved his Church, and gave himself for it, so that he might present it to himself without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing.” There is no washing for his Church like the washing in his blood. Even if you, believer, should wash your face in your tears, you would stain your face in the washing; but, washed in the blood of Jesus, there remains no trace or speck of sin. Surely the very angels are not so beautiful as the Church is, now that Christ has cleansed her. The heavens are not pure in his sight, and he charged his angels with folly; but the blood-washed Church is pure, and no folly is charged against her. Her righteousness is the righteousness of her Creator, and her purity is the holiness of God himself.

15. Surely the Lord was pleased to adopt this way of pardon for one other reason—that you and I might have strong consolation, and that, having strong consolation, we might also have strong reason for devoting ourselves to Christ’s service. There are those who think that pardon through atoning blood will make men live in sin. They little know what is in the heart of the redeemed, for, being bought with such a price, we would be perfect if we could. So much has been done for us that if we could do for Christ ten thousand times more than we have ever done, we should only rejoice to do it, no matter what it may cost. You know when a man is under the burden of sin, he cannot serve his God well, because he says, “I wish to serve him but my sins are so many”; but when his sins are laid on Christ, then he says, “Now I can give all my strength to the glory of God. I have no sin to fret about now; it is laid on Jesus. There is nothing now to make me dread an angry God, for the anger of God is turned away, and in Jesus Christ I am a justified man.” I might enlarge on this, but I must not. You see Christ as the sin bearer, bearing our sins on the tree.

16. Now the third aspect under which he appears is this—he is seen in the text as a justifier. “By his knowledge my righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.” Christ is himself just, and yet the justifier. Jesus Christ did not need to have worked out a righteousness; he did not need to have become man; he did not need to have been obedient to the Father. He is “God over all, blessed for ever.” He has, therefore, a righteousness to give away—one which he does not need for himself. This is the root and bottom of it—he has a righteousness which he does not need for himself; and he, therefore, gives it to us, and becomes the Lord our righteousness. And every soul to whom Jesus gives his righteousness is righteous at once. This is God’s way of making men righteous, not by their own deeds, but by the deeds of Jesus. He imputes to us what Christ has done. He takes the righteousness of the Lord Christ and gives it to the sinner, blots out the sinner’s sin, and makes the sinner righteous in a moment before his sight. The text says he shall do this to many—not to all; for, alas! tens of thousands die condemned; but to many. Blessed word is that! Why not to me? If it is God’s decree that Christ shall justify many, why should I not be one among them? And if he will justify all who know him—(by his knowledge he shall justify them)—oh my soul, study Christ! Endeavour to be his disciple; sit at his feet; learn from him; know him; for then he will justify you, and make you just in the sight of God. Remember, beloved, that this is the reward that Christ has for his death. “He shall see the travail of his soul.” How? Why, “by his knowledge he shall justify many.” It is Christ’s delight to take a sinner and to make him just. This is the spoil which he divides with the strong. Because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors, and bore the sin of many, he makes men just; and this is his sure reward—he asks for no better—he who believes in him who justifies the ungodly is saved by that belief. This is Christ’s glory, Christ’s delight, the fulness of Christ’s satisfaction—that he justifies many. Oh! that he might get that satisfaction in this house tonight—that many poor condemned souls might know him, and be made just by him. Then his heart would leap for joy. The joy that was set before him when he died would then come to him.

17. So I have briefly described Christ in his threefold capacity—a servant, a sin bearer, and a justifier.

18. II. Now, with brevity, we are to look at:—THE MANY IN THEIR THREEFOLD CHARACTER. And in the text we see them, first, as needing justification; secondly, as receiving knowledge; and, thirdly, as justified.

19. Now we begin, tonight, this second point where God began with us. We see the many needing justification. Christ would not have come to justify the just; they do not want it. The healthy have no need of a physician. Suppose a man is brought up before a court of justice. He is justified, or considered to be just, if he is proved not guilty. But we, before the court of God, are all guilty; therefore, justification cannot come in that way to us. Our only hope of justification lies in this—God says, “That man’s sins I laid on Christ. I punished Christ for that man. He is not guilty. Christ was obedient on that man’s behalf. Christ’s obedience is that man’s obedience. He is just in Christ’s righteousness. I take him not as what he is, as what his sponsor is, even Christ; what his surety is, what his substitute is.” As, for example, in the old balloting days, {a} when men had to go to war, if the number was called out, and a substitute was provided, the person providing the substitute was said by the law to discharge his duty to his country. I believe that some time ago in the Northern States a person who had found a substitute to go to fight in the South heard after a while that his substitute was dead. On a second drawing being made, this man was drawn, but he said, “No; I am dead. Number So-and-so went to the war, and is dead. That is me. My substitute is dead.” So when God’s justice calls to me, a sinner, I do not answer to it. Why? Christ answered on my behalf long ago, and died for me. I am dead with Christ. “I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.” There is no legal charge that can be brought, because Christ has stood in my place, been punished in my place, been considered as if he were me; and now today I am considered as if I were in Christ’s place, even as he was considered to be in my place. You see where we begin, then. We begin needing justification; for we have, first of all, the sin of our first parents. “All we like sheep have gone astray.” We have, next, our own sins. “We have turned everyone to his own way.” We have many sins of omission and of commission, “The Lord has laid on him our iniquities”; whether they are iniquities of excess or of shortcoming, they are both laid on Jesus Christ’s head. We were guilty; we were so guilty, that considered by ourselves we were under condemnation. “He who does not believe is condemned already,” and if we had remained as we were, we were heirs of wrath, even as others. And our sin deserved the same punishment as others. Oh you who are guilty, hear tonight what good news there is in this for you. Christ came to justify the ungodly. The Redeemer died for those who have no righteousness of their own. “Scarcely for a righteous man will one die; perhaps for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commends his love towards us, in that while we were still sinners Christ died for the ungodly.” Christ came to bring a righteousness to those who have none—to save the sinful, the vile, the hell-deserving; he came to give them his righteousness, and to take upon himself their sins. Oh! the wonders of divine grace! that whereas we need justification, we are the very people he came to justify.

20. And now note, in the second place, these people in their second stage. They are instructed; they are made to know. The text says, “By his knowledge my righteous servant shall justify many.” That is to say—(you may read it, as you have it in our version, if you like; but you will understand it better if you read it—and it will be quite as correct—like this)—“by the knowledge of him my righteous servant shall justify many.” That is to say, when the soul knows Christ, knows him, believes him, learns him, trusts him, then it is justified. You see there are no doings in the case; there are no feelings in the matter. It is knowing, which is another word for believing; for we know him when we believe him; and we inevitably believe him when we truly and really know him. The heart understands Christ through hearing; and through hearing about him, it comes to believe him; and when the heart knows Christ and believes him, it is then justified. But suppose the text means this, “By his knowledge”—(that is, the knowledge which he gives)—“he justifies many.” That knowledge is contained in his word; it fell from his own lips; you have heard it tonight; we have preached it to you. It is not the knowledge Moses brought; it is the knowledge that Christ brought. “Whoever believes in him is not condemned.” May it be knowledge to your soul by his teaching it to your soul! By his Divine Spirit, he teaches to profit. But, dear hearer, note this—the whole way of my getting the result of Christ’s sacrifice is by knowing and believing—not by doing. We are justified by faith, and not by the works of the law. “By the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.” “By the law is the knowledge of sin.” “Grace and peace come by Jesus Christ,” and they come to us through believing or through knowing—by knowing him, by being made to know, through him, that we are justified.

21. And please notice the particular character in which Christ is known to the justified. They know him as God’s servant, and they know him as bearing their iniquities. Some people think a great deal of Christ in his glory, and of Christ in his second advent. God forbid that I should have you forget him in those characters, or in any other! But the soul-saving aspect of Christ is not his glory, nor his second advent, but Christ the servant, and Christ the sin bearer. It is from the cross that the words come, “Look to me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth.” “I, if I am lifted up”—not on the throne, but on the cross—“I, if I am lifted up, will draw all men to me.” “God forbid that I should glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Let whoever wishes preach Christ exalted, “we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness; but to us who are saved, the wisdom of God and the power of God.” Let me make this very clear, for, perhaps, some soul might be enlightened tonight. You have many sins in you, man. You can never get them off by any doings of your own. No obedience, or tears, or anything else which you can do, can make one spot of sin stir an inch. You are black as night, black as hell, and you cannot make yourself white; but here it is—if you will know Jesus, if you will hear of Jesus, if you will believe in him—believe what he teaches, if you will believe that he is God’s sent servant, that he is the propitiation for sin, that he is the sin bearer—and if you will trust him with your sin, and with your soul, you are saved. No spot of sin remains on you; this moment you are saved, for he shall justify; that is, make just, and that is an instantaneous work. A man may have been a condemned sinner five minutes ago, but the moment that he knows Christ, he is a justified soul. By that very knowledge, or, as I have said, by that faith, by that simple dependence on the Christ whom he has learned to know, the man is just, and he may go on his way rejoicing.

22. So I shall close with that third aspect of the many. It is said, “He shall justify them.” What a grand word it is! “He shall justify them.” He shall make them just. It is a forensic, legal term. He shall make them just before the court of God. Now notice in the text the sins mentioned were real. The bearing of sin by Christ was real. Therefore, the justification in the text is real. You see that thief on the cross. What a wretch he is! He has been guilty of every crime. His sins are real. But he believes in Jesus, Jesus the dying Saviour, and his sins are forgiven. Now listen. That thief is a just man. “Why,” you say, “he has done no just action.” I grant you that; he would if he could; he is willing now to confess the Master, for he speaks a word of rebuke to the thief on the other side of the cross; but I do not say he is just because of that. He is just because of nothing that he has done, but he is just because he believes in the dying Saviour. And you, poor sinner, though you have never done a good work in your life, though you deserve to be damned for all eternity, though you have lived in everything that is vile, if tonight you trust your soul to Jesus, and know him, Jesus justifies you, and you are really just.

23. And, what is more, you are for ever just. You have a justification that will never wear out, a righteousness that will outlast time itself. The tooth of decay shall never harm it, nor rust corrupt it, nor moth consume it. You are just, and just for ever. Do you understand me? I will make it plain, and put it in words that cannot be misunderstood. The soul that believes in Jesus is so justified that no one can even lay anything to his charge. “Why,” one says, “the man has been a very guilty man, and lived a horrible life.” So had Paul. He had been a foaming persecutor, raging against God’s saints. But listen to Paul: “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” Is he not afraid to say that? No, because he goes on to say, “It is God who justifies.” Suppose the judge says in court, “That man is clear.”; it is no use for anyone getting up and saying, “Let me come into the witness-box; I have something against him.” You are out of order, sir. The judge says he is clear and that is enough. God says of the guiltiest soul, “I laid that man’s sins on Christ. I punished Christ for that man, and that man is clear.” And if God says you are clear, who shall lay anything to your charge?

24. Listen again; a believer cannot be condemned. Do you doubt it? Paul shall speak again “Who is he who condemns?” Why, Paul, you have done much that you deserve to be condemned for. Oh! but here it is. “It is Christ who died; yes, rather, who is risen again, who sits at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.” He means this, “How can you condemn me? Christ was condemned for me. He died; he rose again. That proved that he himself was not condemned. He had paid the debt, otherwise he would not have been allowed to rise. He has gone into heaven to plead for me, and he will be the judge. And if he died for me, do you think that he who alone can condemn will condemn those whom he died for? Will he cast away his own chosen—condemn a limb of his own body, and reject out of his own mouth the very soul to whom he said, ‘I have forgiven you, and blotted out your sin.’? It cannot be.” The believer, then, cannot be accused; he cannot be condemned, and consequently he cannot be punished. What shall he be punished for? “For his sins,” one says. He does not have any; he does not have any. They were laid on Christ. “He shall bear their iniquities.” Can a sin be in two places at once? If my sins are on Christ, they cannot be on me. If God has laid the weight of my guilt on Christ, and Christ bore it and made an end of it, then I am clear of it as though I never sinned. Glory be to God for such a gospel as this—to think that a soul, condemned and lost by nature, should be made completely clean through the purging of the great atoning sacrifice of our dear Lord and Master.

25. For, notice that, there is more than that, for when Christ justifies a man, he not only blots out his sin, but he is a just man, and the man is treated from now on as if he were just. Now the just shall be rewarded; the just shall have the favour of God; the just shall enter heaven; and so shall you, poor guilty sinner. If you trust Christ, that righteousness of Christ becomes yours. I could preach all night on such a subject, but I should weary you. I would not weary myself in thinking it over though, nor would you in meditating on it. It is enough to make heaven ring again and again with melody. I am sure it is God’s gospel; for no one could have invented it—a plan so just for God, so safe for man; and I am all the more sure it is God’s gospel because there are many who hate it. They cannot bear it. How should they? They are righteous in themselves, and hope to enter heaven by their own works. They go about to establish their own righteousness; but this is as it always has been. As it was in Paul’s day, so it is now; and this only confirms our confidence in the gospel that we preach. Believing this, I can go to my bed and fall asleep in peace, not caring whether I wake again or not on this side of heaven. Believing this, doubts and fears do not prevail, for my soul flees to the atoning sacrifice again, and tells the devil that my sins are no longer mine, but Christ’s, or rather that they were imputed to him, and laid on him, and that he was punished for them in my place, and I am clear for Christ has suffered for me.

26. Believe this, dear heart; believe it. You have never heard a better gospel; you have heard it better preached; but never better news came to your ears than this; and until you get to heaven you will never hear music that can beat this—the music of a Saviour’s wounds, and groans, and death, in a poor sinner’s place. I know what you will do if you believe it. You will go home glad of heart, and the moment you get home you will say, “I am a saved soul, for I am finished with my former sins.

   Now for the love I bear his name,

      What was my gain I count my loss,

   My former pride I call my shame,

      And nail my glory to his cross.”

Oh! you will be finished with your old companions. The love of Christ will constrain you. Nothing cleanses the Augean stable {b} of human nature, like a stream of love and blood made to run through it. When Christ’s sacrifice comes into a soul, it casts out sin and Satan, sets the man working at once, and no one can work so vigorously as those who feel that they owe everything to the grace of God, who feel that they have nothing to do to save themselves; they are saved. That work is all done—done for ever; and now out of gratitude they give their whole life, and soul, and strength, to spread abroad the gospel of Jesus now, and make God’s name famous, even to the end of time. May God bless you, dear hearers. May all this be yours, for Christ’s sake. Amen.

{a} Ballot: To select by the drawing of lots (e.g. conscripts for military service). OED.
{b} Augean: Abominably filthy; i.e. resembling the stable of Augeas, a fabulous king of Elis, which contained 3000 oxen, and had been uncleansed for 30 years, when Hercules, by turning the river Alpheus through it, purified it in a single day. OED.

Purpose In Prayer. A Second Volume by the same Author. A companion volume; heart searching, uplifting and consecrating. Several Editions have already been exhausted. Uniform in binding with the above. Price 2/6 post free.

At His Feet. By E. M. EVERARD. Simple morning and evening prayers for use at various seasons. Cloth boards, 1/- post free.

Let Us Pray. By W. ARTHUR CORNABY. Home Circle Papers on Supplication. Especially written for those who are troubled by the difficulties of prayer. A strong stimulus to those devout souls who have through life lived in the sacred atmosphere of habitual prayer. In cloth boards, price 2/6 post free.

Do You Pray? A Word to Boys. By Dr. C. F. HARFORD. A helpful little volume for boys. Christian workers will find it of the greatest assistance. In cloth boards, 9d. post free.

Good Tidings of Great Joy. Christ’s Incarnation the Foundation of Christianity. “Central Truth Series.” Vol. I. Cloth boards, 1s.

Till He Come. Communion Meditations and Addresses. By C. H. Spurgeon. Cloth gilt, 2s. 6d.; leather, 7s. 6d.

Types and Emblems: A Collection of Sermons preached on the Lord’s Day and Thursday Evenings at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. By C. H. Spurgeon. 2s. 6d.

I feel certain that Spurgeon would not approve of at least some of the preceding books. Editor.

“The New Theology”

One of the most prominent preachers of the so-called “New Theology” has recently given fresh currency to the old Jewish idea that Isaiah 53 applies to the prophet Jeremiah! The following Sermons by C. H. Spurgeon, all upon various verses of this chapter, show what he thought about the matter:—

{See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1075, “A Root out of a Dry Ground” 1066}

{See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1099, “The Man of Sorrows” 1090}

{See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3033, “Why Christ Is Not Esteemed” 3034}

{See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2499, “Christopathy” 2500}

{See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 834, “The Universal Remedy” 825}

{See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1068, “A Simple Remedy” 1059}

{See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2000, “Healing by the Stripes of Jesus” 2001}

{See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2887, “A Dire Disease Strangely Cured” 2888}

{See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 694, “Sin Laid on Jesus” 685}

{See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 925, “Individual Sin Laid on Jesus” 916}

{See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1543, “The Sheep before the Shearers” 1543}

{See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 173, “The Death of Christ” 166}

{See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 561, “Expiation” 552}

{See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2186, “Our Expectation” 2187}

{See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2963, “Unmitigated Prosperity” 2964}

{See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 458, “The Friend of Sinners” 449}

{See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1385, “Jesus Interceding for Transgressors” 1376}

{See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2070, “Christ’s Connection with Sinners the Source of his glory.” 2071}