851. Nearness to God

A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Morning, January 17, 1869, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:13)

1. The text is a gate of pearl leading up to the excellent glory. Happy are the men to whom it is given to enter through it. It turns upon hinges of diamond. Those two phrases, “in Christ Jesus,” “by the blood of Christ”—these are the two pivots of the precious doctrine of the text. “Made near,” this is our delightful privilege, but “in Christ Jesus,” is one source of the blessing, and “by the blood of Christ” is the other. Before our rejoicing eye rolls a sea of love, an ocean of boundless peace, and bliss comparable to the sea of glass before the sapphire throne. In order to reach this great Pacific, you must sail through that narrow strait which flows between the two headlands of union to Christ, and cleansing by the atoning blood.

2. I. We begin, therefore, this morning by endeavouring to EXPLAIN THE MEANING OF THE TWO KEY PHRASES.—“In Christ Jesus,” and “by the blood of Christ.” “We who once were far off are made near.”

3. First, because we are in Christ Jesus. All the elect of God are in Christ Jesus by a federal union. He is their head ordained of old to be so from before the foundation of the world. Just as Adam was the federal head of the race, and just as in him we fell, so Christ, the second Adam, stands as the head of the chosen people, and in him they rise again and live. This federal union leads in due time, by the grace of God, to an obvious and vital union, a union of life, and for life, even to eternal life, of which the visible bond is faith. The soul comes to Jesus, and lays hold on him by an act of faith, because Jesus has already laid hold upon that soul by the power of his Spirit, claiming it to be his inheritance, since he has bought it with his blood, and his Father has given it to him as the reward of the travail of his soul. All who are in Christ Jesus in the eternal covenant of grace, shall in due time, be in him by the living union of which we now speak—mystical and mysterious, but still most real, most true, and most efficient. Now, beloved, when a soul becomes really in Christ, as the branch is in the vine, and draws its nourishment from the stem, as the limb is in the body, and derives all its vitality from the central heart—when a man thus becomes one with Christ, it is clear to the most common observer that he must be near to God; for Christ is always near to God, and those who are one with him must be near also. Jesus is himself God; here is nearness outdone. As man he is without spot or blemish, and near to God in character; as having finished the work which was given to him to do, he is near to God in acceptance; as having gone up to heaven to take the promised crown, he is near to God in person; and since we are one with him, we must be from that very fact near to God, indeed, as near to God as Christ himself is. Understand, that if anything is one with a man, actually one with that man, it stands in the same place as that man does. So if we are one with Christ by a real and actual union, where Christ is we are, Christ’s standing is our standing; and just as Christ is near to God, even so he has raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places. We are—

   So near, so very near to God,
      We cannot nearer be,
   For in the person of his Son,
      We are as near as he.

4. The other key phrase of the text is “by the blood of Christ.” If it is asked what power lies in the blood to bring near, it must be answered, first, that the blood is the symbol of covenant. Always in Scripture when covenants are made, victims are offered, and the victim becomes the place and basis of approach between the two covenanting parties. The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is expressly called “the blood of the everlasting covenant,” for God comes near to us in covenant by the blood of his only begotten Son. Every man whose faith rests upon the blood of Jesus slain from before the foundations of the world, is in covenant with God, and that covenant becomes for him most sure and certain because it has been ratified by the blood of Jesus Christ, and therefore can never be changed or disannulled. The blood brings us near in another sense, because it is the taking away of the sin which separated us. When we read the word “blood” as in the text, it means mortal suffering; we are made near by the griefs and agonies of the Redeemer. The shedding of blood indicates pain, loss of energy, health, comfort, happiness; but it goes further still—the term “blood,” indicates death. It is the death of Jesus in which we trust. We glory in his life, we triumph in his resurrection, but the basis of our nearness to God lies in his death. The term “blood,” moreover, indicates not a mere expiring, but a painful and ignominious and penal death. A death not brought about by the decay of nature, or the arrows of disease, but caused by the sharp sword of divine vengeance. The word, in fact, refers directly to the crucifixion of our Lord. We are brought near to God especially and particularly by a crucified Saviour pouring out his life’s blood for us. Beloved, it is well just to note this well known doctrine, because there are some teachers—and I know they are very excellent men, too—who seem not to be of Paul’s mind when he said, “God forbid that I should glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,” and who resolved to know nothing among men except Jesus Christ and him crucified. These brethren are incessantly preaching concerning Christ glorified, I admit to be a valuable truth, but not the way of a sinner’s access to God. Christ’s second coming was never intended to take the place of Christ’s crucifixion, and yet there have been some, I fear, who, in their zeal for the very great and important truth of the coming glory, have allowed the blazing light of the second advent to obscure the milder radiance, and the more healing beams of the first advent, with its bloody sweat, its scourge, and thorn crown, and ransom price for lost sinners. Let it be never forgotten, that while we bless Emmanuel, God with us, for his incarnation, and we joyfully perceive that even our Lord’s birth in human flesh brought man near to God; while we thank and praise the Man of Sorrows for his divine example, and we see that this is a blessed help to us practically to advance towards our heavenly Father; while we praise and magnify the Lord Jesus for his resurrection and his ascension, and see in each glorious step fresh rungs of the ladder which leads from earth to heaven; yet still, for all that, we are not made near to God by the incarnation; we are not in very deed made near to God by the resurrection, nor by the second advent, but we are made near by the blood of Christ. The first, the grandest, the highest, the most essential truth for us to lay hold of and to preach, is the fact that Jesus Christ died for our sakes according to the Scriptures, and that this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and gave himself up to die for sinners, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. God is glorified because Christ was punished for the sin of his people. Love has its fill, but law has its due. On the cross we see sin fully punished and yet fully pardoned. We see justice with her gleaming sword triumphant, and mercy with her silver sceptre reigning in most sublime splendour. Glory be to the wondrous wisdom which discovered the way of blending vengeance with love, making a tender heart to be the mirror of unflinching severity, causing the crystal vase of Jesus’ loving nature to be filled with the red wine of righteous wrath.

   Oh love of God, how strong and true!
   Eternal, and yet ever new,
   Uncomprehended and unbought,
   Beyond all knowledge and all thought.
   We read thee best in him who came
   To bear for us the cross of shame;
   Sent by the Father from on high,
   Our life to live, our death to die.

5. Beloved, you thus see that we are made near because the blood of Christ has sealed a covenant between us and God, and has for ever taken away the sin which separated us from God. By experience, we are brought near by the application of the blood to our conscience. We see that sin is pardoned, and bless the God who has saved us in so admirable a manner, and then we who hated him before come to love him; we who had no thought towards him desire to be like him. We are from experience and in our own souls, drawn and attracted to God by the blood of Jesus. The great attracting magnet of the gospel is the doctrine of the cross. To preach the atoning sacrifice of Jesus is the shortest and surest way, under God’s Holy Spirit, to draw those who are far off, mentally and spiritually, very near to God. So I have dwelt upon those two key phrases upon which the text seems to me to hinge.

6. II. Let us pass on to ILLUSTRATE THE NEARNESS into which God has been pleased to bring us in Christ Jesus by virtue of his blood. I shall take three illustrations from the word of God.

7. The first illustration is from our first parent, Adam. Adam lived in the garden, abiding with God in devout communion. The Lord God walked in the garden in the cool of the day with Adam. As a favoured creature, the first man was permitted to know much of his Creator, and to be near to him; but, alas! Adam sinned, and at once we see the first stage of our own distance from God as we perceive Adam in the garden without his God. In the garden, in the very midst of Paradise, flowers shedding their sweet perfume, fruits hanging ready to pick on every side, and yet man is wretched, miserable, and cowardly; he hides among the trees of the garden until the Lord God calls to him, “Adam, where are you?” Here is the first stage of distance, and it is sad and terrible. But, ah! brethren, you and I were farther off than that—much farther off than that when love made us near. It would have been a great wonder of grace if, being in such a position, God had restored us again to his favour; if he had said to us after one transgression, “I have blotted out your sin like a cloud: I have passed by your offence, I restore you to happiness.” But the grace which God has shown to us is as much greater than this as the thorn bearing soil is sterner than Eden’s laughing bowers. Adam was brought before his God, arraigned, upbraided, and condemned to be expelled from Paradise. Justice drove out the man. With fiery sword the cherubim keep watch at Eden’s gate. Adam banished into the cold, sin blighted world, to till the ground from where he was taken, with the promise ringing in his ear, “The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head,” is the second stage of distance from God. Now, it would have been great grace for God to take Adam from outside the garden, to forgive him, to bring him within the happy gate, and restore him to his former place, but the mercy shown to us is greater still. You and I were farther gone than Adam outside of Eden, with a gospel promise newly given to him. We were not on the threshold of Paradise, but we were far off by wicked works. Our natural position as Gentile sinners was not with Adam outside the gate, but with the nations that did not know God, when they had wandered farthest away from Paradise, had become most estranged from God and had set up many gods, and many lords, and had polluted and defiled themselves with all manner of uncleanness. See now the steps which God has taken with us Gentile dogs, as the Jews once called us. He has taken us, who were of old an idolatrous people, practising bloody rites; a nation without knowledge of the divine oracles; and he has illuminated us with the gospel of his grace, bringing the kingdom of God very near to us, and ourselves very near to it. The Lord has been pleased to choose many of us for himself and bring us into his visible church, so that we dwell within that “garden walled around, chosen and favoured ground.” Herein is no small deed of love. Aliens are made fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. Yet, much more than this has been done for true believers in the blood of Jesus. Not the name only, but the very essence and soul of true piety is ours, so that once again we walk with God; and in communion with the saints and with their Lord, we find a new garden of delight, whose plants are an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits, camphire with spikenard. “Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard, spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices: a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.” We might date our letters from Elysium, (a) for “we who have believed enter into rest.” Yes, we are restored by grace to the King’s garden, we have found glory to begin below—

   Celestial fruits on earthly ground,
      From faith and hope do grow.

8. Let me now give you a second illustration, which may place this wonder of love in a still clearer light. It shall be taken from the children of Israel travelling through the wilderness. If an angel had poised himself in midair, and watched awhile in the days of Moses, gazing down upon the people in the wilderness and all else that surrounded them, his eye would have rested upon the central place, the tabernacle, over which rested the pillar of cloud and fire by day and night, as the outward sign of the presence of God. Now, observe those select people, clad in fair white linen, who come near, very near, to that great centre—they are priests, men who are engaged from day to day sacrificing bulls and lambs, and serving God. They are near to the Lord, and engaged in most hallowed work, but they are not the nearest of all; one man alone comes nearest; he is the high priest, who, once every, year, enters into what is within the veil. Ah, what condescension is that which gives us the very same access to God. The priests are servants of God, and very near to him, but not the nearest; and it would be great grace if God permitted the priests to enter into the most holy place; but, brethren, we were not by nature comparable to the priests; we were not the Lord’s servants; we were not devoted to his fear; and the grace that has brought us near through the precious blood was much greater than what admits a priest within the veil. Every priest that went within the veil entered there by blood which he sprinkled on the mercy seat. If made nearest, even from the nearer stage, it must be by blood, and in connection with the one and only high priest. If the angel continued his gaze he would next see lying all around the tabernacle the twelve tribes in their tents. These were a people near to God: for what other nation has God brought so near to him? (Deuteronomy 4:7) But they are not nearly so near as the priests, they did not stay in the holy court, nor were they always occupied in worship. Israel may fitly represent the outward church, the members of which have not yet received all the spiritual blessing they might have, yet they are blessed and made near. Whenever an Israelite advanced into the court of the priests, it was with blood; he came with a sacrifice; there was no access without it. It was great favour which permitted the Israelite to come into the court of the priests and partake in divine worship; but, brethren, you and I were farther off than Israel, and it needed more grace by far to bring us near. By blood alone we are made near, and by blood displayed in all the glory of its power.

9. Outside the camp of Israel altogether, you would have seen a company of miserable wretches who crowded together as best they could—lepers, unclean, driven outside the camp. This is more like our position. Whenever these lepers were brought near enough to come into communion with the camp of Israel, much more to come into communion with the priests, their access must be wholly and alone by blood. The turtledove, or the young pigeon, must be slain; the lamb must be killed, the scarlet wool and hyssop must be used; there was no purging of the leper to bring him into communion with the tribes of Israel except by blood. And oh! we—we in our filthiness so like the leper—we have to praise almighty grace which looked upon us when our natural depravity stared us in the face, when it had become apparent by our continued disobedience to God; we have to praise the mercy which has brought us right away from the leper’s place to as near to God as the accepted high priest before the veil.

10. Beloved, if the angel had still continued his gaze, he would have observed that even these lepers were far more favoured than the other inhabitants of the world, for the whole world was lying in darkness, without God, without a revelation of his glory. This is our position; we were the aliens, the strangers, the foreigners. A leper, though a leper, was still an Israelite; and if he could not go up into the sanctuary of the Lord, yet still there was the mark of the covenant of his flesh, and he was of the seed of Abraham, and the wing of God in the cloudy pillar covered him; he ate the manna and drank from the rock; but as for the poor heathen, for them there was no appointed way of access, they were cast out and left to perish in their sins. The old covenant did not, as far as its outward working was concerned, have a word to say to us. Far off, then, with the Gentiles is your place and my place; we are by nature outside of the covenant, and aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. There you are right away in the dark heathen world; and what did God’s grace do for you? Why, it brought you first of all into connection with God’s people, and under the sound of the gospel’s silver trumpet. You became like the poor leper, but still you were near to Israel, hearing the gospel, and learning the way of salvation. Thank God for bringing you so near as that, for there is no small privilege in hearing the truth. But grace did not stop there; it purged and cleansed you, and you were admitted into fellowship with the church; you became numbered with the seed of Israel; you pitched your tent near the tabernacle, and partook of its abundant blessings, but grace did not stop there. It made you next a priest to God, a consecrated servant of the Lord of Hosts, and you have been kept by grace in the place of holy service. You are still the Lord’s anointed priest, and your sacrifices are well pleasing in his sight. But here is the wonder of wonders: when the eternal love of God had brought you so near, so gloriously near, it did not stop there; it was not satisfied just to make you a priest, but it said, you shall stand “in Christ Jesus”; and, beloved, you know that this means that we are made as near as Christ himself, who, as the great High Priest, with blood in his hand, goes right into the veil, right up to the mercy seat, and talks with God.

11. A third illustration of our nearness to God will be found around the peaks of the mount of God, even Sinai, where the various degrees of access to God are illustrated with singular beauty and preciseness of detail. The nineteenth chapter of the book of Exodus tells us that the Lord revealed himself on the top of Sinai with flaming fire, and its smoke ascended as the smoke of a furnace. Jehovah drew near to his people Israel, coming down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai, while the tribes stood at the foot of the mount. Now, remember that our natural position was much more remote than Israel at the foot of the mount, for we were a Gentile nation to whom God did not appear in his glory, and with whom he did not speak as with Israel. We were living in darkness, and in the valley of the shadow of death; but Israel was privileged to come very near as compared with us; hence the apostle, in the chapter from which the text is taken, speaks of the circumcised as near. I take Israel to be to us this morning the type of those who live under gospel privileges, and are allowed to hear the joyful sound of salvation bought with blood. There stand the tribes at the foot of the mountain. They can hear the sound of the trumpet growing exceedingly loud and long, and a distinct voice proclaiming the law of God; they hear it, and it affects their hearts and prostrates them with awe. Bounds were set all around the mountain, and an ordinance was given that if so much as a beast touched the mountain, it should be stoned or thrust through with an arrow. Their distance was thus far more apparent than their comparative nearness. Do you see them standing there—the whole vast host—hearing, hearing distinctly, and trembling as they hear—at last trembling so much that they say to Moses, “Speak with us, and we will hear; but do not let God speak with us lest we die.” Their fear made them move back farther still; what they saw and heard of God fostered no love in them; it did not draw them to him, but the opposite. They honestly promised to Moses that they would keep all God’s laws, that they would serve him with all their hearts, but alas! their goodness soon vanished. They had been outwardly purified and made ready, sanctified, as Moses says, to behold the glory of the Lord; but alas! after a few short days they deliberately fell into idolatry, worshipping a golden calf, forgetting the solemnities of the law, and indifferent to the will of the God who had displayed himself to them. They were very near and yet far enough off to perish; for their corpses fell in the wilderness, and with many of them he was not well pleased. Ah! my dear hearers, there is much grace in the fact that all of you are brought near enough to be able to hear the gospel plainly and earnestly delivered. At the foot of Mount Zion you have stood trembling while we have warned you of the judgment to come, and told you about the indignation of God against sin; you have been like Israel, ready to sink into the earth with fear, and you have promised, some of you very honestly, that before long you would repent and believe the gospel. The gospel command has come to your conscience with such power that you have been compelled to promise obedience to it; but alas! what has been the result of your fear and your vow? You have gone back farther from God, and have plunged anew into the world’s idolatry, and are today worshipping yourselves, your pleasures, your sins, or your righteousness; and when the Lord comes, the nearness of opportunity which you have enjoyed will prove to have been to you a most fearful responsibility, and nothing more. Like Israel you come to the mount of God, and hear his voice, but like Israel you go your way to rebel still more and more. Sometimes, under earnest sermons, or by solemn providences, or by the suggestions of the Holy Spirit, you have been almost persuaded to be Christians, but yet you are, to this hour, without Christ and without hope. You came up to the turning point, but you halted there. We all hoped well of you. We could almost have clapped our hands in the certainty of our hope that you would be saved, and yet you remained like Israel only near in the point of outward privilege, but not brought near by the blood in order to be saved. Child of God, be thankful for that first stage of nearness this morning, for even this is given to us by blood; if there had been no paschal lamb Israel would never have stood at Sinai, and if there had been no bloodshedding you would never have heard the gospel; but bless the Lord that you have advanced far, far beyond this, into an infinitely preferable nearness.

12. Turning to Exodus, you will observe that the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship afar off.” (Exodus 24:1) The next stage of nearness to God is pictured by the chosen men selected from the people who were to climb halfway up the mount, nearer to the thick canopy of darkness which veiled the presence of God; but still they are said to have worshipped afar off. Now, note that these seventy could not come nearer than the people except by blood; turn to the fifth verse, “And Moses sent young men of the children of Israel, who offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basins; and he sprinkled half of the blood on the altar. And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people…and Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, ‘Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you concerning all these words.’” (Exodus 24:5-8) The select band of representative men could not come into a degree of superior nearness without blood. It was a great honour to be called out from among the people to enjoy a nearer audience with the Almighty Lord; surely those men with their souls hushed under a deep sense of awe would, nevertheless, rejoice, and say, “Who are we, and what is our father’s house, that we are called upon to climb so near to God?” Those seventy may be used to represent the visible church of Jesus Christ. Church members are all, in a certain sense, made nearer to God than the mere common hearers of the word, and their position is one of eminent honour and privilege. In the case of the seventy it is said, that “they saw the God of Israel” (Exodus 24:10)—that is to say, they had a remarkably vivid impression upon their minds of his august presence; “and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone”; that is, they were permitted to see the justice, the holiness, the purity of God, typified by a pavement of clear crystal; as the text continues “as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.” They were doubtless overwhelmed with a sense of the awful majesty and holiness and purity of God; but they were encouraged by divine mercy to be of good cheer, so that they saw God, “and ate and drank.” They had intimate communion with the Most High, and yet they did not die under the blaze of glory. “He did not lay his hand upon the nobles of the children of Israel.” See here a reasonable type of the glory which God gives to his visible church. We are selected and taken out from among men to be a people near to him. We are made as church members to have a clearer view than others of the holiness and glory of God: we are permitted to eat and drink in his presence, to sit down at his table, and yet to live. We are favoured in the church with many gracious displays of the Lord’s love and grace, such as the world does not see; but I want you to notice a truth, which strikes me as so sadly, solemnly full of warning. Among those who were so privileged to enter into this nearness, we have the names of Nadab and Abihu—and what became of them? They were destroyed before the Lord for offering strange fire upon the altar; so that it is clear that there is an official nearness of God which does not secure men from wrath. In the Christian church, there may be, indeed, it seems as if there always must be, some who shall, without doubt, perish, and the fire of God shall devour them. I wish that those who join the church without due consideration would solemnly remember that it is not needful for them to thrust themselves into such an awful position, and unless they know that they are the people of God, it would be a pity for them to increase their own condemnation by such a wilful act of presumption. Notice well that passage concerning the unfaithful servant who said in his heart, “My lord delays his coming; and began to beat the men servants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken.” For it is written, “The lord of that servant will come in a day when he does not look for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him asunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.” The sacrifices of the covenant were cut in half, and so the covenant was ratified. Now, the man who mocks the covenant by intruding himself into the fellowship to which he does not belong, shall receive upon himself the curse which for others our Great Sacrifice has borne. There will be exceptional judgments for ungodly church members. It would be good for such men if they had never been born. Judgment is to begin at the house of God. “His fan is in his hand.” And what will he do with it? “He will thoroughly purge his floor” When he sits as a refiner, whom will he purify? Notice the words of Malachi! “He will purify the sons of Levi.” His fire, where is it? It is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem. There shall be no such condemnation as what shall be measured out to those who in official standing possess particular nearness to God, and yet, like Nadab and Abihu, do not have the true spirit, are unfaithful in service, do not look to the Saviour in truth, and so are cast away after all. Most worthy of your notice is another fact connected with the seventy, and that is, that when Moses went up into the higher glory, he asked Aaron and the seventy to stay where they were, but they failed to do it. He said to the elders, “Wait here for us, until we come again to you: and, behold, Aaron and Hur are with you: if any man has any matters, let him come to them.” (Exodus 24:14) Moses was then gone from them for forty-six or forty-seven days at the least, and their duty was to have remained where he had appointed their place. If the people needed Aaron, they were to go up to him: he did not need to cease to direct and judge the people, but they were to come to him; he was not to go down to them. Now, what did Aaron do? Why, he went down to the camp and fell into the black sin of making a molten image. “And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, ‘Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for concerning this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what is become of him.’” Aaron would never have made that golden calf if he had stayed on the mount where he was told to remain. What does this say to us? Is not the lesson plain? The visible church is too prone to come down to the world, and even those who are God’s servants, when they are lifted up into a state of nearness to God, seldom remain there. They conform to this evil world: they descend from their true eminence, they mix with the people; and they, who have seen God in his glory like a sapphire stone, are found pandering to the corruption of the world. To what a state of degradation may any of us come unless the Lord shall hold us up! We may go up very far and may see God, and then come down and become the instruments of the sins of others, as Aaron did.

13. If you read on, in the twenty-fourth chapter, you will observe that the Lord called to Moses again, and he went up the mount attended by one single person, “And Moses rose up, and his minister, Joshua: and Moses went up into the mount of God.” So these two men go alone, and Joshua comes to what I may call the fringe of the black cloud of darkness which hung over the central peak of Sinai. There he stayed, and there by God’s grace he was able to patiently remain the first six days with Moses, and those other forty days, while Moses was on the top alone, Joshua, by God’s grace, was enabled to maintain the true, real, abiding, faithful communion with God, and he seems to me to represent those virgin souls among God’s elect ones, who follow the Lamb wherever he goes; those men greatly beloved, who are delivered by abundant grace from much of the instability of the majority of professors, so that they walk in the light as he is in the light; they abide in their Lord, and his word abides in them; these do not come down to the people as Aaron and the elders did; but their conversation is in heaven, and their walk is with God. Such men do not fall into the people’s sin, but remain in solitary nonconformity to a degenerate church, Even these do not realise the fulness of the nearness which belongs to them in the Mediator, but they come very, very near to God. Now what are such men sure to be? What was Joshua? He was a warrior and of martial spirit. When Moses came down from the mount with Joshua, Joshua said to him, “There is a sound of war in the camp.” As a warrior he would naturally be apprehensive of a foe. Moses descended alone until he met his servant Joshua waiting in his place; the two went down until they came to the place where the seventy ought to have been, but they were all gone, all gone! And at the foot of the mountain, where they might have expected to find Israel on their knees in prayer, they saw a ribald crew indulging in vile orgies before a golden calf. Joshua’s example seems to say to us, that, if we are to keep up our fellowship with Christ, we must fight for it: if we wish to be men of God, we must be warriors for the truth.

14. What a blessing if we can get to such a point as this! But there is something beyond it, and I desire to bring you to it by asking you to observe that Moses is the type of the Mediator, and he went right up to the greatest nearness of access, and there he communed with God, he interceded with God, and he received from God’s hand the revelation of God’s law. Now hear and wonder, “We who once were far off are made near by the blood of Christ,” and brought to stand as near as Moses stood, for we are in Jesus as near to God as possible. It was something to come as near as Israel: it was more to advance as near as the elders: it was higher still to be called as near as Joshua; but to be brought as near as Moses, through the precious blood, so that we dwell in God, rejoice in him, intercede with him, have power with him, and receive from him the revelation of his truth by the energy of his Holy Spirit, this is the crown of all. Oh that we may go down with a glory upon our faces like that upon the face of Moses, to show the sons of men that we have been with Jesus into the holy place, and are filled with all the fulness of God. Looking at these stages of nearness, does it not seem a tremendous distance from our place in far off Tarshish and its isles, among the heathen, into the camp of Israel, up the sides of the mountain with the elders, higher still with Joshua, and beyond Joshua into the secret place of the majesty of the Most High, where the Mediator of that covenant stood alone, and where our Mediator stands for ever with all those who are in him!

15. III. Let us NOTICE SOME OF THE DISPLAYS OF THE REALISATIONS OF THIS NEARNESS TO GOD as granted to us by blood through our union with Christ.

16. We perceive and obviously see our nearness to God in the very first hour of our conversion. The father fell upon the prodigal’s neck and kissed him—there is no greater nearness than that; the prodigal becomes an accepted child, is and must be very near his father’s heart; and we who once were far off are as near to God as a child to his parents. We have a renewed sense of this nearness in times of restoration after backsliding, when, pleading the precious blood, we say, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” We come to God, and feel that he is near to those who are of a broken heart. We come near to God in prayer. Our nearness to God is particularly evident at the mercy seat. The very term we use for prayer is, “Let us draw near to God.” But, brethren, we never get to God in prayer unless it is through pleading the precious blood. We see our nearness to God in the act of praise. Often in praising him, we have taken the wings of seraphs, and passed up into the glory and magnified the Lord, but it has always been through him who by his precious blood makes our praises acceptable to the Most High. We who have believed, come very near to God in the act of baptism, for we are baptised into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Wicked and base is he who has dared to touch that ordinance, unless he sincerely desired fellowship in the Lord’s death. The nearness we get to God in baptism by faith, depends upon whether or not we see the blood there, and behold Jesus as buried for us. Then in the Lord’s supper, what nearness is there! but it all lies in the blood. We get no nearness through the wine, no nearness through the bread; the elements are nothing in themselves; it is only when we get to feel that our Lord’s flesh is meat indeed, and his blood drink indeed, that we draw near to him. And, beloved, when we have finished with the means of grace, with communings here, and meditations, and prayers, and praises, we shall get nearer to our God up there, in the place where they see his face and bear his name upon their foreheads. But why shall we then draw near to him? It is written, “They have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb: therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple.”

17. IV. I have thus hinted at various times when this nearness to God develops itself and is most seen. Let us close with a BRIEF, EXHORTATION.

18. Let us live in the power of the nearness which union with Christ and the blood has given us. It is a well known rule that our minds are sure to be occupied with those things which are most near to us. We may excuse ourselves for being so worldly, because the things of this world are so near to us; but we must never venture to repeat that excuse again, since we now know that we are made near to God and heavenly things by the blood. Let your citizenship be in heaven: “where your treasure is, there let your heart be.”

19. Beloved, if we are indeed so near to God through the blood and through union with Christ, let us enjoy those things which this nearness was intended to bring. Those who live at the equator never lack for light or heat; there vegetation is luxuriant, and every form of life is well developed. Those who dwell far away in the frigid zone, where the sun only casts its slanting rays, may well be meagre and short of stature, and feel the pinch of poverty. We who dwell at the equator of the Lord’s love must bring forth much fruit. Let us rejoice with unspeakable joy; let our souls be like those torrid zones, where all the birds have rich and rare plumage, where brilliant flowers abound, where everything is full of vigour.

20. If we are so near to God, it follows as a very natural exhortation, that we should exercise much faith in him. If I am indeed brought so near to God, why should I be afraid that he will leave me in poverty? If I were a stranger and he did not know me, he might cast me away; but if I am near to him, as near as Christ is, he cannot be unkind, thoughtless, or ungenerous to me. Near to him! Why, my name is on the palms of Jesus’ hands. I live in Jesus’ heart; and I live, if I am in Christ, under the very eye of God. He will keep me as he keeps the apple of his eye.

21. One other thought; let us maintain a behaviour suitable to the high position which grace has given to us. If we are a people near to God, let us walk in all integrity and uprightness, in all chasteness, honesty, soberness—in one word, in all holiness. “Be perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect.” If you have looked upon the pavement of sapphire work, you must have seen your own sinfulness in contrast with its azure brightness. Pray to the Lord to give you his Spirit, that you may become something like him who is thus so pure and glorious in all things. Do not let the sons of God demean themselves; do not let princes of the imperial blood be found among the common crowd. Since you are to be the companions of angels, indeed, as you are higher far than they, and one with Christ, and as the precious blood has been your ransom price, walk as becomes saints. May the Lord help you to do so, that his name may be glorified. Amen.

(a) Elysium: The supposed state or abode of the blessed after death in Greek mythology. OED.