Nov 10
1
When the gospel bids the sinner cease from his Toiling and trust
alone in Jesus, having nothing and being nothing in himself, but
taking Jesus to be his all in all; and when it adds that even this is
the gift of God’s Spirit, then it puts before him an available
method for the weakest, guiltiest, and most distressed. Many of
the medicines prescribed by these physicians do not touch the
case at all. As I have already shown you, outward ceremonies
cannot by any possibility affect the inward nature; and the mere
performance of good works, and the utterance of excellent
prayers, can have no effect in quieting the conscience.
Conscience cries, ‘I have offended God; how may I be reconciled
to him? My past sins clamor for vengeance; God is not just if he
not punish me. Oh! where shall I find peace for my soul? Where
but in the bosom of the Mediator?
Only at Calvary is the medicine for a wounded conscience to be
found. From those five wounds of our blessed Lord, healing
streams are flowing still; he that looks to Him shall find peace
and comfort and full salvation; but the doing and the feeling, and
the performing of this and that, and ten thousand things beside,
are all a mockery, a delusion, and a snare, they touch not the
case. The disease of fallen humanity is wholly incurable except
by the hand of Omnipotence.
It is as easy for us to create a world as to create a new heart; and
a man might as well hope to abolish cold and snow as hope to
eradicate sin from his nature by his own power; he might as well
say to this round earth, ‘I have emancipated thee from the curse
of labor’, as say to himself, ‘I will set myself free from the
bondage of sin’. Jehovah alone can save, it is his prerogative.
Those who tell me that they are to have a finger in it, that they
and their deceivers, the priests, can assist a little in salvation, that
their tears, their groans, their cries, their repentances and their
humbling, can do at least a something, are deceived. These fly in
the face of God, rob Him of His dearest prerogative, impugn His
word, rob Him of His glory, and provoke Him to jealousy. God is
sovereign and will be treated as such. Woe unto the man who
contends with Him!
Brethren and sisters, let me say plainly this one word, and then
leave this point. Rest assured, that wherever in salvation you see a
trace of the creature’s power or merit, you see a work that is
spoiled and polluted. If there be in the fountain one drop of
anything but Jesus’ blood, it will not cleanse; if there be in the
robe one single thread of anything but what Christ worked out
for us while here below, the whole robe is polluted, and will not
serve as a wedding garment. For a needy soul the work must be
Christ’s from top to bottom, all of Him, and all of grace. But if
there be anything of human merit, or anything else that cometh of
man, the work is marred upon the wheel, and God will not accept
it. These are some of the reasons why these physicians fall to
bring health and cure.
From Physicians of No Value
by C. H. Spurgeon
He died for His patients!
(William S. Plumer, “The Rock of Our Salvation” 1867)
“The whole head is hurt, and the whole heart is sick. You are sick from head to foot–covered with bruises, welts, and infected wounds!” Isaiah 1:5-6
Often in Scripture, sin is spoken of as a disease, a sickness, a hurt.
Christ, as the great Physician, has the only sovereign balm.
Sin is a dreadful disease! Yes, it is the very worst disease! It was the first, and so is the oldest malady. It infected man very soon after his creation. For six thousand years sin has committed its ravages and been gaining inveteracy. No other disease is so old.
Sin is also a universal disease! Other maladies have slain their thousands; but sin has slain its millions! The whole world is a graveyard, full of death and corruption. No person ever lived without sin. As soon as we begin to live, we begin to transgress.
Not only is every man sick, but our whole nature is diseased!
Our understanding is darkened.
Our memory is polluted.
The thoughts of our heart are only evil continually.
Our throats are open graves.
Our tongues practice deceit.
The poison of vipers is on our lips.
Our mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.
Our feet are swift to shed blood.
Ruin and misery mark our ways, and the way of peace we do not know.
Our eyes behold vanity.
Our hands are full of bribes and of blood.
Our heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.
We love darkness rather than light.
We are utterly diseased with sin!
Sin makes men spiritually blind, and deaf, and dumb, and lame, and lethargic. Sin is a terrible compilation of diseases. It is a rottenness in the bones. It is a maddening fever, a wasting consumption, a paralysis of all the powers. Human nature is wholly corrupt!
Sin is a perpetual disease. It rages day and night; on the sea and on the land; in the house of mirth and in the house of God.
Sin is a hereditary disease. We are conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity.
Sin is also contagious. Sinners are enticers, seducers, corrupters.
Sin is also the most deceitful and flattering disease. One of its strong delusions is, “You shall not die!” See the throng of ungodly people marching to perdition–the slaves of Satan, the servants of corruption, the enemies of God! Their mirth would make one think them to be the happiest of people–and not, as they really are–condemned criminals, on their way to the eternal prison-house of inflexible justice! Sin has its delusive dreams. The worse a man is, the better he thinks himself to be.
Sin is the worst disease, because it is the parent of all other diseases. But for sin, we would never have seen a human being in pain, or sicken, or die. Suffering and agony have one parent–sin!
Other diseases are calamities–but sin is a wickedness! Sin is not a misfortune–sin is a crime! It is a wicked thing to be a sinner. Transgression brings guilt. God is angry with the wicked every day. The more sinful anyone is–the more is God displeased with him.
Sin is the most loathsome of all diseases. Pride is the worst kind of malady. No heart is so vile as a hard heart. No vileness compares with an evil heart of unbelief. No sight is so appalling as a sight of vile affections. Sin is horrible and abominable to God!
Sin is also the most dolorous disease. They multiply their sorrows–who hasten after transgression. The most bitter cries that ever were heard–were extorted by sin.
Other diseases do but kill the body–but sin kills soul and body in hell forever! Sin will rage more violently beyond the tomb than on earth. It will be followed by eternal regrets and reproaches, eternal weeping and wailing, eternal wrath and anguish!
Sin cannot be cured by any means of human devising. All reformations can never cure the heart. “I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess,” said the Pharisee–while spiritual wickedness reigned within. We may weep and lament over our sins–but that will neither dethrone sin nor atone for it! Our tears are nothing; our works are nothing; all our righteous deeds are as filthy rags; they are of no avail.
The only remedy for sin is found only in Jesus! He is the Physician of souls. None but He can cure a sin-sick soul. He makes no charge for all His cures! He died for His patients! His blood cleanses from all sin. With His stripes we are healed. Christ’s death atones. By His sufferings we have remission of sin. In all cases where it is applied, the gospel remedy is sovereign and effectual. It availed for the dying thief, for the bloody Saul of Tarsus, for the cruel jailor, and for millions and millions who once esteemed themselves as vile, and as worthy of everlasting death!
And now, poor, sin-sick, dying soul–flee to this Physician, submit your case to Him, and seek for the healing remedy! If you stay away, you must die! “The wages of sin is death.”
“The blood of Jesus cleanses us from every sin!” 1 John 1:7
SPLENDID SINS? by Spurgeon-
You will as surely be lost if you trust to your good works, as if
you had trusted to your sins.
There is a ‘clean’ path to hell as well as a ‘dirty’ one. There is as
sure a road to perdition along the ‘highway of morality’, as sure as
down the slough of vice.
If your faith is not fixed in Jesus, your best works will be but
SPLENDID SINS.
All the performance of duties will not bring you salvation. Trust
Jesus, and you are saved. Trust self, and you are lost. There is
your only hope, poor shipwrecked mariner– yonder
constellation of the cross with those five stars, the wounds
of Jesus- look there and live. One glance and you are saved.
Those soul-quickening words, “Believe and live,” comprehend the
whole gospel of God.
May the Divine Spirit lead you now out of self, unto Christ.
For me, a poor worthless sinner!
“He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so
that we might die to sins and live for righteousness;
by His wounds you have been healed.” 1 Peter 2:24
(from Octavius Winslow’s “Morning Thoughts”)
Blessed announcement! Not the less hateful, nor hated, is the sin
because it is forgiven and entirely blotted out. Oh no! Let the
Lord touch your heart, Christian reader, with a sense of His
pardoning love, with the assurance of His forgiveness, and you
will go and hate, and mortify, and forsake it, more resolutely and
effectually than ever. And must the Son of God become the Son of
man, that those who are by nature children of wrath, might
become the sons of God! Must God, the eternal God, the high and lofty One, stoop so low
as to become incarnate, and that for sinners; for me, a poor
worthless sinner!
To save me from eternal woe, must the Son of Man suffer,
agonise, and die; die in my stead, die for my sins, die an accursed
death!
Ah! Lord, what must sin be, what must my sin be! How little
have I thought of it, how little have I mourned for it, still less
have I hated it as I ought to have hated it! Lord, how vile, how
unutterably vile I am!
Oh hated sin! Do You forgive it, Father of my “mercies? This
only makes it more hateful still
(J. C. Philpot, “Steps of Thankful Praise” 1865)
Sin has thoroughly diseased us, and poisoned our very blood.
Sin has diseased our understanding, so as to disable it from
receiving the truth.
Sin has diseased our conscience, so as to make it dull and heavy,
and undiscerning of right and wrong.
Sin has diseased our imagination, polluting it with every idle,
foolish, and licentious fancy.
Sin has diseased our memory, making it swift to retain what is
evil, slow to retain what is good.
Sin has diseased our affections, perverting them from all that is
heavenly and holy, and fixing them on all that is earthly and vile.
“But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for
our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon
Him, and by His wounds we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5
WHAT IS FAITH? Here is a sevenfold definition of faith I
picked up from a sermon by Ebenezer Erskine a long, long time
ago.
1. Faith is the gift of God. It is not the product of a free will. It is
the operation of the Spirit of God by the Word of God and is
the parent of all other grace.
2. Faith has Christ Jesus as its principal object, for it is faith in
Christ Jesus — our Lord, Savior, Mediator and Hope. Christ is
the bread; faith is the mouth which eats. Christ is the brazen
serpent; faith is the eye that looks.
3. Faith is receiving Christ, not just hearing about Him or
acknowledging Him, but a committal to Him. Is Christ food?
Then eat! Is Christ living water? Then drink! Is Christ the
refuge? Then flee to Him! Is Christ Lord? Then worship Him!
4. Faith is to rest upon Christ. “Rest in the Lord” (Psalm 37:7).
Faith is not an isolated act based upon an intellectual
knowledge of some facts, but is a trusting in and resting upon
Christ to perform all that I need.
5. Faith is to rest upon Christ alone! The word “alone” is
important. Most men, by nature, try to add something to the
sacrifice and intercession of Christ. God has established a
bridge of communication between heaven and earth by the
obedience and blood of Christ, and every other passage is
blocked by the holiness and justice of God.
6. Faith rests upon Christ as he is presented in the Gospel. We
ask no other sign than the Word of God. Faith is to believe the
record that God hath given concerning His Son. — “He that
hath the Son of God hath life.”
7. Faith rests upon Christ for salvation, sanctification,
righteousness and full redemption! The goal of faith is the
salvation of our souls; and this our Lord undertook in the
eternal covenant and which He completed on Calvary when
He cried, “It is finished!’’