USA > Delaware > New Castle County > Wilmington > Centennial services of Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church, Wilmington, Delaware, October 13-20, 1889 > Part 8
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The conclusion of scripture is sustained by reference
I .- To the condition of the world.
"The scripture hath concluded (or shut up) all under sin." And this conclusion, with the moral condition pre-supposed, appears in every age ; and in the institutions and records of every dispensation. It is manifested in the religious observances of the heathen and in their ceaseless efforts after propitiation.
2 .- It is confirmed also by the Patriarchal allotment.
It is seen in the discipline of labor, the bloody sacrifice of Abel, the destruction of the Old World, the calling of Abraham and the promise to him of an universal blessing through his seed, implying an universal need ; which universal need is the legitimate offspring of universal sin. And sin in its relation to the Divine authority and person is the traitor's act which aims at the overthrow and death of
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his sovereign. It is that which, could the Divine Governor cease to be, would be sufficient to bring it about. Sin is treason against His government and warfare against His person.
3 -- It is also illustrated by the Mosaic ritual.
Under the law I find frequent atonement; sacrifices for the sins of the whole people. And why for the whole people if the whole people are not under sin. "Now we know that what things soever the law saith it saith to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty before God."-Rom. iii : 19.
4 .- It is further shown by the expiation of Jesus.
In the sacrificial death of Christ for the sins of the whole world we have a demonstration that the whole world is under sin. "Wherefore as by one man, sin entered into the world and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned."-Rom. v : 12.
5 .- This conclusion is corroborated by human reason, experience and observation.
Dr. Luther T. Townsend says: "Though we meet with much that is amiable, refined and apparantly lovely in humanity, we must remember that merit or demerit consists not in mere possession; and it makes a world of difference whether a man has made for himself a heavenly disposition, or whether he received it [as a natural endow- ment] from his Creator. A beautiful face may excite our admiration, but whether the beauty has come from the personal development of a lovely disposition, or from a smiling Providence, decides whether she is to be commended or God thanked. These indwelling good qualities, so far as they are not the product of personal conquest and develop- ment are the gifts of God, and no thanks to man for his endowments. As well might we say the blessings of wealth shows a man to be free. from the dominion of sin as to say that a kindly disposition indicates. the same. And the good possessions of human nature do not preclude their opposites."
The state of the world and the experience of men in all ages. makes evident the reasonableness of the conclusion. Pascal under- stood humanity when he said, "What a chimera is man; what a singu- lar phenomenon; what a chaos; what a scene of contrariety. A judge of all things, yet a feeble worm; the shrine of truth, yet a mass of doubt and uncertainty; at once the glory and the scorn of the universe. If he boasts I lower him; if he lowers himself I raise him; either way I contradict him until he learns that he is a monstrous, incomprehensi- ble mystery. Oh, the grandeur and the littleness, the excellency and the corruption of life."
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One has said, "We have known men of such correct life that we have thought evil entirely foreign to them, yet how little we know of the conflicts that wage in their breasts. The best of men living tell us that they are sometimes startled almost out of their wits by the horrid suggestions that spring up within them. And these firey darts of the devil, as they touch and enter the soul seem to come in contact with things frightfully inflammable."
Bovee says, "No man can know the fiftieth part of the good that is in him, nor the hundreth part of the evil. Good men have con- fessed that without the slightest reason and from no recognized agency they have felt of a sudden an impulse to commit the most horrid crimes ever perpetrated. They would tempt and ruin some victim, strike some fatal blow, or leap from a precipice upon the rocks or into the sea."
Said the noble Ralph Erskine when he saw a robber led to execut- tion: "But for restraining grace I had been brought to this same con- dition."
Said John Bradford, the English martyr, when he saw a man going to Tyburn to be hanged for crime: "There, but for the grace of God, goes Jolin Bradford. " The devout Samuel Marsden, the New Zealand missionary had been basely slandered by some bigoted enemies; he replied to a friend who had reported to him the slander: "Sir, these mien do not know the worst; if I should walk through the streets with my heart laid bare, the very boys would pelt me." "I have never heard of any crime," says Goethe, "which I might not have com- mitted."
Says Thomas Shepard: "There is never a wicked man almost in the world, as fair a face as he carries, but hath at sometime or other committed some such secret villiany that he would be ready to hang himself for shame if others did know of it."
The outward world of evil finds such full and ready response from within, that even devout men are at times well nigh terrified at themselves. President Edwards, speaking of himself, says : "My wickedness as I am in myself has long appeared to me perfectly in- effable and swallowing up all thought and imagination, like an infinite deluge or mountains on my head. I know not how to express better what my sins appear to me to be than by heaping infinite upon infinite and multiplying infinite by infinite. * * When I look into my heart and take a view of my wickedness it appears an abyss infinitely deeper than hell."
Who is free from this terrible experience of sinfulness in some degree ? He who resists it with most determination is most aware of
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its presence and has the lowest conception of his own goodness. He who best understands the nature of God and the character of Jesus is most humiliated by the awful contrast between Him and himself. " For I know that in me (that is in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing, for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not, but the evil which I would not that I do. Now if I do that I would not it is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me." -- Rom. vii : 18-20.
All have felt the presence of sin and writhed beneath its power. It is a fell blood poison breaking out in the most loathsome of diseases. The sweet children that play about knees to-day may in after years with murderous hand pluck the life blood from your bosom. You do not think so, and yet such is your knowledge of human nature that you dare not say impossible.
Perhaps you are familiar with the oft-repeated story of an artist who, desiring to make a picture of innocence, found his ideal in the face of a little child upon the bosom of its mother. Years after, wislı- ing to place upon canvas a terrible conception of wickedness, found his subject in the person of a criminal behind the grates of a prison, but learned afterward that the child in his conception of innocence and the felon in the painting of depravity were one and the same person.
Fletcher says : "Bad roots which vigorously shoot in the Spring will naturally produce their dangerous fruit in the Summer." Where is he who has reached the age of thirty whose depravity has not broken out into the greatest variety of wanton acts? Among the persons of this age who were never esteemed worse than their neighbors shall we find a forehead that never betrayed daring insolence? A cheek that never indicated concealed guilt by an involuntary blush or unnatural paleness ? A neck that was never stretched out in pride and vain confidence ? An eye that never cast a disdainful, malignant or wanton look ? An ear that an evil curiosity never opened to frothy, loose or defaming discourse ? A tongue that was never tainted with unedify- ing, false, indecent or uncharitable language? A palate that never became the seat of luxurious indulgence? A throat that was never the channel of excess ? A stomach that never felt the oppressive load of abused mercies? Hands that never touched or plucked the forbidden fruit of pleasing sin ? Feet that never once moved in the broad down- ward road of iniquity ? A bosom that never heaved under the dreadful workings of some exorbitant passion ? Where is there a face ever so disagreeable that never was an object of self-worship in a glass ? And where a body, however deformed, that was never set up as a favorite idol by the fallen spirit which inhabits it ?"
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Alas, the scriptural conclusion that all are under sin is more than confirmed by the condition of the world, the patriarchal allotment, the tutelage of tlie Mosaic ritual and the expiation of Jesus. What is thus confirmed is further corroborated by human reason, experience and observation as found in the testimony of the wisest and best of the race. And if it be so with these, what must be the sad experience of the rest of the world. What wonder that Paul cried out, "I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?- Rom. vii : 23, 24.
Iniquity works by all the powers and has broken out in its terrible disease through all parts of the being. What if I knew and were about to relate the hidden sins of your life, the thoughts of evil and deeds of darkness; what imploring would' there be, what shrieks of anguish, what emptying of coffers to purchase silence. O, man, may God save thee from the fiend of thine own life, and the hell of thine ow11 boso111.
Wisely, justly hath the scripture concluded all under sin. "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."-Rom. iii : 23. "For we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin ; as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofit- able; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sephulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitter- ness; their feet are swift to shed blood; and destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known; there is no fear of God before their eyes."-Rom. iii : 9-18.
This conclusion is the verdict of a Divine jury, the opinion of the Judge of all the earth. It has not been reached upon the testimony of fallible witnesses, but from the actual observation of the Lord of all. "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thought of his heart was only evil continually. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth and behold it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth."-Gen. vi : 5, 11, 12.
"For the Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand and seek God.
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They are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one." -- Psa. xiv : 2, 3.
All are under the dominion, power and delusion of sin, and if all are under sin, then the doom of sin is the doom of all.
In courts of justice the jury hear the evidence; and though some of it is contradictory and much of it circumstantial, yet from its general bearing they unanimously conclude the prisoner guilty and convict him. The judge, from the verdict of the jury and the law in the case, concludes to condemn and pronounces sentence. The governor, from the finding of the jury and the sentence of the court concludes to sign the death warrant. The sheriff in obedience to his instructions and with the death warrant in his hand, concludes to execute the sentence of the law upon the wretched prisoner; and upon the day appointed he dies. But, when God through the scripture concluded all under sin, it was-"That the promise, by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe."
II -THE SCRIPTURAL EXPEDIENT IN VIEW OF THE CONCLUSION.
The blessed Jesus took the testimony of the witnesses, the verdict of the jury, the sentence of the judge, the warrant of the governor, the instructions of the executioner; and nailing them to His cross baptized them with the blood which flowed from His wounds in rivers of mercy for the healing of the nations.
"The scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe."
I .- The promise to which the text refers
is that of universal blessing through His seed made to Abraham; which seed is Christ and which blessing is the salvation by Him pro- cured. "The scripture [hath not only concluded all under sin, but] foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith preached before the gospel unto Abraham saying, in thee shall all nations be blessed. "-Gal. iii : S. "Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man dis- annulleth or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one. And to thy seed which is Christ. And this I say that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, thuit it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law. it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise. Where- fore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions.
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till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hands of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God ? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to then that believe."-Gal.iii: 15-22. Tlie promise is not annulled by the law nor opposed by it, the one is the complement of the other. The promise is for salvation, the law for conviction, for "by the law is the knowledge of sin." It shuts the sinner up when he cannot but realize his danger and the futility of depending on the law, his captor, or on his own efforts for escape from the thraldo11 of guilt and sin.
There is not only harmony between the two, but the "scripture hath concluded all under sin" for this very purpose, "that the promise might be given." Hence we see the absolute necessity of the law to the success of the gospel. The conclusion is essential to a realization of the promise.
Men reject the proffer of unnecessitated grace. I say to a man, "Sir, I have a pardon from the governor for you." "For me ? What do you mean, I don't need a pardon ?" "But have you never violated the law?" "That is neither here nor there. I have never been charged with, indicted for, or convicted of violation, so your pardon is a dead letter so far as I am concerned. You will therefore please give yourself no further concern about me." Try it on that poor convict who watches you through the grates of his cell and raises manacled hands to accept your proffer. Ah ! grace must be necessary to be acceptable. And, as I understand them, here is where Calvanism and so-called Liberal Christianity fail. The one is all law : dark, malignant and forbidding, from which men disparingly turn and regard its author with horror. The other being all grace is equally disregarded, men recognizing no necessity in the absence of law.
A man must sense the fact, not only that it is a good thing, but that he is in a strait where he must perish without it.
Doubtless to the angels the atonement is the sublimest spectacle, the most beautiful bow that spans the world. But to us, lost by the fall and cursed by the law, it is salvation, life. all ! Hope is seen only under its arch, peace approaches beneath its canopy alone, and heaven is accessible but by its bridge.
Without the law and the concluding under sin the Gospel would · be but a beautiful picture, the masterpiece of a great artist ; and the
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Golgotha scene but a gladiatorial for the entertainment of creation. But shut up under sin by the law which we have violated, with agony of longing I turn my eyes to Calvary and cry,
"Jesus, the sinner's friend, to T: ee, Lost and undone, for aid I flee, Weary of earth, myself, and sin, Open Thine arms and take me in.
"Pity and heal my sin-sick soul, "Tis Thou alone canst make me whole ; Dark, till in me Thine image shine, And lost I am till Thou art mine.
"At last I own it cannot be That I should fit myself for Thee ; Here, then, to Thee I all resign ; Thine is the work, and only Thine.
"What shall I say Thy Grace to move ? Lord. I am sin-but Thou art love ; I give up every plea beside- Lord I am lost-but Thou hast died."
Concluding all under sin makes Cavalry practical and Jesus Lord and Saviour instead of the benevolent prince of tragedians. And in place of the greeting of complaisant plaudits and floral tributes of ad- miration, we humbly confess Him with Thomas, "My Lord and my God," and cry with Blind Bartimeas, "Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on ine," and forget the inherent virtues of humanity and the moral dignity of man while we offer Him "the sacrifice of a broken spirit," and sing :
"Just as I am, without one plea, But that Thy blood was shed for me, And that Thou bidst me come to Thee, O Lamb of God ! I come, I come !
"Just as I am, and waiting not To rid my soul of one dark blot, To Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot ; O Lamb of God ! I come, I come !
"Just as I am though tossed about With many a conflict, many a doubt, Fightings and fears, within and without, O Lamb of God ! I come, I come !
"Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind, Sight, riches, healing of the mind, Yea, all I need, in Thee to find, O Lamb of God ! I come, I come.
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"Just as I am, Thou wilt receive, Will welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
Because Thy promise I believe, O Lamb of God ! I come, I come !
"Just as I am, Thy love unknown, Hath broken every barrier down; Now to be. Thine, yea, Thine alone, O Lamb of God ! I come, I come !
Until by faith in His atoning merit we accept Him as our present, sufficient and abiding Saviour, and He touches our hearts with a new life and our lips with a new song and we break forth in rapturous praises with,
"O happy day that fixed my choice On Thee my Saviour and my God:
Well may this glowing heart rejoice And tell its rapture all abroad."
""Tis done, the great transaction's done I am my Lord's and He is mine;
He drew me and I followed on Charmed to confess the voice divine."
"Now rest, my long divided heart, Fixed on this blissful centre rest;
Nor ever from thy Lord depart With Him of every good possessed."
"High heaven that heard the solemn vow That vow renewed shall daily hear;
Till in life's latest hour I bow And bless in death a bond so dear."
"What shall we then say to these things ? If God be for us, who ·can be against us ?
He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things ?
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God :that justifieth.
Who is he that condemneth ? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ ? shall tribulation, · or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness or peril, or sword ?
As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we . are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
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For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." -Rom. viii : 31 ;- 39.
2 .- The condition of the promise.
"The scriptures hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe."
The blessing is conditioned upon faith in Jesus.
It is man and not God that puts salvation at the end of a long series of improving processes. God puts it at the beginning, with faith as a condition, upon Jesus as the object; and improvement and moral development as the essential resultant of it. It is not deliver- ance from the consequences, but from guilt and sin. So that, "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things have passed away,. and behold, all things are become new." II Cor. v : 17.
But to all this faith is the divinely and naturally imposed condi- tion. Hence it is not secured as a result of moral character, social standing or intellectual status, but on the exercise of an universal faculty. It is not he that is, he that knows, or he that does, but he that believes in Jesus.
Did you ever discover the depths of philosophy and benevolence in this condition ? Did you ever think that however low the organism, or sensual the mind, or groveling the character, or deplorable the ignorance; yet the capacity of faith inheres in every man. Aye, even the brute is possessed of it. "The ox knoweth his owner" (believes he will feed him); "The ass his master's crib" (believes there is corn there). And on this commonest of all and universal faculty salvation impinges, conditioned only upon its exercise, an exercise precisely analogous to its every day activities. And to whomsoever, by whom- soever, it is exercised and Christ accepted comes, who shall describe it? What tongue portray the transformation? "There is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth.". Ring all the bells of the glory world; let the minute guns boom the triumph from celestial parapets; let the blood washed redeemed parade the city, displaying the battle flags of the cross: let the angel orchestra make the eternal arches reverberate with the symphonies of the skies. An adoption is made, a prince is inaugurated; a sinner saved takes his place on the earth, "a king and priest unto God." "The scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe."
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For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
For Moses describethi the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.
But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above.)
Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)
But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart : that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon hin.
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved .- Rom. x : 4-13.
5 .- The terms of the promise.
The Divine blessings are free. In nature there is no bargaining for sunshine, air or water. He gives enough of each for all. So the promised salvation cannot be secured by barter. It is not exchanged for so inuch of feeling, of penance, or penitence, or prayers. He gives it to theni that believe.
Sinner, it is not at this stage a question of doing on your part, but of acceptance. "But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted to him for right- eousness."-Rom. iv : 5.
I dare to say that, so far from your salvation being difficult, apart from yourself, the Father hath made it so plain and brought it so near that it is impossible for you to be lost but by the most persist- ent rejection of His Son. "The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thine heart the word of faith which we preach."-Rom. x : 8.
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