THE DAY OF REST. OPEN HEART FOR THE GREAT SAVIOUR.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, 3 December 1887, Page 1

THE DAY OF REST. OPEN HEART FOR THE GREAT SAVIOUR.

JScrmon by the Rev. C. H. Spuvgeon.

'• But as many as received Him, to them gave Ho power to beet mi the sous of God, even to them that believe on His name."— John i. 12. Divine truth is one. but it is many-sided wlien you have looked at it from one point of view you may reverse your position, and, though the truth at which you look Avill be the same, you will marvel at its freshness as seen from another aspect. It shall be our endeavour cow, as the Holy Spirit may enable us, to set forth how sinners receive Cluist. It is perfectly true that the work of salvation lies first and mainly in Jesus receiving sinners to Himself, to pardon, to cleanse, to sanctify, to preserve, to make perfect ; but at the bame time the sinner also receives Christ ; thero is an act on the sinner's part by which, being constrained by divine grace, he openeth hi* heart and Jesus enters in, and thenceforth dwells and reigns and rules there. To a gracious readiness of heart to entertain the Friend who knocks at the door, we aro brought by God the Holy Ghost, and then He sups with us and >vy with Him. As briefty, then, as may be, and vei*y simply indeed, we will describe

WHAT IT IS TO RECEIVE CHRIST. This receiviiKjChrisb lies in several thing. 0 . If a man would receive Christ ho must, iirst of till, receive Him in His per-ton «s* He is j\vs f if (I in (he Scripliues. We are taught over and over again in Scripture that Jesus Christ is Immannel, (rod with us, Uod manifest in the flesh, Jehovah's equal in fashion as a man. The " Word,"— that " Word " of which it is said " the word was God" — was "made manife&fc " in flc-jh amongst men, and they " beheld His jflory." Though He "thought it not robbery to be equal with God," yet " He m.tde himself of no reputation, but took wp m Him the form of a servant, and was mid«. iti the likeness of men."

A SAVIOUR WHO IS NOT DIVINE can bp no Saviour for us. How can a mcr c lii.in, however erainent, deliver his follows from sins such as yours and mine ? How can he bear the burden of our guiltanymore tlitin we can ourselves bear it, if there be no more about him than about anyother singular 1> \irtuous man ? An angel would stagger beneath the load of human criminality, and much more would this be the case with even a perfect man. 1b needed those mighty shouldders — '•' Which bear the earth's huge pillars up," to niisfciin the weight of human sin, and carry if. into the wilderness of forgetful-■nas-i You must receive Christ, in order to be savci by Him, as being Cod though man. But, my dear friend, (he lucit belitf oibhiti tluctiine will not .save anybody-. A man may believe another to be a clever physician and yet if he has a personal objection to him, he may refuse to receive him as such. If a man would receive Jesus rightly he mu->t, in the next place, accept him in all II i< offices. Our blessed Lord has three main offices : we find Him spoken of as " PROi'JIST," "I'KIEST," AN* I) "KING,"' qavl men must be willing to take Him in each and all of the three, Asa " prophet " He leaches ; what He has received of God He manifests to man. Am I willing toabide by His teaching? Do I take His words, which He delivereed by His apodtles, as being my directory and rule? Do I take Him and His teaching to be the truth by which I will abide '! The truest and the be-,t system of theology is Je=>us Christ ; if you learn Him you have all truth ; you have nothing in excess, and nothing is omitted. He is the mould of truth into which your prepared mind must be delivered to receive form and shape from His wisdom. Our hearts musb i-eceive Him as the truth of (rod If I re3eive Jesus as "prophet," I must also fake Him as a ' jji-ietf. 1 Herein indeed mainly lies His work. He came to purify men from sin ; He stood before God graciously offering

A SACRIFICE 01' PROPITIATION, by which the terrible guilt of man is re moved. If lam nofc willing to recievo Him as an atoning sacrifice, it is in vain for me to esteem Him as an exemplar. Hl3 cross of atonement is inseparable from Him&elf ; we must nofc only glory in Christ but in Him crucified, or else we shall surely be led forth with His enemies. Jesutf lmrit be my only ground of confidence for pardon ; I must neither make myself a priest, nor look upon any other man ad being a priest for me ; imL I mu.-fc look upon Jesus Cluisfc as being

THE OXLY TKIEST Jtf WHOM I CO** IDE : for, maik you, my Master claims the solc-j prerogative of priesthood, and He onty permits us, His people, to hold it as being in Him, and then we all, "without exception, can say — " He hatli made us kings and prie3ts unto God. " Every regenerated man becomes a priest by virtue of his union with Chii^l Jesus. If I yield the Lord Jesm Christ fealty as prophet and priest, I must al&o give Him allegiance a<? my "Qiifj." He will reign where He purifies ; He is not content to teach me, bub He will also govern me. What say you, my hearer, will you give yourself up, body and soul, to be ruled by Christ absolutely ? Shall His laws be binding upon your conscience, and carried out in your life ?

■REMEMBER THIS DOOM Or THOSE MEN who said, " "We will nob have this man to reign over us." Take His easy yoke, bow before His throne of love, touch the silver sceptre of His grace "He is thy Lord, and worahip fchou Him." Crown Him in the palace of your soul, and f-et Him on the throns of your affections for He is the King of angels, and should be the King of men. But a man may agroe to all this, and yet not receive Christ. All this is necessary as a atopping-stone, but we must go on to something more. I must receive Jesus Christ as being all this to me. I must give myscjf to Him, and take Him as mine, as having near relationship to me and influence upon me. Another man's Christ will not save you, he must be your Christ. You have been accustomed to go to a place of

worship, and you think, perhaps, * Well, I have gone with the rest, and therefore it is all right with me ; ' and when you have heard a sermon it has been addressed to the congregation in tho plural, and you have been content to get a little share of ib, but a very little one indeed ; now, you have never heard arigrht unless the truth has come to you in the singular number, as to you alone. The gate of sa'vation is too narrow for two persons

TO 00 THROUGH ARM-IK-ARM. You must all singly and separately pass the portal of eternal life just as you did the portal of nataal life. You must feel not only that such and such things are true, but that they are true to you. If you receive our dear Redeemer as a prophet, He begin 3 to exercise that office by telling you that naturally you are lost, ruined, and undone. Do you believe this ?Do you believe it to he true of you — not of chimney-sweeps, not of street-walkers, not Gf thieves in prison only, but of you— that you are condemned under the law of God ? He tells you noxb, that the only way to remove your sin is by Hi 3 precious blood. Has that blood any reference io you '> Have you trusted it?

HA3 IT WASHED YOU FROM SIN? Youha\cnot taken the Lord Jesus aa a prie-t unless you have believed in His blood as presenting a propitiation for your gins, ar.d as cleansing you before the holy presence of the Most High God. You have not truly accepted Jesus as king unless you ha\ c personally .submitted yourself to Him. In everything else people are so selfish that nothing but personal possession will content them ; why are they not thus careful in religious matters '! They do not rejoice in the gold in the bank cellars, they aspiro to have a good account at their own bankers ; they do not consider themselves fed because there may happen to be a fine dinner provided at some London Tavern, they wish to see a feast on their own tables ; but in eternal matters ok infinitely more moment, men .ire, alas ! so easily satisfied with generalities. " Yes, oh ! yes, we are a Christian nation.' Wonderfully so ! "Of course, we, as a family, always go to a place of worship :

W£ ARK NOT HEATHEN'S ; we were born in a Christian land." A " Christian land ' ii is, we must; all admit, a very Christian land ! Very Chri&tian indeed ! Look at our gin palaee3, and our divorce courts ! Bub what of that ? How can national religion content private conscience any more than national wealth console personal poverty ? Why seek a peisonal interest in goid and land, and estates, and then leave heaven and the eternal world to be matters of universal speculation ? You have not received Christ truly if you ha\e not gripped Him with jour own hands aiuLclaimed Hhn as your own. You must get ri^ht

HOLP OF HIM FOR YOURSELVES. I hope I shall not make what is very plain very difficult. One is sometimes afraid in giving explanations that one may do what a good minister did with Bunyan'a " Pilgrim's Progress," which he edited with explanatory notes. He went round amount his flock and said to one good woman, " Do you understand Mr Bunyan's Pilgrim ?" " Oh, yes sir," was the answer, " very well indeed, and I hope that one day I shall be able to understand your explanations." So, perhaps, you will say of me, that you understand the text very well, and you hope that one clay you will be able to understand my explanations. Well, I really do nob know how to make it plainer. My desire is to say very distinctly that we must receive the Lord Jesus Christ as a Divine being, receive Him in all His offices, and receive" Him to ourselves in all those offices. The \At\\ and marrow of receiving Christ we find in the next remark : ive mu st truit Him. The true reception of Christ is explained in the text, "Even to them thai beting ' ff>- r> r ime." To " receive " then, is to '• i^ 1 % • '" or, in other words to credit, to rely upu.i, j trust. "Now this is

the siiri'iiEvr matter ix thk world, and yet, by tea&on of its simplicity, it is the hardest possible act for human nature to perform. We do not naturally care for a plan of palvafcion so simple and devoid of merit, but there it i*, and wo cannot alter it, nor ought we to desire to do so. As many as tru^t Christ", to them He gives power to become the sons of Cod. The whole act of faith lies in the simple matter of believing that Jesus is God's appointed Haviour, and then throwing ourselves upon Him to save us. You know what trust is in earthly matters. slou rely upon a friend in case of difficulty, and then you do not trouble yourself about the matter any more. A person offers to pay your debts, and you go home and consider yourself out of debt ; you triht the person. Now Jesus say? to you, " I have suffered for the sin of all believers ; God can now forgive sin, and yet be a just God, for He has punished Me instead of sinners who believe on Me ; trust Me ; rely upon Me, and your reliance will be at once evidence to you that I died for you, that I carried your sin, that GOD PUNISHED ME FOR YOU, and theiefore never can punish you, because in justice He cannot punish both substitute and offender for one and the same, sin." God can never punish Christ for your sin, and then lay the fein at your door ; He will not send your substitute to the wars for you, and thon demand you to go for whom the substitute has already gone. The act of trusting Jesus Christ is thsact which brings a soul into a state of grace, and is the mark and evidence of our being bought with the blood of the Lord Jesus. Dost them trust Him, dear hearer? Then, if so, thou Veceivest Him. When the soul has thus trusted Christ there comes another form of reception. The outer golden door of faith being first opened, the, inner pearly (/ate of affection is next thro'en open.

THEY WHO TR'TST CIIttLST, LOVE CHRIST. I do nob love Cbri«fc first, and then trust Him ; I in the dawn of spiritual lifo trust Him to save me ; 1 find He does save me, and I then love Him- becauso He first loved me. I trust Him to deliver me out of the bondage of my daily sins ; and then I find that I am

stronger against those sins than I ever was before, that 1 can tread all corruption under foot when I trust Jesus, which I could not battle with before I trusted Him ; I find He really does come to my rescue, and therefore I then fay to Him, "I love Thee, 0 my helper and friend," and thenceforth Jesus Christ lives in my heart. Oh, how gently does the door of faith turn on its hinges ! A babe taught of God may push it open. You may not understand all the doctrines of the Bible, but you can understand this ; — that if you trust in Jesus Christ, you will be a son of God. You cannot perform a complex act of an educated mind, sympathy with poetic imagery and enjoyment of metaphysical refinements are quite beyond you ; but if the Holy Spirit teaches you, you will see that the act of faith is not a complex act, but a very simple one indeed. It is so simple, that children of three and four years of age have doubtless been capable of it ; and there have been manyjjpersons, but

LITTLE REMOVED FROM ABSOLUTE IDIOCY, who have been able to believe. A doctrine which needs to be reasoned out may require a high degree of mental development, but the simple net of trusting requires nothing of the kind. If you cannot read a letter in a book you may believe this, that God came down from heaven in the person of Jesus Christ, and suffered for sin Himself, that He might forgive sin and yet. be just. I wonder that a man can hear it and not believe it ! It is a marvellous thing that such good news is nob at once believed. Let me repeat it, and oh, may the Spirit work faith in you who heai it ! God Avas so just that He could not forgive sin >\i hout violating Hid nature, punishnientHeinus'iawardto transgression ; but to make mercy consistent with the severest justice the Lawgiver came Himself among men and gave His own shoulders to the scourge, and stretched out His own hands to feel the nail, to suffer, bleed, and die ; and now if thou tru&test God in the person of Christ, and dosb rely upon Him to put away thy sin, and if thou takestHim henceforth to be thy King and Ruler, thou shalfc be saved ! God be thanked that we have so simple a gospel to preach, and may tiie Lord bring many to receive it, that they may become His .sons !