The Holy Spirit

Our Substitutionary Sacrifice

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit 2 Comments

For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: 14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? – Hebrews 9:13,14

Notice that in the slaughter of the heifer (in Numbers 19), blood was presented and sprinkled towards the Holy Place seven times, though it came not actually into it. So in the Atonement through which we find peace of conscience there is blood, for “without shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.” That is a settled decree of the Eternal Government, and the conscience will never get peace till it understands the mystery of the blood. We need not only the sufferings of Christ, but the death of Christ, which is set forth by His blood. The Substitute must die. Death was our doom and death for death did Christ render unto the eternal God. It is by a sense of our Lord’s substitutionary death that the conscience becomes purged from dead works.

Furthermore, the heifer itself was offered. After the blood was sprinkled towards the tabernacle by the priestly hand, the victim itself was utterly consumed. Read now our text—“Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered up Himself without spot unto God.” Our Lord Jesus Christ gave not merely His death, but His whole Person, with all that appertained to it, to be our substitutionary Sacrifice. He offered Himself, His Person, His Glory, His holiness, His life, His very Self in our place. But, Brothers and Sisters, if a poor heifer, when it was offered and consumed, made the unclean man clean, how much more shall we be cleansed by Jesus, since He gave Himself, His glorious Self, in whom dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily? Oh, what a Sacrifice is this! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1481.cfm

A Purged Conscience

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

And whosoever toucheth one that is slain with a sword in the open fields, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days. – Numbers 19:16

But all other flying creeping things, which have four feet, shall be an abomination unto you. And for these ye shall be unclean: whosoever toucheth the carcase of them shall be unclean until the even. – Leviticus 11:23-24

For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? – Hebrews 9:13,14

Our fellow men are a terrible source of defilement to us. Did you not notice in the chapter which we read (Numbers 19) that he who touched the dead body of a man was unclean seven days? Now, if you look in Leviticus 11:23,24, you will see that whoever touched the carcass of an unclean beast was only unclean until the evening! Thus a dead man was seven times more defiling than a dead beast! Such is God’s estimate of fallen, unregenerate man—and it is a just one—for wicked men do many things which brute beasts never do. All ungodly men defile us and I am not sure that I may end there. The truth is still wider. I do not care how you pick your company—and you ought to pick it with great care—but even if you associate with none but saints, they will be an occasion of sin to you at some time or other!

There will be something about them, yes, even about their holiness which may cause you to idolize them, or envy them and, in some way or other, cause you to sin. You cannot, as you are a man of unclean lips and dwell among a people of unclean lips, be altogether without uncleanness and, therefore, you will always have need to use the way of cleansing which the Lord has prepared and revealed. Remember that in the type the least touch defiled—if they only picked up a bone, the Israelites were unclean! If they only walked over a grave they were unclean! My Brethren, the best of you can hardly read in the newspaper an account of a crime without some taint clinging to you! You cannot see sin in another without standing in fearful jeopardy of being, in some degree, infected. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

 https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1481.cfm

Abiding in the Place of Penitence

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…we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. – 2 Corinthians 5:20

“Be you reconciled to God” is a text for saints as well as for sinners! Children may quarrel with a father as well as rebels with a king. There must be oneness of heart with God, or there is an end to communion and, therefore, must the conscience be purged…Beloved, if our consciences were more fully developed than they are, we should have as great a sense of the frequency of our uncleanness as ever the thoughtful Israelite had of his danger of ceremonial uncleanness. I tell you solemnly that the talk which we have heard lately about perfection in the flesh comes of ignorance of the Law and of self. When I have read expressions which seem to claim that the utterers were free from sin in thought, word and deed, I have been sorry for the deluded victims of self-conceit and shuddered at their spirit. The sooner this boasting is purged out of the Church of God the better. God’s true people have the Spirit of Truth within them, convincing them of sin and not the proud and lying spirit which leads men to say they have no sin!

True saints abide in the place of penitence and constant faith in the atoning blood and dare not exalt themselves as the Pharisee who cried, “God, I thank You that I am not as other men are.” “There is not a just man upon earth that does good and sins not” Why, beloved, according to my own experience, we are constantly being defiled by being in this polluted world and going up and down in it. As a man could not take a walk without stumbling over a grave, nor could he shut himself up in his house without the danger of death entering there, so are we, everywhere, liable to sin. It seems all but inevitable so long as we are in this body and in this sinful world that we should come into contact with sin in some form or other—and any contact with sin is defiling. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1481.cfm

Our Sorrow, His Cleansing, Our Peace

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, promises, Sovereignty of God, The Father, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? – Heb 9:13-14

Beloved, you and I know what it is, at times, to have defilement upon the conscience and to go mourning because we have erred from the Lord’s commands. The ungodly do not thus sorrow—their conscience, by fits and starts, accuses them, but they never listen to its accusations so as to feel their inability to draw near to God. No, they will even go with a guilty conscience to their knees and pretend to offer to God the sacrifice of prayer and praise while they are unforgiven, alienated and rebellious! You and I, if we are, indeed, the Lord’s people, cannot do this! Guilt on our conscience is to us a horrible thing. There are no pains of body—there are no tortures inflicted by the Inquisition which are at all comparable to the whips of burning wire which lash the guilty conscience! It is an awful thing to feel yourself guilty. And the better a man you are, the more will it grieve you to be consciously in a wrong state. We can come to God as sinners to seek pardon, but we cannot come before the Lord as dear children while there is any quarrel between us and our great Father. No, we must be clean, or we cannot approach our God! See how the priests washed their feet at the laver before they offered incense unto the Lord. We cannot have fellowship with God while there is a sense of unconfessed and unforgiven sin upon us…Sin on the conscience is a natural wall between God and the soul. You cannot get into loving communion until the conscience is at ease! Therefore, I charge you, fly at once to Jesus for peace! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1481.cfm

Made Clean

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Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you that He will not hear. – Isaiah 59:2

When sin is on your conscience it needs no law to prevent your communion with God, for you cannot approach Him—you are afraid to do so, and you have a distaste for it. Until the pardoning blood speaks peace within your spirit, you cannot draw near to God! The Apostle says, “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” It is the washing which enables us to draw near. We shrink. We tremble. We find communion impossible until we are made clean.

The defilement was frequent, but the cleansing was always ready. At a certain time, all the people of Israel brought a red heifer to be used in the expiation…The red heifer was killed before the uncleanness was committed, just as our Lord Jesus Christ was made a curse for sin long, long ago. Before you and I had lived to commit the uncleanness, there was a Sacrifice provided for us. For the easing of our conscience, we shall be wise to view this sacrifice as that of a substitute for sin and consider the results of that expiation. Sin on the conscience needs, for its remedy, the result of the Redeemer’s Substitution. 

Today the Living Water of the Divine Spirit’s sacred influences must take up the result of our Lord’s Substitution and this must be applied to our consciences. That which remains of Christ after the fire has passed upon Him, even the eternal merits—the enduring virtue of our great Sacrifice—must be sprinkled upon us through the Spirit of our God. Then are we clean in conscience, but not till then. When the eternal Sabbath breaks, then shall be the last sprinkling with the hyssop and we shall be clean, and we shall enter into the rest which remains for the people of God and clean every whit! We shall come before God, at last, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, and be as able to commune with Him as if we had never transgressed, being presented faultless before His Presence with exceedingly great joy! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1481.cfm

Get to Living Things!

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And whosoever toucheth one that is slain with a sword in the open fields, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days. – Numbers 19:16

Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption [for us]. – Hebrews 9:12

In the passage in Numbers which is now before us, the one source of defilement dealt with is death. “Whoever touches one that is slain with a sword in the open fields, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.” Now, death is peculiarly the symbol of sin as well as the fruit of sin. Sin, like death, defaces the image of God in man. As soon as death grasps the body of a man, it destroys the bloom of beauty, the dignity of strength and drives forth from the human form that mysterious something which is the token of life within. However comely a corpse may appear for a time, yet it is defaced—the excellence of life has departed and, alas, in a few hours, or at longest in a few days, the image of God begins utterly to pass away—corruption and the worm commence their desolating work and horror follows in their train. What death does for the “human face,” sin does for the spiritual image of God upon us. It utterly defaces it…Like a dog at one’s heels, sin is always with us! Like our shadow, it follows us, go where we may. Yes, and when the sun shines not and shadows are gone, sin is still there. Where shall we flee from its presence and where shall we hide from its power? When we would do good, evil is present with us. How humbled we ought to be at the recollection of this!

Sin is death. Labor to keep from it! Inasmuch as you are delivered from the yoke of sin, go forth and serve God! Since He is the living God and evidently hates death and makes it to be an uncleanness to Him, get to living things! Offer to God living prayers and living tears! Love Him with living love! Trust Him with living faith! Serve Him with living obedience! Be all alive with His life—not only have life—but have it more abundantly! He has purged you from the defilement of death, now live in the beauty and glory and excellency of the Divine Life and pray the Holy Spirit to quicken you that you may abide in full fellowship with God! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1481.cfm

A People Near unto Him

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God, The Father, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?—‍Hebrews 9:13-14

Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ, you dwell in great nearness to God. He calls you “a people near unto Him.” His Grace has made you His sons and daughters and He is a Father unto you. In you is His Word fulfilled, “I will dwell in them and walk with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” Remember that your favored position as children of God has placed you under a peculiar discipline, for now God deals with you as with sons—and sons are under household law. The Lord will be sanctified in them that come near to Him. Special favor involves special rules. There were no strict laws made as to the behavior of the Amalekites, Amorites and Egyptians because they were far off from God and the times of their ignorance He winked at.

But the Lord set Israel apart to be His people and He came and dwelt in the midst of the congregation. The sacred tent wherein He displayed His Presence was pitched in the center of the camp and there the great King uplifted His banner of fire and cloud! Therefore, as the Lord brought the people so near to Himself, He put them under special laws, such as belong to His palace rather than to the outskirts of His dominion. They were bound to keep themselves very pure, for they bore the vessels of the Lord and were a nation of priests before Him. They ought to have been spiritually holy, and being in their childhood, they were taught this by laws referring to external cleanliness. Just as the children of Israel in the wilderness were put under stringent regulations, so do those who live near to God come under a holy discipline in the house of the Lord. “Even our God is a consuming fire.” We are not, now, speaking of our salvation, or of our justification as sinners, but of the Lord’s dealings towards us as saints. In that respect we must walk carefully with Him and watch our steps that we offend not…Our heart’s desire and inward longing is that we may never lose our Father’s smile. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1481.cfm