"There is a fountain filled with blood, Drawn from Immanuel"s veins; And sinners plunged beneath that flood Lose all their guilty stains."
He has become a child of G.o.d, an heir of heaven. His children are climbing up his knee, and he has his arms round their necks. That dark home is now changed into a little Bethel on earth. G.o.d dwells there now. Yes; G.o.d has done all that, and that is regeneration.
THE WORTH OF GOOD RESOLVES.
Then some of you may have been saying, "I wish Mr. Moody would tell us how we are to become Christians, for he says that we cannot be Christians by trying to do good and by making new resolutions." Many a time you have been at a meeting like this, and have resolved to turn over a new leaf, and you may now form another good resolution. If you do, you will break it. What are you going to do? If it is a new birth you are to have, you cannot create life. Can you bring life to the dead? All the wise men in London cannot do it. G.o.d alone is the author of life; and if you have the new birth, it must be G.o.d"s work. When the Jubilee Singers were in the North of England my family went to see them, and my little boy asked why they didn"t wash the black off their faces. I told him it was because they were born black. The Ethiopian cannot change his skin, nor the leopard his spots. You cannot save yourself. There is a man dying--can you put new life into him? Or can you raise up a dead body by saying, "Young man, arise"? That is the work of G.o.d. Your souls are dead in trespa.s.ses and sins, and only the Lord Jesus Christ can speak life.
THE BEGGAR AND THE PRINCE.
I imagine some of you will say, "Haven"t I anything to do?" Well, you haven"t. Salvation has been worked out for you by another. Many go all round the world in search of honour or possessions. Salvation is worth thousands of times more than any thing earth can produce; but you don"t get it that way. G.o.d has but one price for salvation. Do you want to know what it is? It is without money and without price.
Rowland Hill said that most auctioneers found they had hard work to get people up to their price, but that he had hard work to get people down to his. "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of G.o.d is eternal life." Who will have it now? I say to you, young man, will you have this gift? Suppose I was going over London Bridge, and saw a poor miserable beggar, bare-footed, coatless, hatless, with no rags hardly to cover his nakedness, and right behind him, only a few yards, there was the Prince of Wales with a bag of gold, and the poor beggar was running away from him as if he was running away from a demon, and the Prince of Wales was hallooing after him, "Oh, beggar, here is a bag of gold!" Why, we should say the beggar had gone mad to be running away from the Prince of Wales with the bag of gold. Sinner, that is your condition. The Prince of Heaven wants to give you eternal life, and you are running away from Him.
THE DYING SOLDIER.
Then you say, "If it is not by working in earnest, how am I to be saved?" I will tell you; Scripture will tell you--that is better. Take the ill.u.s.tration Christ used to Nicodemus; you could not have a better. He took him to the remedy: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life"
(John iii. 14, 15). Now there is the remedy. How am I to be saved? By looking to Christ; just by looking. It"s very cheap, isn"t it? Very simple, isn"t it? Just look away to the Lamb of G.o.d now and be saved.
What says the great wilderness preacher? "Behold the Lamb of G.o.d, which taketh away the sin of the world." You might say the whole plan of salvation is in two words--Giving; Receiving. G.o.d gives; I receive.
I remember, after one of the terrible battles in the American Civil War--I was in the army, tending soldiers--and I had just laid down one night, past midnight, to get a little rest, when a man came and told me that a wounded soldier wanted to see me. I went to the dying man.
He said, "I wish you to help me to die." I said, "I would help you to die if I could. I would take you on my shoulders and carry you into the kingdom of G.o.d if I could; but I cannot. I can tell you of One who can." And I told him of Christ being willing to save him; and how Christ left heaven and came into the world to seek and to save that which was lost. I just quoted promise after promise, but all was dark, and it almost seemed as if the shades of eternal death were gathering around his soul. I could not leave him, and at last I thought of this third chapter of John, and I said to him, "Look here, I am going to read to you now a conversation that Christ had with a man that went to Him when he was in your state of mind, and inquired what he was to do to be saved." I just read that conversation to the dying man, and he lay there with his eves rivetted upon me, and every word seemed to be going home to his heart, which was open to receive the truth. When I came to the verse where it says, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life"--the dying man cried, "Stop, sir. Is that there?" "Yes, it is all here." Then he said, "Won"t you please read it to me again?" I read it the second time. The dying man brought his hands together, and he said, "Bless G.o.d for that. Won"t you please read it to me again?" I read through the whole chapter, but long before the end of it he had closed his eyes. He seemed to lose all interest in the rest of the chapter, and when I got through it his arms were folded on his breast, he had a sweet smile on his face; remorse and despair had fled away.
His lips were quivering, and I leant over him, and heard him faintly whisper from his dying lips, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." He opened his eyes, and fixed his calm, deathly look on me, and he said, "Oh, that is enough; that is all I want"; and in a few hours he pillowed his dying head upon the truth of those two verses, and rode away on one of the Saviour"s chariots, and took his seat in the kingdom of G.o.d.
Oh, sinner, you can be saved now if you will! Look and live. May G.o.d help every lost one here to look on the Lamb of G.o.d, which taketh away the sin of the world.
THE BLOOD
"And almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and without the shedding of blood is no remission."--Heb. ix. 22.
No man can give a satisfactory reason for the hope that is in him if he is a stranger to the "Blood." At the very commencement of the Bible we find reference made to the subject in Genesis iii. 21: "Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord G.o.d make coats of skins, and clothed them." In this verse we get the first glimpse of blood. Certainly G.o.d could not have clothed Adam and Eve with the skins of beasts unless He had shed blood. Here, then, we have the innocent suffering for the guilty--the doctrine of subst.i.tution in the garden of Eden. G.o.d dealt with Adam in grace before He dealt in judgment. Death came by sin.
Adam had sinned, and the Lord came down to make the way of escape. G.o.d came to him as a loving friend, and not to hurl him from the earth.
Adam could have said to Eve, "Though the Lord has driven us out of the garden of Eden, He loves us," for this coat is a token of love.
G.o.d put a lamp of promise into Adam"s hand before He drove him out; for He said, "The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent"s head."
Did you ever think what a terrible state of things it would be if man was allowed to live for ever in his lost, ruined state? It was from love to Adam that G.o.d drove him out of Eden, that he should not live for ever. G.o.d put the cherubim with a flaming sword there. But now Christ has taken the sword out of his hand, and opened wide the gate, so that we can come in and eat. Adam might have been in Eden ten thousand years, and then be led astray by Satan; but now "our life is hid with Christ in G.o.d." Man is safer with the second Adam out of Eden than with the first Adam in Eden.
Let us next turn to Genesis iv. 4: "And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering." Cain and Abel were brought up outside of Eden, and had the same parents, and both received the same instruction as to how they were to draw near to G.o.d; but
CAIN CAME IN HIS OWN WAY,
while Abel came in the way G.o.d commanded. Cain said to himself, "I am not going to bring a bleeding lamb. Here is the grain and the beautiful fruit that I have raised by my industry; and I"m sure it looks better than blood, and I"m not going to bring blood." Now it was not that there was any difference between these two men, but it was the offering which each brought. One came in the way G.o.d had marked out, and the other in a way of his own. Now there are a great many just like that at the present day. They prefer what is agreeable to the eye, as Cain did his beautiful corn and fruit, and they do not like the doctrine of
THE BLOOD OF ATONEMENT.
But any religion that makes light of the Blood is the work of the devil, even if an angel from heaven came down to preach salvation through any other means.
Undoubtedly on the morning of creation G.o.d marked out the way a man might come to Him; and Abel walked in G.o.d"s way, and Cain in his own.
Perhaps Cain could not bear the sight of blood, and so he took that which G.o.d had cursed and laid it upon the altar.
THERE ARE MANY CAINITES IN THE CHURCH
even now; and some have got into the pulpit, and they preach against the doctrine of the Blood, and that we can get to heaven without the Blood. From the time Adam went out of Eden there have been Abelites and Cainites. The Abelites come by the way of the Blood--the way G.o.d had marked out for them. The Cainites come by their own way. They repudiate the doctrine of the Blood, and say it does not atone for sin. But it is better to take G.o.d"s word than man"s opinion.
Again, turn to Genesis viii. 20: "And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt-offerings on the altar." We have thus pa.s.sed over the first two thousand years, and have come to the second dispensation.
The thought I want to call your attention to is this: The first thing Noah did when he got out of the ark was to build an altar and slay the animals, thus putting blood between him and his sin. The second dispensation is founded upon blood; and these animals were taken through the flood in the ark that they might ill.u.s.trate the indispensable necessity of the shedding of blood.
ABRAHAM OFFERING UP ISAAC.
Again, in Genesis xxii. 13, it is written: "And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt-offering in the stead of his son." The ram was typical, and was offered up in the place of Abraham"s son. G.o.d loved Abraham so much that He spared his son; but He so loved the world that He would not spare His own Son, but gave Him up freely for us all. It may be that from the top of the mountain Abraham saw a glorious sight. He saw Christ going up Calvary carrying His cross. He saw that mountain peak sprinkled with blood; and he saw that sacrifices were to go on until the true Isaac made His appearance and offered Himself for us all.
Abraham had the altar built, and he was ordered to take his only son, and to bind him, and to slay him; and he bound that boy, and everything was ready. He took the knife, and was about to slay him, because it was the will and command of G.o.d. He did not know what it meant; but he obeyed.
Would that there were more men like him now, ready to obey G.o.d in the dark without asking the reason why! The old man took his son, and he told him the secret that he had hid from him all the journey--that G.o.d had told him to offer him up as a sacrifice. And he bound the boy hand and foot, and laid him all ready on the altar; and just when he was about to stretch forth his hand and slay him, he heard a voice from heaven calling to him: "Abraham, Abraham, spare thy son." G.o.d was more merciful to the son of Abraham than to His own, for He gave Him up freely for us all. He opened up to him the curtain of time, and showed him Christ coming in the future; and Abraham saw his sins laid on Christ and was glad.
THE Pa.s.sOVER.
In Exodus xii. 13 we read: "And the blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pa.s.s over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you." G.o.d did not say, When I see your good deeds; when I see how you have prayed, and wept, and cried. No; but "When I see the blood I will pa.s.s over you.
The blood shall be a token." What was it saved those men? Was it their good resolutions or their works? It was the blood. "When I see the blood I will pa.s.s over you." Very likely when some of the lords, and dukes, and great men rode through Goshen, and saw the Israelites sprinkling their dwellings, they said they never saw such foolishness, and that they were spoiling their houses. They were to sprinkle the door-posts and lintels of their houses with the blood, but not the threshold. G.o.d would not have
THE BLOOD TRAMPLED UPON,
but that is what the world at the present day is doing.
Some preachers speak not of the death of Christ, but His life, because it is more pleasing to the natural ear; but the life of Christ may be preached for ever and it will not save any man, if His death is left out. A live lamb could not have kept death out of the houses of Goshen. G.o.d did not say that He wanted a live lamb at every door, but to have the lintels and door-posts sprinkled with the blood of the lamb. People sometimes say, "If I was as good as that minister, that preached the gospel for fifty years"; or, "If I was as good as that mother, who did so and so for her children"; but if we are behind the blood of G.o.d"s Son, we are just as safe as any Christian that has ever walked the face of the earth.
It is not a long life of usefulness that makes men and women acceptable to G.o.d. We must work for Christ; but we get salvation as a gift, and then begin to work because we cannot help it. All the work a person does before he becomes converted goes for nothing.
The little child down in Goshen behind the blood of the lamb was just as safe as Joshua, or any man in the whole town. The angel of death pa.s.sed by when he saw the blood. The little tiny fly was as safe in the ark with Noah as the elephant. It was equally the ark that saved the fly and the elephant, and it is
THE BLOOD THAT SAVES
the weakest and the strongest. When death came that night with his sword, he entered the palace of the prince, and went into the houses of the great and mighty, and they all had to pay tribute to death; for the first-born in Egypt was smitten down that night. The only thing that kept death out was death itself. The only way that death can be met is by death. I have sinned, and must die; or get some one to die for me. The great question is--Have you got the token? If death should come after any one of us to-night, are we sheltered behind the blood?
that is the point. It is the blood that atones. Not my good resolutions, or prayers, or position in society, or what I have done, but what has been done by another. G.o.d looks for the token.
Take another ill.u.s.tration. Suppose a man wanted to go from London to Liverpool, and he got into a railway carriage, he would soon hear the guard running along the platform crying out for tickets. A man might be rich or he might be poor, black or white, he might be learned or unlearned, that was not what the guard wanted to know--he wanted to see the tickets; for the ticket was the token, and if you have got a ticket you pa.s.s.
NO DEATH WHERE THE BLOOD WAS.
The Egyptians looked at the Israelites killing a lamb and sprinkling the blood on the door-posts no doubt as a very foolish proceeding, but not one house in the city, upon the doorposts and lintels of which the blood was not sprinkled, escaped; no matter who were the inhabitants, rich or poor, that night there was no difference. There was a wail heard in every habitation, from the palace to the meanest hovel where the blood _had not_ been sprinkled, but where it _had_ been sprinkled death was kept out. That showed clearly the truth, that without the shedding of blood there is no remission. Let no man or woman be guilty of laughing at this doctrine, that "the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin."
In the eleventh verse of the same chapter we read, "And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lord"s pa.s.sover." Why you have not got more power is because you don"t feed on the Lamb; and this is why there are so many weak Christians. The Lamb not only atones for our sins, but we are to feed upon the Lamb.
We have got a wilderness journey before us, as the children of Israel had. After we are saved we are to feed upon Christ; He is the true bread from heaven. If I don"t feed my soul with the true bread from heaven I am sickly, and have not power to go and work for Christ; and that is the reason, I believe, why so few in the Church have power.
Some people think if they get one glimpse of Christ that is enough.
Some think much of their dinner; why should not G.o.d"s children think a good deal of
THEIR SPIRITUAL FOOD?
We should no more think of laying in spiritual food to last for ten years than we should bodily food. A good many people are living on stale manna. A man in Ireland said to his boy, "I want you to eat two breakfasts. Do you know why?" The boy said he understood one was for his body and the other for his soul. All Christians should similarly take two breakfasts, for the soul and for the body.