03.46. The Prophet's Directions

The Prophet’s Directions

We are next to consider Elisha’s prescription to his noble patient. He sent unto him saying, "Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean." This was, in truth, a most unexpected and singular direction: it amazed Naaman in the greatest degree, and once more darkened his hopes of returning felicity. But who can mistake the highly typical character of this advice? Against the spiritual leprosy, sin, we can only prescribe in a similar manner: a bath, a washing, a baptism; not, however, in the waters of an earthly stream, but in that "fountain opened to the house of David for sin and for uncleanness." Here it is absolutely necessary that all polluted sinners must wash; otherwise, as saith Job, "thou shalt plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me," Job 9:31. "If I wash thee not," said the Savior to an apostle himself, "thou hast no part with me," John 13:8. Read this declaration with a threefold emphasis, and the one thing needful will be distinctly perceived. Place the accent first on the word "I;" "If I wash thee not:" Christ must do it. Wash yourself as you will, and with what you will, if Jesus wash you not, you are still unclean in the sight of God. Try the cleansing efficacy of your own supposed meritorious services; they may gain you applause before the world; but hope not for the complacency of the Most High, if you are too proud to pass under the cleansing hand of Jesus. A good name among men has its value; but if your desires extend to heaven and the world to come, then dwell seriously upon the words, "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me." "If I wash thee not." It matters little what Jesus may have done for you besides, unless he have washed you. You may say, "He teaches and instructs me;" but Judas Iscariot might have said the same, and yet he perished. You may even have directed others to him as the fountain for the house of David; but have you been washed in that fountain yourself? Without this you remain a sinner; and "the wages of sin is death." But wherewith, or by what means, is this washing and cleansing wrought and effected? The apostle answers this inquiry, and exclaims, "The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin." The church triumphant "have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." To all whom God "justifieth," it is triumphantly proclaimed, "Ye are come to the blood of sprinkling!" He who heartily welcomes and holily values the sufferings of Immanuel as his only dependence and his only foundation, that person wears a vesture purified with the blood of Christ, and is free and cleansed from his foul and native leprosy. Would we enjoy such a happy condition? We then must come by faith to "the blood of sprinkling," that we may be "washed, sanctified, justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." For "there is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Nothing of the kind any longer cleaves to them. All the sins of their past lives are fully atoned for, made amends for, rebuked, punished, remitted; blotted out of the book of God’s remembrance, and cast into the depths of the sea, so as to be no more found; yea, all this was done in the Divine foreknowledge long before those sins were committed. And does the blood of the Lamb purify? it also furnishes goodly raiment, adorning, and honor. He who, with heart-purifying faith, receives as placed to his account the atoning sufferings of Christ, that person is also allowed to receive and to put on, the merit of Christ’s glorious obedience. And he evinces his having done this, by bearing in his changed character the Savior’s image. Yes; and it is on this account we triumphantly testify, that as justification emanates from the blood of Christ, so, with equal truth, does sanctification likewise devolve through it. For, live only and entirely by true heartfelt faith in thy once-suffering, bleeding, dying Savior, and the germ of "the virtues of Him," in thy renewed nature will, by the grace and power of His spirit, Spring up, unfold, blossom, and bear fruit in thy disposition, life, and conversation. Then the love of Christ thus dying for thee will be like a precious oil to nourish and kindle up the spark of thy little love into a flame, and true humility within and without thee, will be the pledge of thy exaltation unto victory. Live, I say, by faith in that merciful, that dying love, and it will make thee merciful and forgiving, and conscientious, and patient. Thou wilt then have no relish for the vain pleasures of this world, but thou wilt have calm courage and confidence whenever trouble or death may come. "Keep," then, "the faith" we here speak of, even faith in the atoning blood of Christ; hold it fast; for the more tenaciously you abide by it, the more will you find that word of Scripture true, "the blood is the life."

Well, therefore, may the church triumphant in heaven be represented as singing the song of Moses, and of the Lamb, Revelation 15:3. For whatever they are, in moral excellence, whatever they have been enabled to do on earth in fulfilling the law, whatever they now have and enjoy in heaven, they owe it all exclusively to "Him who hath loved them, and washed them from their sins in His own blood." "Worthy then is the Lamb that was slain!" this is their song before the throne; they know nothing of their own merit. Yes, this is that whereby alone they received, or ever could receive, their worthiness to obtain that world; and thus it came to them, as children receive a birthright inheritance, without the least claim on the ground of their own personal desert, yet no one interposing, or daring to interpose, a protest against it. They had to pay down nothing for the purchase of it; they had only to part with their dreamy and delusive notions of self-righteousness, their pride, and their lusts. These they were willingly obliged and constrained to sacrifice to the honor and love of the truth. The whole foundation of their glorying was laid by Another, and no part of it by themselves. And this having been once laid for them, was laid for ever, as sufficient as it is everlasting. It needed no addition of man’s device, nor ever will. Oh precious blood of the Lamb of God! wonderful, all-powerful, all-efficacious atonement! Let the world, if they please, tread it under foot; let those who are "doing despite unto the Spirit of grace," let them, if they will, "count the blood of the covenant an unholy thing;" it shall, nevertheless, be my strength and my song in this frail tabernacle, this house of my pilgrimage; and I will commend it while I live; I will praise the Lord for it as long as I have my being; yes, for the everlasting covenant of it, as all my salvation and all my desire. For where had I now been, if Christ had not died for me? But his atoning death swallows up my death in victory. It destroys "the body of sin" in me, which is the real "body of death," "that henceforth I should not serve sin." Thus from the blood of sprinkling I come forth "a new creature;" "a new creation." Triumphing in Christ alone, I pluck the palm of victory from the grave itself, and from the hand of hell. But who can worthily praise the Lord for this grace of atoning blood, and for its unfathomable power and efficacy! a single application of which is sufficient in a moment to make crimson sins white as snow; yea, it maketh me the righteousness of God in Him, even in Christ Jesus; and by virtue of it I become at length "blameless and harmless," "without rebuke," and "without fault before the throne of God;" yes, and raised to privileges of adoption and sonship which Adam in paradise never knew. This atonement, moreover, covers my guilty head with "a crown of life," and brings me "into the holiest at once;" it gives life to that love which, being "made perfect," is the earnest that I shall "have boldness in the day of judgment," and shall "not be ashamed before the Lord at his coming;" but shall be welcomed to everlasting rest under his shadow "at his appearing and his kingdom." Oh invaluable and wonder-working atonement of blood! who can ever worthily praise and bless the Lord for this! Oh that I may never lose sight of it! especially in that hour, when this mortal life, and, with it, all this world to me, shall sink away in dimness and night from these dizzy and death-arrested eyes! O Thou, who art Faithful and True, grant that then, when eternity is opening to my mental sight, when its dawning brightness shall make all the guilt of my past life, all the blackness of my ingratitude, seem revived before me in more appalling vividness than ever, O then, then, yea, and now, against that day and hour let me be strong in faith, in hope, and in love! So, when I walk through "the valley of the shadow of death" shall I fear no evil. A believing view of Thee, as having, by thy death, reconciled me to God, and much more as saving me by thy life, shall command me to overcome all fear. Let then the remembrance of thy atonement by thy precious blood be ever present to my thoughts, to the belief of my heart. According to my faith, my hope, and my trust, so let its efficacy abide with me, and its presence for my every need be realized by me. Let the lintel and the side-posts of my earthly tabernacle be sprinkled and sanctified by it continually. Yea, let thy blood of atonement be sprinkled upon us all, to "purge our conscience from dead works, to serve thee the living God." Let it be upon us all, unto reconciliation and life eternal. Amen.