Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 714
Delivered on Sunday Morning, October 7, 1866
“But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us: for after He had said before, This is the covenant thatI willmake with them after those days, says the Lord, I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them, then He adds, Their sins and iniquities I will remember no more. Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.” Hebrews 10:15-18.
WE have all heard of Utopia, that imaginary land where all things are such as one might desire. A man who should conceive a spiritual Utopia might well be supposed to say, “What a delightful thing it would be if a man could, in this life, be completely saved! What a priceless gift would be bestowed upon a man if he could know, by infallible authority, that his every sin was pardoned as to the past, and that, as to his sins in the future, there is provided the certainty of pardon! And what if such a man should also possess the invaluable blessing of another nature, a nature which would be prone to good, just as his present nature is inclined to sin?
“A nature which would prompt him to every holy thing, and spur him forward to the loftiest aims! What a thrice happy man would he be who could feel that death itself would be gain to him, and that the trials of life will cause him no real loss! He would be blest, indeed, who could rest secure at all times, because whenever the messenger of doom might come he was ready to meet him, prepared with the absolute certainty that he should enter into immortal glories!”
A vision of such a supposable blessing as this has crossed the minds of many, but they have permitted it to melt into thin air, and have said, “The thing is impossible, but, if it could be attained, what a blessing it would be!” Now, I have come here this morning to tell you that this priceless blessing is obtainable! No, more—that it has been obtained, and is now enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of persons now living upon the face of the earth—and that you, my dear Hearers, shall every one of you enjoy it if you are led to put your trust in that Savior who came into this world on purpose to bring a perfect salvation to the sons of men!
It is true that every man who has believed in Jesus is perfectly pardoned. There is against him no sin in God’s book and God has blotted out all his transgressions. As for the sins which he may yet commit, the blood of Jesus has already been shed to make atonement for those possible sins, and they are already, in God’s esteem, carried away by the great Sin-bearer. As to his nature, the Believer is a renewed man. Albeit that his old nature is still inclined to that which is evil, yet he possesses within him a mortal principle—an incorruptible seed—which lives and abides forever.
And as to his dying or his living, these are but small matters to him. If he lives in the flesh he serves God, and if he dies he only falls asleep to wake up in Jesus Christ’s likeness to serve Him yet more perfectly above. Thus, what was held to be Utopian is but the common possession of every Christian, and this supposable good, which might have been thirsted after if it had not been obtainable, is actually in the possession and enjoyment of every Believer in Christ Jesus!
I. I must not tarry, but conduct you at once to the text—IT IS THIS WHICH CONSTITUTES THE GLORY AND SUPERIORITY OF THE NEW COVENANT OF GRACE—NAMELY THAT IT GIVES, TO ALL WHO ARE INTERESTED IN IT, PERFECT SALVATION.
Under the Old Covenant no one who rested in its many sacrifices ever was or could be perfected. The worshipper brought his turtledoves or his young pigeons, his bullock or his ram, and these were offered. He went away feeling that he had been obedient to a ceremonial command, and therefore he enjoyed some degree of short-lived content. After a time he sinned again, and he had to say to himself, “I must provide another victim. I must go once more up to the tabernacle, or to the temple, for I have further sin to be washed away.”
And even when this was done, after awhile he must come again. He could never come to a point in his life in which he could say, “It is finished, there has been a sufficient sacrifice offered. The atonement is complete. I have no need from now on to bring another offering."" Such a state of mind was not supposable under the old Jewish law. There was always needed a renewal of sacrifice because it was always an imperfect thing, never finished, but always needing an additional sacrifice. It is true that the true saints under the old dispensation, did, I have no doubt, obtain peace and rest, but that was because they looked through and beyond the burnt offering upon the visible altar to the great Sin-Offering upon the invisible altar of God’s eternal purpose, and virtually entered into the New Covenant.