Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1481
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, June 29, 1879
“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 in 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.
Read the laws laid down in Leviticus and see what care was required of the favored nation and how jealously they were to keep themselves from defilement. 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 earnest desire is to behave ourselves in His house that He may always permit us to have access with boldness to His Presence and may never be compelled to reject our prayers because we have been falling into sin.
Our heart’s desire and inward longing is that we may never lose our Father’s smile. If we have lost fellowship with Him, even for an hour, our cry is, “Oh that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come even to His seat,” for when we are in fellowship with God we are happy; we are strong; we are full of heavenly aspirations and emotions. Beneath the sky there is no joy like that of communion with God—it is incomparable and inexpressible and, therefore, when we lose the Presence of God, even for a little while, we are like a dove bereaved of its mate which ceases not to grieve. Our heart and our flesh cry out for God, for the living God! When shall we come and appear before God?
Now, Beloved, in order that we may learn how to renew our fellowship with God whenever we lose it by a sense of sin, I have selected the subject of this morning. If the Holy Spirit will graciously enlighten us, we shall see how the conscience can be kept clean so that the heart may be able to dwell with God. We shall see our danger of defilement and the way by which our uncleanness can be put away—may we have Grace given to avoid the pollutions which would hinder fellowship—and Grace to seek the purification by which uncleanness is removed and fellowship restored.
I shall first endeavor to describe the type which is alluded to by the Apostle in the words, “The ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean.” And then, secondly, we shall magnify the Antitype, dwelling upon the words, “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?”
I. LET US DESCRIBE THE TYPE. In the 19th chapter of Numbers you will find the type. Be so good as to open your Bibles and refresh your memories. First, the type mentions ceremonial defilements which were the symbols of the uncleanness caused by sin. The Israelites could very readily render themselves unclean so as to be unfit to go up to the tabernacle of God. There were uncleannesses connected both with birth and with death; with meats and with drinks; with garments and with houses. The rules were very minute and all-pervading so that a man could scarcely move abroad or even remain within his own tent without incurring uncleanness in one way or another—and becoming unfit to enter the courts of the Lord or to be an accepted member of the congregation.