Jesus was flowing with precious blood

JESUS WAS FLOWING WITH PRECIOUS BLOOD
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
1 Peter 1:19 19but with the precious blood of Christ, a
lamb without blemishor defect.
“The Precious Blood Of Christ”
BY SPURGEON
“The precious blood of Christ.”
1 Peter1:19
IT is frequently my fear I should fall into the habit of preaching about the
Gospelrather than directly preaching the Gospel. And then I labor to return
to the first principle of our faith and often take a text upon which it would not
be possible to sayanything new, but which will compelme to recapitulate in
your hearing those things which are vital, essentialand fundamental to the life
of our souls. With such a text as this before me, if I do not preach the GospelI
shall do violence both to the sacred Word and to my own conscience.SurelyI
may hope that while endeavoring to unfold my text and to proclaim the saving
Word, the Holy Spirit will be present to take of the things of Christ and to
show them unto us and make them saving to our souls.
Bloodhas from the beginning been regarded by God as a most precious thing.
He has hedged about this fountain of vitality with the most solemnsanctions.
The Lord thus commanded Noahand his descendants, “Fleshwith the life
thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall you not eat.” Manhad every moving
thing that lives given him for meat, but they were by no means to eat the blood
with the flesh. Things strangledwere to be consideredunfit for food, since
God would not have man became too familiar with blood by eating or
drinking it in any shape or form. Even the blood of bulls and goats thus had a
sacrednessput upon it by God’s decrees.

As for the blood of man, you remember how God’s threats ran, “And surely
your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beastwill I require
it and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require
the life of man. Whoeversheds man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed:
for in the image of God made He man.” It is true that the first murderer had
not his blood shed by man, but then the crime was new and the penalty had
not then been settledand proclaimed. And therefore the case was clearly
exceptionaland one by itself. And, moreover, Cain’s doom was probably far
more terrible than if he had been slain upon the spot–he was permitted to fill
up his measure of wickedness,to be a wanderer and a vagabondupon the face
of the earth–andthen to enter into the dreadful heritage of wrath, which his
life of sin had doubtless greatly increased.
Under the theocratic dispensation, in which God was the King and governed
Israel, murder was always punished in the most exemplary manner and there
was never any tolerationor excuse for it. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for
life was the stern inexorable law. It is expressly written, “You shall take no
satisfactionforthe life of a murderer which is guilty of death: but he shall
surely be put to death.” Even in cases where life was takenin chance medley
or misadventure, the matter was not overlooked. The slayer fled at once to a
City of Refuge, where, after having his case properly tried, he was allowedto
reside. But there was no safetyfor him elsewhere until the death of the high
priest.
The generallaw in all caseswas, “So youshall not pollute the land wherein
you are: for blood defiles the land: and the land cannot be cleansedofthe
blood that is shed there, but by the blood of him that shed it. Defile not,
therefore, the land which you shall inhabit, wherein I dwell: for I, the Lord,
dwell among the children of Israel.” Strange is it that that very thing which
defiles should turn out to be that which alone cancleanse!It is clear, then,
that blood was ever precious in God’s sight and He would have it so in ours.
He first forbids the blood of beasts as food of man, then avenges the blood of
man shed in anger. And, furthermore, takes care that even accidents shallnot
pour it out unheeded. Nor is this all. We hear within us the echo of that law.
We feelthat God has truly made blood a sacredthing. Though some can,
through use and habit, read the story of war with patience, if not with
pleasure–thoughthe sound of the trumpet and the drum and the tramp of
soldiery will stir our heart and make us, for the moment, sympathize with the
martial spirit–yet, if we could see waras it really is, if we could only walk but
halfway across a battlefield or see but one wounded man, a cold shiver would

shootthrough the very marrow of our bones and we should have experimental
proof that blood is, indeed, a sacredthing.
The other night, when I listened to one who professedto have come from
battlefields of the American war, I felt a faintness and clammy sweatsteal
over me as he shockedand horrified us with the details of mutilated bodies
and spoke ofstanding up to the tops of his boots in pools of human gore. The
shudder which ran through us all was a sure confirmation of the sanctity with
which God has forever guarded the symbol and nutriment of life. We cannot
even contemplate the probability of the shedding of blood without fear and
trembling.
And comforts which entail high risks in their production or procuring will
lose all sweetnessto men of humane dispositions. Who does not sympathize
with David in his action with regard to the waterprocured by his three
mighties! The three heroes broke through the hosts of the Philistines to bring
David water from the well of Bethlehem. But as soonas he receivedthat
water, though very thirsty and much longing for it, yet he felt he could not
touch it because these men had run such dreadful risks in breaking thrice
through the Philistine hosts to bring it to him! He, therefore, took the water
and poured it out before the Lord, as if it was not meet that men should run
risk of life for any but God who gave life!
His words were very touching, “My God forbid it me, that I should do this
thing! Shall I drink the blood of these men that have put their lives in
jeopardy? Forwith the jeopardy or their lives they brought it.” I wonder at
the cruelty of the greatcrowds who delight to see men and women running
such fearful risks of life in rope-dancing. How is it that they can feedtheir
morbid curiosity on such dreadful foodand greetthe man who is foolish
enough to run such hazards with acclamationsbecauseofhis foolhardiness?
How much more Christ-like the regretof David that he should have led any
man to risk his life for his comfort! How much more laudable was his belief
that nothing short of the highestbenevolence to man, or the highest devotion
to God can justify such jeopardy of life!
Further permit me to observe that the sealof the sanctity of blood is usually
setupon the conscienceevenof the most depraved of men–not merely upon
gentle souls and sanctified spirits–but evenupon the most hardened. You will
notice that men, bad as they are, shrink from the disgrace oftaking blood
money. Even those high priests who could sit down and gloattheir eyes with
the sufferings of the Saviorwould not receive the price of blood into the
treasury. And even Judas, that sonof perdition, who could contemplate
without horror the treacheryby which he betrayed his Master–yetwhenhe

had the thirty pieces ofsilver in his palm, found the money too hot to hold! He
threw it down in the temple, for he could not bear or abide the sight of “the
price of blood.” This is another proof that even when virtue has become
extinct and vice reigns, yet God has put the broad arrow of His own
Sovereigntyso manifestly upon the very thought of blood that even these
worstof spirits are compelledto shrink from tampering with it.
Now, if in ordinary cases the shedding of life is thus precious, canyou guess
how fully God utters His heart’s meaning when He says, “Precious in the sight
of the Lord is the death of His saints”? If the death of a rebel is precious, what
must be the death of a child? If He will not contemplate the shedding of the
blood of His own enemies and of them that curse Him without proclaiming
vengeance, whatdo you think He feels concerning His own elect, ofwhom He
says, “Preciousshalltheir blood be in His sight”? Will He not avenge them,
though He bears long with them?
Shall the cup which the Harlot of Rome filled with the blood of the saints long
remain unavenged? Shall not the martyrs from Piedmont and the Alps and
from our Smithfield and from the hills of covenanting Scotlandyet obtain
from God the vengeancedue for all that they suffered and all the blood which
they poured forth in the defense of His cause? I have takenyou up, you see,
from the beastto man–from man to God’s chosenmen–the martyrs. I have
another step to indicate to you–it is a far larger one–itis to the blood OF
JESUS CHRIST.
Here powers of speechwould fail to convey to you an idea of the preciousness!
Behold here, a Personinnocent–without taint within, or flaw without! A
Personmeritorious who magnified the Law and made it honorable–a Person
who servedboth God and man even unto death. No, here you have a Divine
Person–soDivine that in the Acts of the Apostles Paul calls His blood the
“blood of God.” Place innocence andmerit and dignity and position and
Godheaditself in the scale and then conceive whatmust be the inestimable
value of the blood which Jesus Christpoured forth!
Angels must have seenthat matchless blood-shedding with wonder and
amazement, and even God Himself saw what never before was seenin
creationor in Providence–He saw Himselfmore gloriously displayed than the
whole universe beside. Let us come nearerto the text and try to show forth the
preciousness ofthe blood of Christ. We shall confine ourselves to an
enumeration of some of the many properties possessedby this precious blood.
I felt, as I was studying, that I should have so many divisions this morning
that some of you would compare my sermon to the bones in Ezekiel’s vision–

they were very many and they were very dry–but I am in hopes that God’s
Holy Spirit may so descendupon the bones in my sermon–whichwould be but
dry of themselves–thatthey being quickened and full of life you may admire
the exceeding greatarmy of God’s thoughts of loving-kindness towards His
people in the sacrifice of His own dear Son.
The precious blood of Christ is useful to God’s people in a thousand ways–we
intend to speak oftwelve of them. After all, the realpreciousness ofa thing in
the time of pinch and trial must depend upon its usefulness. A bag of pearls
would be to us, this morning, far more precious than a bag of bread. But you
have all heard the story of the man in the desertwho stumbled, when nearto
death, upon a bag. He opened it, hoping that it might be the wallet of some
passerby, and he found in it nothing but pearls! If they had been crusts of
bread, how much more precious would they have been! I say, in the hour of
necessityand peril, the use of a thing really constitutes the preciousness ofit.
This may not be according to political economy, but it is according to common
sense.
The precious blood of Christ has a REDEEMING POWER. It redeems from
the Law. We were all under the Law which says, “Do this and live.” We were
slaves to it–Christ has paid the ransom price and the Law is no longerour
tyrant master. We are entirely free from it. The Law had a dreadful curse–it
threatened that whoevershould violate one of its precepts should die–“Christ
has redeemedus from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us.”
By the fear of this curse the Law inflicted a continual dread on those who
were under it. They knew they had disobeyed it and they were all their
lifetime subject to bondage, fearful lest death and destruction should come
upon them at any moment. But we are not under the Law, but under Grace,
and consequently, “We have not received the spirit of bondage againto fear,
but we have receivedthe spirit of adoption whereby we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ ”
We are not afraid of the Law now–its worstthunders cannot affectus for they
are not hurled at us!
Its most tremendous lightning cannottouch us for we are shelteredbeneath
the Cross ofChrist, where the thunder loses its terror and the lightning its
fury. We read the Law of God with pleasure now! We look upon it as in the
ark coveredwith the Mercy Seatand not thundering in tempests from Sinai’s
fiery brow. Happy is that man who knows his full redemption from the Law,
its curse, its penalty, its present dread!
My Brethren, the life of a Jew, happy as it was compared with that of a
heathen, was perfectdrudgery compared to yours and mine! He was hedged

in with a thousand commands and prohibitions. His forms and ceremonies
were abundant and their details minutely arranged. He was always in danger
of making himself unclean. If he satupon a bed or upon a stoolhe might be
defiled. If he drank out of an earthen pitcher, or even touched the wallof a
house–a leprous man might have put his hand there before him and he would
thus become defiled. A thousand sins of ignorance were like so many hidden
pits in his way. He must be perpetually in fear lest he should be cut off from
the people of God.
When he had done his best any one day, he knew he had not finished–no Jew
could ever talk of a finished work. The bullock was offered, but he must bring
another. The lamb was offeredthis morning, but another must be offeredthis
evening, anothertomorrow and another the next day. The Passoveris
celebratedwith holy rites–itmust be kept in the same manner next year. The
high priest has gone within the veil once, but be must go there again. The
thing is never finished–it is always beginning. He never comes any nearer to
the end. “The Law could not make the comerthereunto perfect.”
But see our position–we are redeemedfrom this! Our Law is fulfilled, for
Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness!Our Passoveris slain, for Jesus
died! Our righteousness is finished, for we are complete in Him! Our victim is
slain, our Priest has gone within the veil, the blood is sprinkled! We are clean
and cleanbeyond any fear of defilement, “ForHe has perfectedforever those
that were setapart.” Value this precious blood, my Beloved, because thus it
has redeemedyou from the thralldom and bondage which the Law imposed
upon its votaries.
The value of the blood lies much in its ATONING EFFICACY. We are told in
Leviticus, that, “it is the blood which makes an atonement for the soul.” God
never forgave sin apart from blood under the Law. This stoodas a constant
text–“Without shedding of blood there is no remission.” Mealand honey,
sweetspices andincense would not avail without shedding of blood. There was
no remission promised to future diligence or deep repentance–without
shedding of blood pardon never came. The blood, and the blood alone, put
awaysin and permitted a man to come to God’s courts to worship–because it
made him one with God.
The blood is the greatat-one-ment. There is no hope of pardon for the sin of
any man exceptthrough its punishment being fully endured. God must punish
sin. It is not an arbitrary arrangementthat sin shall be punished, but it is a
part of the very constitution of moral government that sin must be punished.
Neverdid God swerve from that and never will He. “He will by no means
clearthe guilty.”

Christ, therefore, came and was punished in the place of all His people. Ten
thousands times ten thousands are the souls for whom Jesus shedHis blood.
He, for the sins of all the elect, has made a complete Atonement. For every
man born of Adam who has believed or shall believe on Him, or who is taken
to Glory before being capable of believing, Christ has made a complete
Atonement. And there is none other plan by which sinners can be made at one
with God, exceptby Jesus'precious blood.
I may make sacrifices.I may mortify my body. I may be baptized. I may
receive sacraments. Imay pray until my knees grow hard with kneeling. I
may read devout words until I know them by heart. I may celebrate masses.I
may worship in one language orin fifty languages–butI can never be at one
with God exceptby blood–andthat blood, “the precious blood of Christ.”
My dear Friends, many of you have felt the powerof Christ’s redeeming
blood! You are not under the Law now, but under Grace–youhave also felt
the powerof the atoning blood–youknow that you are reconciledunto God by
the death of His Son. You feel that He is no angry God to you, that He loves
you with a love unchangeable. But this is not the case withyou all. O that it
were!I do pray that you may know, this very day, the atoning power of the
blood of Jesus!Creature, would you not be at one with your Creator? Puny
man, would you not have Almighty God to be your Friend? You can not be at
one with God exceptthrough the at-one-ment. God has setforth Christ to be a
Propitiation for our sins. Oh, take the Propitiation through faith in His blood
and be at one with God!
Thirdly, the precious blood of Jesus Christhas A CLEANSING POWER.
John tells us in his first Epistle, first chapter, seventhverse, “The blood of
Jesus Christ His Son, cleansesus from all sin.” Sin has a directly defiling
effectupon the sinner, from which comes the need of cleansing. Suppose that
God, the Holy One, were perfectly willing to be at one with an unholy sinner
which is supposing a case that cannotbe. Yet even should the pure eyes of the
MostHigh wink at sin, still, as long as we are unclean we never could feelin
our own hearts anything like joy and rest and peace.
Sin is a plague to the man who has it, as wellas a hateful thing to the God who
abhors it. I must be made clean. I must have my iniquities washedawayor I
never can be happy. The first mercy that is sung of in the one hundred and
third Psalm is, “Who forgives all your iniquities.” Now we know it is by the
precious blood that sin is cleansed. Murder, adultery, theft–whateverthe sin
may be–there is power in the veins of Christ to take it awayat once and
forever! No matter how many, nor how deeply-seatedour offenses may be, the

blood cries, “Thoughyour sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.
Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
It is the song of Heaven–“We have washedour robes and made them white in
the blood of the Lamb.” This is the experience of earth, for none was ever
cleansedexceptin this fountain openedfor the house of David for sin and for
uncleanness. You have heard this so often that perhaps if an angeltold it to
you, you would not take much interest in it–unless you have known
experimentally the horror of uncleanness and the blessednessofbeing made
clean. Beloved, it is a thought which ought to make our hearts leap within us,
that through Jesus'blood there is not a spot left upon any Believer, not a
wrinkle nor any such thing–
“Thoughin myself defiled I am,
And black as Kedar’s tent, appear,
Yet when I put Your garment on,
Fair as the courts of Solomon.”
You have no spiritual beauty, Beloved, apart from Christ. But, having Christ,
He Himself says, “You are all fair,My Love, there is no spot in you.” Oh,
precious blood which makes the blackamoorwhite as snow and takes out the
leopard’s spots! Oh, precious blood removing the Hell-stains of abundant
iniquity and permitting me to stand acceptedin the Beloved, notwithstanding
all the many ways in which I have rebelled againstmy God!
A fourth property of the blood of Christ is ITS PRESERVING POWER. You
will rightly comprehend this when went up from house to house as the first-
born of all Egypt–from Pharaohon the throne to the first-born of the woman
behind the mill and the slave in the dungeon–all fell dead in a moment! The
angelsped with noiseless wings through every streetof Egypt’s many cities.
But there were some houses which he could not enter–he sheathed his sword
and breathed no malediction there. What was it which preservedthe houses?
The inhabitants were not better than others. Their habitations were not more
elegantlybuilt–there was nothing exceptthe bloodstain on the lintel and on
the two side posts–andit is written, “When I see the blood I will pass over
you.” There was nothing whateverwhich gainedthe PassoverforIsrael but
the sprinkling of blood!
The father of the house had takena lamb and killed it–had caught the blood
in a basin. And while the lamb was roastedthat it might be eatenby every
inhabitant of the house, he took a bunch of hyssop, stirred the basin of blood
and went outside with his children and beganto strike the posts and to strike

the door. And as soonas this was done they were all safe, allsafe–no angel
could touch them–the fiends of Hell themselves could not venture there.
Beloved, see, we are preservedin Christ Jesus!Did not God see the blood
before you and I saw it and was not that the reasonwhy He spared our
forfeited lives when, like barren fig trees, we brought forth no fruit for Him?
When we saw the blood, let us remember it was not our seeing it which really
savedus–one sight of it gave us peace, but it was God’s seeing it that savedus.
“When I see the blood I will pass over you.”
And today, if my eye of faith is dim and I see the precious blood so as to
rejoice that I am washedbut I can scarcelysee it, yet God cansee the blood
and as long as the undimmed eyes of Jehovahlook upon the atoning Sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus, He cannot smite one soul that is coveredwith its scarlet
mantle. Oh, how precious is this blood-red shield! My Soul, coweryourself
down under it when the darts of Hell are flying! This is the chariot, the
covering of purple–let the storm come and the deluge rise, let even the fiery
hail descendbeneath that crimson pavilion–my soul must restsecure, for what
can touch me when I am coveredwith His precious blood?
The preserving powerof that blood should make us feelhow precious it is.
Beloved, let me beg you to try and realize these points. You know I told you
before I cannot say anything new upon the subject, neither canI embody
these old thoughts in new words. I should only spoil them and be making a
fool of myself by trying to make a display of myself and my own powers,
instead of the precious blood. Let me ask you to get here, right under the
shelter of the Cross. Sit down, now, beneath the shadow of the Cross and feel,
“I am safe, I am safe, O you devils of Hell, or you angels of God–I could
challenge you all and say, ‘Who shall separate me from the love of God in
Christ Jesus, orwho shall lay anything to my charge, seeing that Christ has
died for me?’ ”
When Heaven is on a blaze. When earth begins to shake. Whenthe mountains
rock. When God divides the righteous from the wicked, happy will they be
who can find a shelter beneath the blood! But where will you be who have
never trusted in its cleansing power? You will call to the rocks to hide you and
to the mountains to coveryou, but all in vain. God help you now, or even the
blood will not help you then!
Fifthly, the blood of Christ is precious because ofits PLEADING
PREVALENCE. Paulsays in the twelfth chapter of his Epistle to the
Hebrews, at the twenty-fourth verse, “It speaks betterthings than that of
Abel.” Abel’s blood pleaded and prevailed. Its cry was, “Vengeance!” and

Cain was punished. Jesus'blood pleads and prevails. Its cry is “Father,
forgive them!” and sinners are forgiven through it.
When I cannot pray as I would, how sweetto remember that the blood prays!
There is no voice in my tongue, but there is always a voice in the blood. If I
cannot, when I bow before my God, getfarther than to say, “Godbe merciful
to me, a sinner,” yet my Advocate before the Throne is not dumb because I
am and His plea has not lost its power because my faith in it may happen to be
diminished. The blood is always alike prevalent with God. The wounds of
Jesus are so many mouths to plead with God for sinners–whatif I saythey are
so many chains with which love is lead captive and sovereignmercy bound to
bless every favored child?
What if I say that the wounds of Jesus have become doors of Divine Grace
through which Divine love comes forth to the vilest of the vile and doors
through which our wants go up to God and plead with Him that He would be
pleasedto supply them? Next time you cannotpray. Next time you are crying
and striving and groaning up in that upper room, praise the value of the
precious blood which makes intercessionbefore the eternal Throne of God!
Sixthly, the blood is precious where perhaps we little expect it to operate. It is
precious, because ofits MELTING INFLUENCE on the human heart. “They
shall look upon Me whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for Him, as
one that mourns for his only son and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that
is in bitterness for his first-born.”
There is a greatcomplaint among sinners, when they are a little awakened,
that they feeltheir hearts so hard. The blood is a mighty melter. Alchemists of
old soughtafter a universal solvent–the blood of Jesus is that. There is no
nature so stubborn that a sight of the love of God in Christ Jesus cannotmelt
it, if Grace shallopen the blind eye to see Christ. The stone in the human
heart shall melt awaywhen it is plunged into a bath of Divine blood. Cannot
you say, dear Friends, that Toplady was right in his hymn–
“Law and terrors do but harden
All the while they work alone.
But a sense ofblood-bought pardon,
Soondissolves a heart of stone”?
Sinner, if God shall lead you to believe this morning in Christ to save you–if,
then, you will trust your soul in His hands to have it saved–thathard heart of
yours will melt at once!You would think differently of sin, my Friends, if you
knew that Christ smarted for it. Oh, if you knew that out of those dear listless
eyes there lookedthe loving heart of Jesus upon you, I know you would say, “I

hate the sin that made Him mourn and fastenedHim to the accursedtree.” I
do not think that preaching the Law generallysoftens men’s hearts.
Hitting men with a hard hammer may often drive the particles of a hard heart
more closelytogetherand make the iron yet more hard. But oh, to preach
Christ’s love–His greatlove with which He loved us even when we were dead
in sins and to tell to sinners that there is life in a look at the Crucified One–
surely this will prove that Christ was exaltedon high to give repentance and
remissionof sins! Come for repentance, if you cannotcome repenting! Come
for a brokenheart, if you cannot come with a brokenheart! Come to be
melted, if you are not melted. Come to be wounded, if you are not wounded.
But then comes in a seventh property of the precious blood. The same blood
that melts has A GRACIOUS POWER TO PACIFY. John Bunyan speaks of
the Law as coming to sweepa chamber like a maid with a broom. And when
she beganto sweepthere was a greatdust which almost chokedpeople and got
into their eyes. But then came the Gospelwith its drops of water and laid the
dust and then the broom might be used far better.
Now it sometimes happens that the Law of God makes such a dust in the
sinner’s soul that nothing but the precious blood of Jesus Christ can make
that dust lie still. The sinner is so disquieted that nothing canever give him
any relief exceptto know that Jesus died for him. When I felt the burden of
my sin, I do confess allthe preaching I ever heard never gave me one single
atom of comfort. I was told to do this and to do that and when I had done it
all, I had not advanced one inch farther.
I thought I must feel something, or pray a certain quantity. And when I had
done that, the burden was quite as heavy. But the moment I saw that there
was nothing whateverfor me to do, that Jesus did it long, long ago–thatallmy
sins were put on His back and that He suffered all I ought to have suffered–
why then my heart had peace with God. Realpeace by believing peace
through the precious blood!
Two soldiers were on duty in the citadel of Gibraltar. One of them had
obtained peace through the precious blood of Christ, the other was in very
greatdistress of mind. It happened to be their turn to stand sentinel, both of
them, the same night. And there are many long passages in the rock, which
passagesare adapted to convey sounds a very greatdistance. The soldier in
distress of mind was ready to beathis breastfor grief–he felt he had rebelled
againstGod and could not find how he could be reconciled–whensuddenly
there came through the air what seemedto him to be a mysterious voice from
Heaven saying these words, “The precious blood of Christ.”

In a moment he saw it all–it was that which reconciledus to God–andhe
rejoicedwith joy unspeakable and full of glory! Now did those words come
directly from God? No. They did as far as the effectwas concerned–theydid
come from the Holy Spirit. Who was it that had spokenthose words?
Curiously enough, the other sentinel at the far end of the passage was
standing still and meditating when an officer came by and it was his duty, of
course, to give the word for the night and with soldier-like promptness he did
give it–but not accurately, for insteadof giving the proper word, he was so
takenup by his meditations that he said to the officer, “The precious blood of
Christ.”
He correctedhimself in a moment. But he had said it and it had passedalong
the passage andreachedthe earfor which God meant it–and the man found
peace and spent his life in the fear of God, being in after years the means of
completing one of our excellent translations of the Word of God into the
Hindu language. Who cantell, dear Friends, how much peace you may give by
only telling the story of our Savior! If I only had about a dozen words to speak
and knew I must die, I would say, “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all
acceptation, thatChrist Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” The
doctrine of Substitution is the pith and marrow of the Gospel, and if you can
hold that forth, you will prove the value of the precious blood by its peace-
giving power.
We canonly spare a minute now upon ITS SANCTIFYING INFLUENCE.
The Apostle tells us in the ninth chapter and the fourteenth verse that Christ
sanctifiedthe people by His ownblood. Certain it is that the same blood which
justifies by taking awaysin does, in its after-action, actupon the new nature
and lead it onward to subdue sin and to follow out the commands of God.
There is no motive for holiness so greatas that which streams from the veins
of Jesus. If you want to know why you should be obedient to God’s will, my
Brethren, go and look upon Him who sweat, as it were, greatdrops of blood
and the love of Christ will constrainyou, because you will thus judge, “Thatif
one died for all, then were all dead: and that He died for all that we which live
might not henceforth live unto ourselves, but unto Him that died for us and
rose again.”
In the ninth place, another blessedproperty of the blood of Jesus is ITS
POWER TO GIVE ENTRANCE. We are told that the high priest never went
within the veil without blood. And surely we can never get into God’s heart,
nor into the secretof the Lord which is with them that fear Him, nor into any
familiar communion with our greatFatherand Friend, exceptby the
sprinkling of the precious blood of Jesus.

“We have access withboldness into this grace whereinwe stand,” but we
never dare go a steptowards God except as we are sprinkled with this
precious blood. I am persuadedsome of us do not come near to God because
we forget the blood. If you try to have fellowship with Godin your graces,
your experiences, your believing–youwill fail. But if you try to come near to
God as you stand in Christ Jesus–youwillhave courage to come. And on the
other hand, God will run to meet you when He sees you in the face of His
Anointed. Oh, for powerto get near to God! But there is no getting near to
God exceptas we got near to the Cross. Praise the blood, then, for its powerof
giving you nearness to God.
Tenthly–a hint only. The blood is very precious, in the tenth place, for ITS
CONFIRMING POWER.No covenant, we are told, was ever valid unless
victims were slain and blood sprinkled. And it is the blood of Jesus which has
ratified the New Covenant and made its promises sure to all the seed.
Therefore it is called“the blood of the Everlasting Covenant.” The Apostle
changes the figure and he says that a testamentis not of force except the
testatoris dead. The blood is a proof that the Testatordied and now the Law
holds goodto every inheritor because JesusChrist has signed it with His own
gore.
Beloved, let us rejoice that the promises are yes, and amen, for no other
reasonthan this–becauseChristJesus died and rose again. Had there been no
bowing of the head upon the tree, no slumbering in the sepulcher, no rising
from the tomb, then the promises had been uncertain, fickle things–not
“immutable things wherein it is impossible for God to lie”–andconsequently
they could never have afforded strong consolationto those who have fled for
refuge to Christ Jesus. See, then, the confirming nature of the blood of Jesus
and count it very precious.
I am almostdone. But there remains another. It is the eleventh one, and that
is THE INVIGORATING POWER of the precious blood. If you want to know
that, you must see it setforth as we often do when we cover the table with the
white cloth and put the bread and wine on it. What do we mean by this
ordinance? We mean by it that Christ suffered for us and that we, being
already washedin His precious blood and so made clean, do come to the table
to drink wine as an emblem of the way in which we live and feed upon His
body and upon His blood.
He tells us, “Excepta man shall eat My flesh and drink My blood, there is no
life in him.” We do therefore, after a spiritual sort, drink His blood and He
says, “My blood is drink, indeed.” Superior drink! Transcendentdrink!
Strengthening drink–such drink as angels never taste though they drink

before the eternal Throne. Oh Beloved, wheneveryour spirit faints, this wine
shall comfort you! When your griefs are many, drink and forget your misery
and remember your sufferings no more! When you are very weak and faint,
take not a little of this for your soul’s sake, but drink a full draught of the
wineon the lees, well refined, which was set abroadby the soldier’s spike and
flowed from Christ’s own heart! “Drink to the full. Yes, drink abundantly O
Beloved,” says Christto the spouse. And do not linger when He invites. You
see the blood has power without to cleanse andthen it has powerwithin to
strengthen. O precious Blood, how many are Your uses!May I prove them all!
Lastly and twelfth–twelve is the number of perfection. We have brought out a
perfect number of its uses–the blood has AN OVERCOMING POWER. It is
written in the Revelation, “Theyovercame through the blood of the Lamb.”
How could they do otherwise? He that fights with the precious blood of Jesus
fights with a weaponthat will cut through soul and spirit, joints and marrow–
a weaponthat makes Hell tremble and makes Heavensubservient and earth
obedient to the will of the men who can wield it!
The blood of Jesus!Sin dies at its presence, deathceases to be death–Hell itself
would be dried up if that blood could operate there. The blood of Jesus!
Heaven’s gates are opened! Bars of iron are pushed back. The blood of Jesus!
My doubts and fears flee, my troubles and disasters disappear!The blood of
Jesus!Shall I not go on conquering and to conquer so long as I can plead
that? In Heaven this shall be the choice jewelwhich shall glitter upon the head
of Jesus–thatHe gives to His people “Victory, victory, through the blood of
the Lamb.”
And now, is this blood to be had? Can it be gotat? Yes, it is FREE, as well as
full of virtue–free to every soul that believes. Whoevercares to come and trust
in Jesus shall find the virtue of this blood in his case this very morning. Away
from your own works!Turn those eyes of yours to the full Atonement made,
to the utmost ransom paid! And if God enables you, poor Soul, this morning
to say, “I take that precious blood to be my only hope,” you are saved and you
may sing with the rest of us–
“Now, freedfrom sin, I walk at large;
The Savior’s blood’s my full discharge.
At His dear feet my soul I’ll lay,
A sinner savedand homage pay.”
God grant it may be so, for His name’s sake. Amen.

BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
The Scope, Means,And Purpose Of Redemption
1 Peter1:18, 19
A. Maclaren
The immediate connectionof these words is with the solemnexhortation to
habitual" fear" - a reverentialawe of our Father-Judge, and a consequent
dread of sin which disturbs our filial relation and incurs his judicial
displeasure. The consciousnessofthe purpose and price of our redemption is
here urged as a motive to such fear. Love and thankfulness, joy and
confidence, are its fruits. But nonetheless certainlywill the adequate sense or'
that greatsacrifice in its costlinessand its purpose lead to our passing the time
of our sojourning here in fear. The gospelof redemption is not meant to
produce carelessness, ora light estimate of the holiness of God or of the
heinousness ofsin, but to make conscience more sensitive, and to lead to
anxious scrupulousness in avoiding all conduct which would be condemned by
the judgment of God. The apostle appeals to that consciousnessas familiar
and certain. He presupposes the distinct and developed teaching of the
sacrificialdeath of Christ, and of its redemptive efficacy, as well known and
universally received. The tone of his reference establishesthe existence ofthat
teaching as the fundamental doctrine of the gospelin all the Churches to
which his letter was addressed. And the use which he makes of that truth, as
the greatmotive to practicalholiness, is in accordancewith all New Testament
teaching, which ever regards Christ's sacrifice in its practicalaspectas the
foundation in us of all goodness.We have here three greataspects of
redemption - what it is from; what it is by; what it is for.
I. WHAT WE ARE REDEEMEDFROM. The originalidea of "redemption"
is, of course, purchase from slavery. Here we have no reference to what is
prominent in other places of Scripture - the deliverance by Christ's blood
from guilt and condemnation. That aspectof redemption is involved in more
than one place in this Epistle, and underlies it all. It must first be experienced
before we can be redeemedfrom the love and practice of evil. But the purpose
which the apostle has here in view leads him to dwell on the other side of the
complex idea of redemption - the deliverance from the bondage of sin, holding

will and affections in thraldom. "Ye are redeemed," says he, "from your vain
conversationreceivedby tradition from your fathers." Now, that expressionis
a pregnant description of the whole course of godless life. "Conversation,"we
perhaps need not observe, is equivalent to "conduct."
1. The implication that all godless life is slavery lies in the very word
"redemption." If we considerhow sin masters a man, ratters his will, and
binds him with iron chains of habit, which hold him in spite of conscience, and
in mockeryof resolutions and efforts, we can understand the deep truth in our
Lord's paradoxicalwords, "He that committeth sin is the slave of sin." Do a
wrong thing, and it is your master, as you will soondiscoverif you try to
efface its consequences andto break awayfrom its dominion. But besides this
implication that all sin is slavery, which lies in the idea of redemption, we have
here, secondly, the thought that all sin is empty and profitless.
2. There is a whole world of meaning in that epithet "vain." It is the
condensationinto one little monosyllable of the experience of all the
generations. All sin is empty. As one of the Hebrew words for it literally
means, it is a missing of the mark. It is always a blunder - no man gets the
goodwhich he expectedby his sin, or, if he does, he gets something else which
spoils it. "It is as when a hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he
awaketh, and is faint." Sin is vain, for it yields no results correspondentto the
nature of man, and so does not satisfy him. It produces none corresponding to
his obligations, and so in the eyes of God, or what is the same thing, in reality,
a godless life is a wastedand barren life, howeverfull of fruit it may appear. It
produces none that abides. All are annihilated by the judgment of God, and
survive only in remorse and pain. The devil always plays with loaded dice. A
godless life is a vain life. "The man who lives it sows much and brings home
little," and "the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate
sorrow."
3. This vain life is the fatal gift from generationto generation. A twofold
application of the factthat it is transmitted from father to son may be made.
This godless course oflife has no higher source and sanctionthan men's
notions. It is a poor miserable accountfor a responsible being to give of his
moral conduct and judgments to say, "My father did so and thought so before
me." In that view this clause exposes the hollowness and weakness ofthe
foundation on which many a godless life is unthinkingly and almost
mechanicallybuilt. Or the apostle's purpose may rather be to signalize the
strength of evil derived from that solemnfact of its transmissionfrom parent
to child. "Heredity" is a new word to express an old truth. A man's ancestors
live againin him. Moralqualities descendas plainly as physical peculiarities.

And besides the strain in the blood which affects the moral nature, example
and habit tell in the same direction. Thus the evil becomes generic andwraps
the whole race in its folds. Hence, too, the need for a new power acting from
without if men are to be redeemedfrom it. There must be a new beginning
from an untainted source if the bitter waters are to be healed. He who is to
redeem the race must come from outside the race, and yet must work within
it.
II. So we have here, WHAT WE ARE REDEEMED BY. The apostle employs
his favorite epithet in speaking of the blood of Christ. It is "precious." Whata
profound sense of the worth of that wondrous sacrifice lies in that one simple
word, more eloquent and full of feeling than a crowd of superlatives!Our
Lord's death is evidently regarded here as sacrificial. The "lamb without
blemish and without spot" distinctly refers to the requirement of the Mosaic
Law in reference to the sacrifice. It is not merely the sinless purity of our
Savior's life, but that purity as fitting Him to be the Sacrifice for the world's
sin, which comes into view here. We cannot do justice to the thought unless we
recognize the sacrificialcharacterofChrist's death as the teaching of this
passage. At the same time, we have to remember that redemption here is
regardedas deliverance from the love and practice of evil rather than from its
guilt and punishment. But while this is true, these two aspects ofredemption
are inseparable. Christ redeems us from the former by redeeming us from the
latter. The sense ofguilt and the fearful looking for of judgment bind men to
sin, and the only way to weanthem from it begins with the assurance of
pardon and the removal of the burden of guilt. Unless we have a gospelof
atonement to preach, we have no gospelof deliverance from the bondage of
sin. Christ makes us free because he dies for us, and in one shedding of his
blood at once annihilates guilt and brings pardon and destroys the dominion
of sin. That death, too, is the one means for so influencing men's hearts that
they shall no longer love evil, but delight to do his will, and by love and
fellowship grow like their Lord. Sin's reign has its fortress in our will and
affections, and Christ's death believed and trusted changes the set and current
of these, casts out the usurper, and enthrones Jesus as our rightful Lord.
Again, Christ's death procures for us the Divine Spirit who dwells in our
hearts, and by his presence "makesus free from the law of sin and death." So
by setting us in new relations to the Divine Law, by taking away the sense of
guilt, by bringing to bear a new motive, by procuring a Spirit to give a new
life, the sacrificialdeath of the sinless Christ redeems us from the power of
sin.

III. WHAT WE ARE REDEEMED FOR. The text is a motive urged by the
apostle to enforce his previous exhortation: "Passthe time of your sojourning
here in fear." The consciousnessofour redemption and the factof our
redemption should lead, not to easyconfidence or indifference, but to
reverential awe and dread of" receiving the grace of Godin vain." The more
clearly the purpose of our redemption to be our complete emancipationfrom
all sin be seen, and the more profoundly we value the tremendous price at
which God has thought it worth while to buy us hack for his own, the more we
shall dread every sin. Surely no motive can so powerfully commend the
solemn comprehensive command, "Be ye holy as I am holy," or so strongly
impel to that wholesome fearwithout which it can never be obeyed, as the
contemplation of the precious blood shed for our sakes.Thatawful sacrifice is
in vain so far as we are concerned, the blood of Jesus has poured out for
naught, unless it has not only availed to stilt our fears and bring us pardon,
but also to "cleanseus from all sin," and make us love and do righteousness.
We are redeemed from sin by the blood of Christ, that we may be the lambs of
his flock without blemish and without spot, like the Shepherd-Lamb. - A.M.
Biblical Illustrator
If ye call on the Father.
1 Peter1:17-21
What the name Father implies
John Rogers.

1. This condemns them that live wickedlyand in their sins, and yet call God
Father. They might as well sayanything. If one should fight againstthe king
and sayhe were a goodsubject; or say he is a man's servant, and yet doth
nothing that he is bidden.
2. But dost thou unfeignedly desire to fear God —(1) In thy generalcalling as
a Christian, to walk holily, righteously, and soberly? Fearestthou to offend
God thyself, or to see Him dishonoured by others? Carestthou to please Him?
Lovest thou to be in His presence? Dostthou conscionablyhear His Word,
and patiently bear His corrections?(2)In thy specialcalling art thou careful to
glorify God, as a parent, child, master, servant, etc., not only in ceasing to do
evil, but in doing good, yea, and labouring to do it well? Thou mayest
comfortably and with goodleave call God Father, and make accountof Him
so to be, which is the greatestprivilege in the world.
(John Rogers.)
The judgment of the Father
S. A. Tipple.
In saying "if ye callon the Father," the apostle did not mean for a moment to
express any doubt; the "if" simply introduces a premise on which a
conclusionis to be based, as when St. Paul wrote, "If ye then be risen with
Christ, seek those things which are above." There was no uncertainty as to
whether the readers of the Epistle — Christianised Jews scatteredabroad —
were calling upon the Father, or more correctly, as to whether they were
calling Him Father. That was just what they were doing, having learned to do
so in their conversionto the Christian faith. They had always believed in a
righteous, impartial Governor of the world — the God, namely, of Moses and
the prophets, who was supremely the just One; and now, since their surrender
to Jesus as their Master, and their acceptanceofHis Gospel, they had come to
name this God, the Father. He whose throne was in the heavens, who hated
iniquity and ruled with faultless justice, He was the Father. "And if He be,"
says the apostle, "pass, I pray you, the time of your earthly sojourning, in
fear." A true word, a word spokenin utter sincerity, and representing what is
fact, may yet prove very misleading — may convey or suggestsomething
contrary to truth. If language be a vehicle of thought, it is far from being
always an adequate or a safe vehicle. Now the word, "Father," we might
anticipate, would speak alike to all. The relation which it designatesis
common enough. Yet how differently the word may affect different
individuals, what different pictures it may conjure up before them! As to what

it shall express to any of us, much will depend upon the kind of domestic
experience we have had, upon the kind of home with which we are most
familiar, in which our childhood and youth were spent. Oh, the world of
grand and sweetmeaning for you, in the word Father! What a solemn, noble,
gracious sound it has!But here is another, upon whose earit falls with no
sound of music, in whose mind it is associatedwith harsh and tyrannical
exercise ofauthority. It brings to his recollectiona testy, passionate, wrath-
provoking man, whose ways were hard to bear; or a man, cold, stern, austere,
whose presence chilledand rather discomforted, or one who, while protecting
and ministering, was uncertain in judgment — now weaklylenient, now
unreasonably and unwholesomelystrict. And St. Peterwould seemto have
apprehended that it might be thus with his readers, that in calling the Divine
Governor, Father, they might scarcelybe alive to all which the name implied;
for he proceeds to indicate to them how it behoved them to be moved and
affectedby the sense ofGod's Fatherhood. "Since you worship as the Father,
Him, who without respectof persons judgeth according to every man's work,
pass the time of your sojourning in fear." And it is very likely that this
conclusionof his rather surprised and staggeredthem. "In fear!" they would
exclaim, perhaps; "should he not have written, on the contrary, 'in comfort
and peace,''in bright courage and hope'"? Yes, yes, most surely; but then, it
should inspire you also with a great awe, and if it do not, the whole meaning of
the word Fathercannot have been graspedby you; for the true Father is not
merely the gracious Protector, Succourer, Provider, but the constant,
persistent, earnest, unsparing Educator, also, whose love deals closelyand
inexorably with eachchild of the family, in desire for his due training and his
best development. Now, as may have been the case with the people whom St.
Peteraddressed, we perhaps, are possessedwith too poor and low an idea of
fatherliness, and, more or less blinded by that idea, need to be reminded of
what he saw and sought to inculcate, namely, that the Fatherhoodof the
Almighty is a very solemn reality, and serves to render life very serious. There
is, I think, a widespreadtendency to repose in it as involving rather less
demand upon us for moral care and earnestness, as allowing us to be rather
less particular about the cultivation of righteousness, ratherless anxious
concerning our spiritual condition and quality. "Let us not be troubled
greatly," they sayto themselves — "letus not be troubled greatlyif we are
negligentand unfaithful, and do not amend or improve as we should; is not
the Judge and Ruler the Father, and will He not therefore be gentle with us;
may He not therefore, overlook much, and make things considerably
pleasanterfor us in the end than we deserve?" Are there not those who reason
thus from the thought of God's Fatherhood? Yet did they considerand

understand, the very thought in which they find relief, would rather set them
trembling. For, see, whatgovernment is so close and penetrating as the
government of a true father? Is there anything in existence to compare with
it? How very much it takes cognisanceof, to frown upon, and rebuke, which
no other government notices!Parents will often punish severely, where the
police would never interfere. The man whom the lad has to fear, when others
show lenity, is his father, and because he is the father. A father's rule, again, a
true father's rule, consists not merely in legislating and in punishing when
laws are broken, but in studying to train toward obedience — to schooland
discipline, with the objectof eliminating or checking what is wrong, and
guiding and helping to the formation of right habits. He not only commands
goodconduct, and visits the opposite with his displeasure, but endeavours in
every way, and by every means, to influence to goodness,and to educate the
child on all sides, with whateverexercisesand appliances may seem fitting, to
the bestof which he is capable. To this end, he watches overand pursues him.
Do we not acknowledge, thatto be at all carelessaboutthe training of our
children, and their culture by us to better things, is to be unfatherly, and that
the fondness which passes by a fault demanding correction, rather than draw
forth tears and put to grief, is not true paternal love? If then there be a Divine
Governorof mankind, all-holy and just, the principle and spirit of whose
government is really paternal, is it not a profoundly serious thing for us men,
in our state of confessedimperfection, with so much in us which as yet falls
short of and is contrary to holiness? Whathope can there be of restor
happiness, what hope of acquittal, for unrighteous souls, if God, the infinitely
righteous, be the Father? Can He ever be content to tolerate them as they are,
to leave them as they are, unvisited, unmeddled with? If He be indeed the
Father, what chance can there be for one of us, of our not receiving according
to our works? Do you not perceive the certainty, the inevitableness ofdue
punishment upon the supposition of His Fatherhood? I think of the suffering
that must yet be in store for such; for without suffering, how are these habits
and sympathies of theirs to be workedout? and I know, methinks, that they
will have to be workedout; that the great paternal love will not be able to
refrain from them, or stay its hand until they are.
(S. A. Tipple.)
Fatherly judgment and filial fear
A. Maclaren, D. D.

"Walk during the time of your sojourning here in fear." How does that
comport with the preceding glowing exhortation to "perfecthope"? How does
it fit in with the triumphant words in the earlier part of the chapter about
"joy unspeakable and full of glory"? Does it not come like a douche of cold
wateron such thoughts? Peterthinks they canco-exist; and, more singular
still, that the same objectcan excite both. Nay! there is no perfecthope which
does not blend with it this fear; and joy itself lacks dignity and nobleness
unless it is soberedand elevatedby an infusion of it.
I. HERE WE HAVE, FIRST, A FATHERLY JUDGMENT. Mark the
meaning and the limits of the fatherly and filial relation which is laid at the
foundation of the exhortation of my text. "If ye callon the Father" — he is
speaking distinctly and exclusively to Christian people. Much has been said in
recentdays, and said in many aspects nobly, and with goodresults upon the
theologicalthinking of our generation, about the Fatherhoodof God. But, we
are never to forgetthat that one word covers in the Bible two entirely distinct
thoughts. In one aspect, Godis the Fatherof the spirits of all flesh by their
derivation of life from Him. But in another "to as many as believed on Him to
them gave He powerto become sons of God." And it is on the latter
Fatherhoodand sonship that the apostle builds the exhortation of my text.
Well, then, further, the apostle here desires to guard us againstanotherof the
errors which are very common in this generation. The revolt againstthe
sterner and graver side of Christian truth has largely found footing in a
mistakenidea of the implications and bearing of that thought that God is our
Father. That relationship has been thought to swallow up all others, and men
have been unwilling to entertain the ideas of a righteous Governor, a supreme
Law giver, a retributive Judge. And Peter brings the two ideas into
juxtaposition, seeing no contradictionbetween them, but rather that the one
necessarilyinvolves the other. Is it not so in your own homes? Does your
fatherhood swallow up your obligation to estimate the moral worth of your
child, and to proportion your conduct accordingly? The judicial aspectis
essentialto the perfectionof Fatherhood;and every family on earth mirrors
the factto those that have eyes to see. Mark, still further, the emphatic
characteristicsofthis paternal judgment which are set forth in my text. It is
"without respectof persons." Peteris going back on his old experience in that
unique word. Do you remember when it was that the scalesfell from his eyes,
and he said, "I perceive that God is no respecterof persons"? It was in the
house of Cornelius in Caesarea. Note,further, that this paternal judgment
which comes on the child because he is a child, is a present one. "Who
judgeth," not "who wilt judge." Ah! day by day, moment by moment, deed by

deed, we are coming under the judicial light of God's eye, and the judicial
force of His hand. "The history of the world is the judgment of the world," so
the lives of individual Christians do record and bear the results of a present
judgment of the present Father. Then mark, still further, what the thing
judged by this present impartial Fatherly judgment is "According to his
work." The text does not say "works,"but "work" — that is, eachman's life
consideredas a living whole; the main drift and dominant purpose, rather
than the isolatedsingle acts, are takeninto view. Now, from all this, there just
comes the one point that I want to urge upon our hearts and consciences —
viz., that Christian people are to expect, today and hereafter, the incidence of
a Father's judgment. The Jews came to Jesus Christ once and said, "What
shall we do that we might work the works of God?" His answermade the
same remarkable use of the singular insteadof the plural to which I have
drawn attention as occurring in this text — "This is the work of God, that ye
believe on Him whom He hath sent." Yes! And if we, in any real sense, are
doing that one work of God — viz., believing on Jesus Christ — our faith will
be a productive mother of work which He will look upon and acceptas an
odour of a sweetsmell, "well-pleasing unto God." There is a paternal
judgment; and the works which pass it are works done from the rootand on
the basis of faith in Jesus Christ.
II. WE HAVE HERE A SON'S FEAR. Now, fearis, I suppose, best explained
as being the shrinking anticipation of evil. But, as the Old Testamenthas
taught us, there is a higher and a lowerform of that apprehension. In the
higher it is sublimed into lowly reverence and awe, which fears nothing so
much as being alienatedfrom God. And that is the fear that my text would
insist upon. The evil which a Christian man, the sonof the Father, and the
subject of His judgment, has most to apprehend — indeed, the only evil which
he has really to apprehend — is that he may be tempted to do wrong. So this
fear has in it no torment, but it has in it blessednessandpurity and strength.
It is perfectly compatible with all these other emotions of which the lower
form of fear is the opposite;perfectly compatible with confidence, with hope,
with joy — nay I rather, without this wholesome and restraining dread of
incurring the displeasure of a loving Father, these exuberant and buoyant
graces lose theirchiefestsecurity. The fear which my text enjoins is the armed
guard, so to speak, thatwatches overthese fair virgins of hope and joy and
confidence that beautify the Christian life. If you wish your hope to be bright,
fear; if you wish your joy to be solid, fear; if you want your confidence in God
to be unshaken, cherish utter distrust of yourself, and fear. Fearonly that you
may depart from Him in whom our hope, and our joy, and our confidence,

have their roots. That fear is the only guarantee for our security. The man
that distrusts himself and knows his danger, and clings to his refuge is safe.
This son's fear is the source ofcourage. The man whose whole apprehension
of evil is dread of sin is bold as a lion in view of all other dangers.
III. Lastly, HERE IS THE HOMECOMING, WHICH WILL FINISH THE
FEAR. "The time of your sojourning," says Peter. Thatthought runs through
the letter. It is addressed"to the strangers scatteredabroad," and in the next
chapter he exhorts Christian people, as "strangers andpilgrims," to "abstain
from fleshly lusts." Here he puts a term to this dread — "the time of your
sojourning." Travellers in foreignlands have to light their fires at night to
keepoff the lions, and to settheir guard to detectthe stealthy approachof the
foe, You and I, whilst we travel in this earthly pilgrimage, have to be on our
guard, lest we should be betrayed. But we are going home. And when the child
gets to the Father's house it does not fearany more dangers, nor need bolts
and bars, nor guards and sentries. Why did God give us this capacityof
anticipating, and shrinking from, future evil? Was it only meant that its red
light should be a danger signalin reference to fleeting worldly evils? Is there
not a far worse possibility before us all? Let me press on you this one
question: Have you ever, in all the wide range which your fears of a future
have taken, extended it so far as to face this question, "What will become of
me when I come into contactwith God the Judge and His righteous tribunal?"
You will come in contactwith it. Let your fear travel so far, and let it lead you
to the one Refuge.
(A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Judgeth according to every man's work
God an impartial Judge
Plain Sermons by Contributors to, Tracts for the Times.
There is a verse in the Psalms which might not unfitly stand as a text for this
whole Epistle of St. Peter. It is at the end of the 111thPsalm, in which David
had been giving most high praise to God for His distinguishing mercy towards
His own chosenpeople. "The fearof the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a
goodunderstanding have all they that do thereafter:the praise of it endureth
forever." As much as to say, that, greatas the mercies are, which God has
provided for His electpeople, they are not such as ought for a moment to set
us free from that godly fear, that religious and awful sense ofGod's
unspeakable presence,which is the beginning, the crown, of all spiritual
wisdom. It must be joined indeed with love, but we must never expect to turn

it entirely into such love as we feel towards those who are dear to us here
among men. In a word, the love and fearof Godwill grow up togetherin a
religious and thoughtful heart; as we come to know more of Him as the
greatestand best of fathers. Such is the Psalmist's accountof the fear of God:
and lestany person, having an eye to the infinite blessings ofthe gospelof
Christ, made known to us but unknown to him, should imagine that this
description of God's fearis now as it were out of date, I wish all Christians
would observe how earnestlythe very same lessonis taught in the New
Testamentalso. Our Lord forewarns us whom we shall fear; Him, namely,
who is able to castboth body and soul into hell. And observe, He speaks thus,
not to those who were still at a distance from Him, but to His own chosen
apostles and followers, to those whom in the same discourse He calls His
friends and His little flock. Surely this one text is enoughto do awaywith all
presumptuous notions of any persons everbecoming so good, or so high in
God's favour, as to do without the fear of God. It is true, St. John says,
"Perfectlove castethout fear," but what fear? surely not religious reverence
of the ever-presentAlmighty Father. St. Peterwas in some measure afraid,
lest the Christians to whom he was writing should so dwell on favours
received, be so entirely takenup with the comfortable promises of the gospel,
as to forgetthe fear of God, and the plain duty of keeping the commandments.
As if he had said, It is our privilege to call God, Our Fatherwhich art in
heaven. Christ Himself in His own prayer has authorised the faithful to do it.
Here the irreligious pride of some men might presently come in, and tempt
them to imagine that God is partial to them; that He favours them above
others, and therefore they may take liberties; He will not be so strict in
requiring an accounthow they have keptHis laws. But St. Peter teaches us
just the contrary: even as the lastof the prophets, Malachi, had taught before,
looking forward by the Spirit to a time when men, having greaterprivileges
than ever, would be in dangerof abusing them more than ever. "If I be a
Father, where is Mine honour?" How can you call the greatGod of heaven
and earth by a name which brings Him so very near you, and not feel an awful
kind of thrill, a sense ofHis presence in your very heart? More especially,
when you add that which he takes notice of in the next place:that this our
heavenly Father is one who "without respectof persons judgeth according to
every man's work." This was in a greatdegree a discoveryof God's nature
and charactermade by the Gospel. Before the coming of our Lord and
Saviour, neither Jew nor Gentile lookedon the God of heaven as being
impartial, and judging without respectof persons. As for the Gentiles, "They
thought wickedly, that God was evensuch an one as themselves." Again, even
God's own people, the Jews, were generallyapt more or less to mistake the

nature and meaning of the greatfavour which God Almighty had shown them
for so many ages. Theykept continually saying within themselves, "We have
Abraham to our Father"; in such a manner as if they were sure of especial
considerationto be had of them on that accountmerely; as if they might be
looserin their conduct than other men. When, therefore, both Jew and
Gentile were to be called into one greatfamily in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, one of the things most necessaryto be taught was, "Godis no
respecterof persons," etc. This St. Peter had taught long ago to the Jews,
when, by especialdirection of the Holy Ghost, he had to convert and baptize
Cornelius and his household; and now again he repeats the same instruction
to the convertedGentiles themselves, lestthey should abuse their own
privileges, and fancy they were entitled to favour at the hands of the most holy
God, merely for being on His side. Nor may we imagine that the apostle spoke
to the men of those times only; the Christians of all times are in danger of the
same kind of error: we are all too apt to indulge the childish imagination, that
our own case has something particular in it: that God Almighty therefore, just
and terrible as He is, will surely make exceptions in our favour. The reward,
then, of those who shall receive God's blessing at last will be strictly in
proportion, not to their deservings, but to their sincerity and steadinessin
working. "Theywill be justified," as St. Paul says, "by faith, without works of
any law";yet, in another sense, they are justified by the works ofthe gospel
law, not by faith only. God graciouslyaccepts,not their bare nominal good
meaning, but their goodmeaning proved by their works. And there is no
respectof persons on this plan: because the faith meant is not a strong
emotion; but it is the steadydevotion of the heart to do the will of God our
Saviour, and not our own will. Therefore, letus fear — for we have indeed
greatreason— lest, so much depending on our own works, those works be
found at the last day to be nothing at all, or next to nothing. This
considerationof itself is surely terrible enough; but there is one thing yet
remaining, which makes it yet more alarming to the conscience:and it is that
which St. Peter sets before us by his use of the word "sojourning" in this
passage. "Passthe time of your sojourning here in fear." As much as to say,
"Pass yourtime in fear, not knowing how short it may be." The churchyards
around us are fastfilling; it may be our own turn next; and how far have we
advanced, by the aid of God's Spirit, in that difficult work of putting off the
mind of this world, and putting on the mind of Christ?
(Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts forthe Times. ")
Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear

Fearof judgment to come, and of redemption accomplished
J. Leckie, D. D.
Before the word "fear" there are severalreasonsgivenfor its exercise. We
call God Father. He who applies such a name to God must fear if he thinks
what this involves on his part. Especiallywhen it is remembered that while He
is a Father He is also a Judge strictly righteous and impartial. Succeeding it is
another ground. We are redeemed. And our redemption has been effectedby
the most costlysacrifice — the blood of Christ. Those who believe that cannot
but feela peculiar obligation lying upon them. They must be Christ's in heart
and soul and action. And they cannot but fearlest they should belie such a
marvellous consecration.
I. THE SPHERE AND OPERATION OF CHRISTIAN FEAR. There are
some to whom the importance attachedto fearin this place and elsewhere
seems in contradictionto the teaching of the Apostle John, who speaks offear
as being castout by perfect love. But it is to be observedthat it is perfect love
to which this prerogative is assigned. But with imperfect love fear has an
important sphere of action. It affords stimulus to imperfect love and pushes it
on to perfection. Those whom the apostle exhorts to fear are the same whom
he has exhorted to hope to the end. They are men to whom Christ is precious,
who love Him and rejoice in Him with a joy unspeakable and full of glory.
Fearexisting along with such elements cannot even burden. It balances,
sobers, solemnises, deepens, intensifies. Butit is often urged that the actions
which are stimulated by fear have no moral worth, that fearis but a form of
selfishness, andthat therefore no fruit produced by it, howeverwell it may
look to the eye, can be truly acceptable to God. This has a very specious look.
It appears a particularly fine, exalted, spiritual doctrine. And it really is so in
its main features. It is true; but it is only a half truth, and half truths are often
the most dangerous of errors. What is the other half of the truth? Although
fear in itself and by itself cannot produce truly goodor spiritually right
action, it yet performs a vital function in keeping the soul awake. Fearrings
the alarm bell and rouses the conscience.It blows the trumpet of warning. It
creates pause and opportunity for all better and nobler things to make
themselves heard. It allows a man to become aware ofthe realities, and when
he is once placed in contactwith them the bestthings begin. Everything
depends on being made earnest, sensitive, lifted into a sense of the eternal
verities. The highest principles, righteousness and love, are often in the best of
men forgetful and fickle. They are ensnared, oppressed, and bewildered many
a time, and need the keeninfluence of fearto bring them to themselves again.

II. FEAR IN RELATION TO THE FATHER THAT JUDGETH. Fearis
obviously far from being the main feeling towards Godas a Father.
Confidence and love are especiallythe feelings calledout by the Fatherhoodof
God. But God says, "If I be a Father, where is My fear?" Godclaims fear as a
Father — reverence, no doubt, mainly — honour, awe in the realising of His
infinitude; but something more than these, something else. ForGod as a
Father judgeth. Did He not judge and condemn all sin He could be no true
Father. Love must hate sin and show its hatred. Father is no weak, soft,
indulgent word. It means love, and because it means love it means right, and
undying opposition to evil, The Father judgeth without respectofpersons.
There is no other Father than the Father who judgeth. If I believe in a Father
that judges, that will certainly rouse me up — it will wakenmy slumbering
energies, it will cause me to look well to the state of my heart and life; but the
word Father will always keepthe thought of judgment from overwhelming
me.
III. IN ORDER TO HAVE A TRUE CHRISTIAN FEAR WE MUST PLACE
TOGETHER JUDGMENTBY WORKS AND REDEMPTION BYTHE
BLOOD OF CHRIST. The thought of judgment to come is essentialto the
depth and the reality of life. Without this everything is left in chaos.
Conscienceis not satisfied, nor is reason. But what reasonand conscience
demand cannot but awakenfear. This fearis deepenedand yet transformed
by the thought of redemption. Redemption seems at first wholly opposedto
judgment by works, farmore than even the Fatherhoodof God does. For
what does the Scripture mean by redemption through the blood of Christ? It
means that the Son of God took our place and bore us on His heart in living
and dying; it means that the sacrifice of Christ is that moral vindication of law
and right, that tribute to the holiness of God which God accepts as sufficient
amends and reparation. By faith man falls in with this Divine arrangement,
identifies himself with it and is reconciledto God. And this faith that accepts
and trusts and frees from condemnation, also works by love. Salvationby
faith and judgment by works are therefore no contradiction. It is judgment by
faith takenin its flowerand fruit. But do we not see how fear awakesin the
view of such a wonderful redemption? There is something akin to fearraised
in the soul by the sight of sublimity. The wide expanse of the skyfilled with
sun shine or peopled with worlds raises anawe sublime, but often weighing
heavily on the soul. Vast fervent love indeed banishes fear. It is the one thing
that does this. And yet such a love as this — so holy, so mysterious, so
resolute, so devoted — love coming from such a height, and going down into
such depths, cannot but awakena certain awe. We are overawedby the

brilliancy of the light. "We fear the Lord and His goodness."And then when a
man thinks of being redeemedby such a sacrifice, whenhe tries to realise at
what a costredemption has been effected, does not a certainfear come over
him lesthe should prove miserably unworthy of it all? But let not this fear in
view of redemption be deemedinconsistent with the joy and freedom which
belong to the gospel. It is preciselythe man who has that realising sense of
redemption which makes him afraid of not proving worthy of it, who has also
joy. These two, fear and joy, grow out of the same root of redemption. The
more joy in Christ any man has, the more will he be afraid of not conforming
sufficiently to Christ.
(J. Leckie, D. D.)
God will be served in fear
Plain Sermons by Contributors to, Tracts for the Times.
If these words were not known for certainto be the words of Holy Scripture
they would appear to many very severe, very unfit to win souls to God.
"What!" it would be said, "are people to fear always? all people, those who
are farthestadvanced in true religion and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost?
What, then, is to become of the natural cheerfulness of youth; of the
enjoyments inseparable from even health and spirits, kind relations and
friends; what of the testimony of a goodconscience?All this and more is said
by different sorts of persons againstthose who, following God's own method,
would make them serious in the true scriptural way; by teaching them, and
encouraging them in the true reverence. It may be of use to us if we consider
what those tempers are which are most apt to make men impatient of being
told to "pass the time of their sojourning here in fear." There is a certain time
of life in which we are almost all of us, more or less, partakers ofthis pagan
error of disliking all that is really serious, all that would impress us
thoroughly with the fear and dread of Almighty God. When youth and
strength are high, before we have tasted of our Father's severerdiscipline, we
shrink from the sadder lessons ofScripture and the Church: we say to
ourselves, "Surelythis world, so full of enjoyment, can never have been meant
merely as a place for the exercise ofhard and severe penitence." If, then, any
young person happen now to be listening to me, let me beseechhim to be
aware of this danger: to watchin himself that spirit of confidence and gaiety
which, under pretence of mere youthful cheerfulness, wouldlead him to make
light of God's most holy commandments. Let us only recollectourselves, how
it is with us at our prayers. Are we not too much inclined to saythem over

without seriouslybringing before our minds the awful presence ofHim to
whom we pray? This too is one of the reasons why outward religion, the
religion of the body, is of so very greatconsequence;viz., that it helps very
much to keepand improve in our hearts the true and wholesome fearof God.
Becausein truth not only does nature teach us to express our feelings in such
postures, but also these very bodies of ours, so fearfully and wonderfully
made, are of purpose so framed as to have an influence in their turn on our
souls. Soldiers, we know, in all armies, are made to march erect, and to be
firm and straight in all their bodily movements; not merely for the
appearance'sake, but because the very attitude, in some unaccountable way,
tends to make them bolder and firmer in mind; and in like manner there is no
question, that kneeling and other humble gestures in devotion, practisednot
for form's sake, but in obedience to the Church, and in the fear of God, would
cherish and improve that very fear in our hearts. Bishop Wilson has said,
speaking ofsmall instances ofself-denial, "Saynot, It is a trifle, and not fit to
offer in sacrifice to God." And the same may be said of small occasionsof
nourishing the remembrance of Him; of short prayers frequently through the
day, of turning every event and accidentof life, not openly, but as much as
may be in secret, into an opportunity for devout prayer and recollection.
(Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts forthe Times.)
Godly fear
Abp. Leighton.
I. THE FEAR HERE RECOMMENDEDis a holy self-suspicionand fear of
offending God, which may not only consistwith assuredhope of salvation, and
with faith, and love, and spiritual joy, but is their inseparable companion, as
all Divine graces are linkedtogether. And, as they dwell together, they grow
or decrease together. The more a Christian believes, and loves, and rejoices in
the love of God, the more unwilling surely he is to displease Him, and if in
danger of displeasing Him, the more afraid is he of it; and, on the other side,
this fear being the true principle of a wary and holy conversation, fleeing sin
and the occasions ofsin and temptations to it, is as a watchor guard that
keeps out the enemies of the soul, and so preserves its inward peace, keeps the
assurance offaith and hope unmolested, and that joy which they cause
unimpaired, and the intercourse of love betwixt the soul and her beloved
uninterrupted. Certainly a goodman is sometimes driven to wonder at his
own frailty and inconstancy. What strange differences will be betwixt him and
himself! How high and how delightful at some times are his thoughts of God,

and the glory of the life to come;and yet how easilyat another time base
temptations will bemire him, or, at the least, molestand vex him! And this
keeps him in a continual fear, and that fear in continual vigilance and
circumspection. When he looks up to God, and considers the truth of His
promises, and the sufficiency of His grace and protection, and the almighty
strength of His Redeemer, these things fill his soul with confidence and
assurance;but when he turns his eye downward againupon himself, and finds
so much remaining corruption within, and so many temptations and dangers
and adversaries without, this forces him not only to fear, but to despair of
himself; and it should do so, that his trust in God may be purer and more
entire. This fear is not cowardice. It does not debase, but it elevates the mind;
for it drowns all lowerfears, and begets true fortitude to encounter all
dangers, for the sake ofa goodconscienceandthe obeying of God. From this
fear have sprung all the generous resolutions and patient sufferings of the
saints and martyrs. Becausethey durst not sin againstGod, therefore they
durst be imprisoned, and impoverished, and tortured, and die for Him.
II. THE REASON they have here to persuade to this fear is twofold.
1. Their relation to God us their Father and their Judge. But as He is the best
Father, so considerthat He is withal the greatestand most just Judge. There
is here the sovereigntyof this Judge, the universality of His judgment, and the
equity of it. "Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear." You are
encompassedwith enemies and snares;how canyou be secure in the midst of
them? Perfectpeace and security are reservedfor you at home, and that is the
end of your fear.
III. THE TERM OR CONTINUANCE OF THIS FEAR. It continues all the
time of this sojourning life; it dies not before us: we and it shall expire
together. "Blessedis he that feareth always," says Solomon;in secretand in
society, in his own house and in God's. We must hear the Word with fear, and
preach it with fear, afraid to miscarry in our intentions and manners. "Serve
the Lord with fear," yea, in times of inward comfort and joy, "rejoice with
trembling"; not only when a man feels most his own weakness, but when he
finds himself strongest. None are so high advancedin grace here below as to
be out of need of this grace;but when their sojourning shall be done, and they
are come home to their Father's house above, then no more fearing. No
entrance for dangers there, and therefore no fear.
(Abp. Leighton.)
The right feelings of the heavenly pilgrim

EssexRemembrancer.
I. THE NATURE OF TEE CHRISTIAN'S LIFE.
1. His past condition. Whence has the pilgrim come? From the city of
destruction.
2. His present state. He is a sojourner.
3. His future destination.
II. THE MANNER IN WHICH THE CHRISTIAN'S LIFE SHOULD BE
SPENT. In fear."
1. A fear of reverence. Contrastthe Divine majesty with our meanness.
2. A fear of caution.
3. A fear of anxiety. It is better to err on the side of timidity than presumption.
(EssexRemembrancer.)
The awe of the redeemed
U. R. Thomas.
I. Awe of the redeemed TOWARDS THE REDEEMINGGOD. "Ifye callon
Him as Father." Not simply appeal to Him, but acknowledgeHis relationship
to you, admit His claims on you.
II. Awe of the redeemedBECAUSE OF THEIR RECOLLECTION OF THE
EVIL FROM WHICH THEY HAVE BEEN REDEEMED.
1. A consciousnessofbeing redeemed.
2. A consciousnessofbeing redeemedfrom a habit of life that was evil.
3. A consciousnessofbeing redeemedfrom an evil habit of life that was
inherited.
III. Awe of the redeemedBECAUSE OF THE COST BY WHICH THEY
HAVE BEEN REDEEMED.
1. This costin contrastwith the wealth of this world.
2. This costas revealedin Jesus Christ.
3. This costas knownto the infinite heart of the Eternal God.
4. This costas approved by God.
5. This costas incurred for man's sake.

IV. Awe of the redeemedBECAUSE OF THE DESTINYTO WHICH THEY
HAVE BEEN REDEEMED. Faithand hope in God. God the impregnable
fortress, the enduring home.
(U. R. Thomas.)
The Christian's fear
G. Mathew, M. A.
I. First, I would remind you of THE AWFUL NATURE OF THAT
"FATHER" ON WHOM YOU PROFESSTO CALL.
1. Engaging, indeed, is the title under which your religion addresses you. But
that God, that Father, to whom you must one day go, is a Being so pure that
even the heavens are tainted in His sight.
2. It is not only your appearance before Him on that distant day that makes
your sojourning on earth so fearful; for every hour of your existence here this
incomprehensible and unseenBeing is about your path. No retirement by
night is so dark but His eye canpenetrate it; no walk by day so intricate but
He can follow it; no secretof the soul so hidden but He can see it.
II. To the nature of that heavenly Father, into whose inheritance we are
invited, the text directs us to add THE JUDGMENT TO WHICH WE SHALL
ONE DAY BE SUMMONED.
III. The third argument which the apostle uses for religious fear is drawn
from THE MEANS ADOPTED THROUGHTHE BLOOD OF CHRIST FOR
THE EVERLASTING SALVATION OF OUR SOULS.
IV. THE NATURE OF THE WORLD IN WHICH WE DWELL, AND THE
WEAKNESS OF THE HUMAN HEART. All the warnings that are given us,
all the hopes that are held out to us, remind us of the danger of the state in
which we dwell. The world, by professing to he Christian, is more dangerous;
because it has lostthe appearance ofenmity, and has greaterpowerover us by
its failures. Look into your own heart, and, remembering yourself as a being
designedfor immortality, think on its wanderings, its coldness, its impurity,
its inconstancy, and say if anything was everso poor, so frail, so blind, so
unprepared to meet its God!
(G. Mathew, M. A.)
The reverence due to God

D. Malcolm, LL. D.
I. THE NATURE OF THE FEAR WHICH IS HERE ENJOINED. Fearis a
passionimplanted in our nature to deter us from what is hurtful, and to guard
us againstdanger. To lose the favour of the Almighty here, and be eternally
deprived of His presence hereafter, are evils the most formidable to man. And
while fear imprints these so deeply on the mind as to produce an anxious
dread of incurring His displeasure, and a serious concernto gain His
approbation, it becomes that religious regulating principle which is here
enjoined. There is a natural fear of God impressed upon the minds of all. He
has infused His fear into our minds, that, by this rational awe, He might deter
us from those practices to which our corrupt nature too much inclines us, and,
by the swordof justice, overrule our affections, too refractoryto be otherwise
reclaimed. It may be observed, farther, that the rational fear before us is
equally remote from that excess offear which gives rise to superstition, and
that unwarranted defect of it from which profane levity proceeds. It is a sober
cheerfulness, a manly seriousness,whichbecome the servants of God. This
demands no melancholy abstractionfrom the world; it condemns the
indulgence of no innocent delight. But calm and temperate enjoyment is the
utmost that is assignedto man. And hence religion wiselyrecommends a spirit
cheerful but composed, equally remote from the humiliating depressionof
fear and the exulting levity of joy. The propriety of fear as a regulating
principle, not only religion, but the nature of our present state, the business
here assignedus, the instability of all things round, and the awful concerns of
futurity, concurto establish and enforce.
II. IN WHAT MANNER IT SHOULD INFLUENCE OUR CONDUCT IN
THE PILGRIMAGE OF LIFE. To engage us to depart from evil and to keep
the commandments is the direct tendency of religious fear. Calling forth our
vigilance and circumspection, it will admonish us of latent dangers, and lead
us to a faithful discharge of every duty and a serious preparation for eternity.
Its influence will be habitual and steady. In every state, and at all times, the
serious impression will be felt, by producing in our lives a constantfear of
God, a virtuous deportment in the world, and a holy reverence for ourselves.
Let us first considerits influence on our religious duties. To form right
notions of the Deity, cherish suitable affections, and express these by acts of
religious worship and a holy life, form the chief parts of piety. But not to the
more immediate acts of public and private devotion will this influence be
confined; it will extend to every act of religious obedience, and to everything
sacred. It will form the constanttemper of the true Christian, and direct the
habitual tenor of this life. Nor is this destructive to human enjoyment. The

restraints it imposes are curbs on vice; but real pleasure they extend and
improve. It is rational enjoyment which they prescribe, in place of momentary
bliss.
III. MOTIVES TO ENGAGE ALL TO LIVE HERE IN FEAR.
1. The nature of our present state and our future prospects calls upon us thus
to fear. Can we rest in security where all is changing? Canwe not be
apprehensive where all things cause alarm? We stand on the brink of a
precipice, from which the slightestbreath may drive us headlong. Is this a
place, is this a time, to swellin fancied security, riot in unlawful pleasure, and
indulge in unbridled joy?
2. By living in fearwe will escape unnumbered evils. From thoughtless
inattention fatal dangers arise — fatal not only to our worldly prosperity, but
to the far more important concerns ofthe soul.
3. It will promote the rational enjoyment of life. Always to tremble destroys
felicity, but cautious fear improves and extends it. To the man that feareth
always, no accidenthappens unexpected; no goodgives immoderate joy, nor
no evil unnecessaryalarm.
4. It will demonstrate our attachment to Jesus, andlead to the fulfilment of
the vows you solemnly came under at the table of your Lord.
5. It leads to happiness eternal. The time is at hand when fearshall no more
disquiet.
(D. Malcolm, LL. D.)
Fearof terror
T. Chalmers, D. D.
There is a feartowards God that might be denominated the fear of terror. It is
the affectionof one who is afraid of Him. There is in it the alarm of
selfishness. It is at all times connectedwith a view of one's own personal
suffering; and the dire imagery of pain, and perhaps irreversible
wretchedness, is perhaps that which chiefly gives dismay and disturbance to
his soul. It carries in it no homage to the sacrednessofthe Divinity, yet is
aggravatedby a sense of that sacredness;because thenGod, regardedas a
God of unappeasable jealousy, is deemedto be intolerant of all evil; and the
guilt-stricken soul, in looking up to the holiness of the Lawgiver, looks
forward to its owndestruction in that everlasting hell where the transgressors
of the law find their doom. Now it is obvious that, while haunted by a fearof

this sort, there can be no free or willing or generous obedience.There might
be a service of drudgery, but not a service ofdelight; such obedience as is
extorted from a slave by the whip of his overseer, but not a free-will offering
of love or of loyalty. It is reservedfor the gospelof Jesus Christ to do away
this terror from the heart of man, and yet to leave untarnished the holiness of
God. It is the atonement that was made by Him which resolves this mystery,
providing at once for the deliverance of the sinner and for the dignity of the
Sovereign. But while this view of God in Christ extinguishes one fear — the
fear of terror — it awakensanotherand an altogetherdistinct fear — the fear
of reverence. Godis no longerregarded as the enemy of the sinner; but in thy
Cross of the Redeemer, where this enmity was slain, there is full
demonstration of a moral nature that is in utter repugnancy to sin. Now that
we have entered into reconciliation, we hear not the upbraidings of the
Lawgiverfor the despite which in former days we have done unto His will.
But the office of the gospelis to regenerate as wellas reconcile;and every
disciple who embraces it is met with the saying, "This is the will of God, even
your sanctification." Suchis the wide difference betweenthese two affections;
and, corresponding to this, there is a difference equally wide betweenthe legal
and the evangelicaldispensations. Under the former economy, the alternative
to do this and live is, that if you fail in doing this you will perish everlastingly.
Now let this be the greatstimulus to the performance of virtue, and then think
of the spirit and of the inward characterwherewiththey are impregnated. It
is, in fact, a characterof the most intense selfishness. It is the fearof terror
which goads him on to all his obedience, and compels him to act religiously.
For such a religion as this it is not needed that he should have any capacityof
moral principle. It is enoughif he have the capacityof animal pain. He is
driven along, not by the feelings of his spiritual, but by those of his sentient
nature. Now it is not so with the economyof the gospel. The gate of heaven is
thrown open at the outsetto its disciples, and they are invited with confident
step to walk towards it. God holds Himself forth not as a Judge who reckons,
but as a Father who is reconciledto them.
(T. Chalmers, D. D.)
Sojourners on earth
Bp. Hall.
1. Our life is a sojourning on earth.
2. This sojourning hath a time.
3. This time must be passed.

4. This passagemust be in fear.
5. This fearmust be of a Father.
6. He is so a Father, that He is our Judge.
(Bp. Hall.)
Not redeemedwith corruptible things
Redemption
EssexRemembrancer.
I. CONSIDER, WITHGRATEFUL EMOTION, THE MERCIFULAND
IMPORTANT FACT OF MAN'S REDEMPTION.
1. On all hands it is acknowledgedthat redemption implies the pardon of sin,
but the dominion of sin must also be subdued.
2. Are you redeemed from a vain conversation, from a useless formof
religion, from an unspiritual professionof faith in the gospel, from trifling
and unprofitable behaviour, from the course of this world?
II. CONSIDERTHE UTTER INADEQUACY OF HUMAN MEANS TO
HAVE ACCOMPLISHED THIS GREAT REDEMPTION.
III. THE EFFICACIOUS MEANS WHEREBYTHIS GREAT
REDEMPTION HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED. Learn —
1. The necessityof faith.
2. Beware ofentertaining unscriptural views of redemption.
(EssexRemembrancer.)
Christianity a redemptive power
D. Thomas, D. D.
I. IT IS A REDEMPTIONFROM BAD CHARACTER.
1. Sin is a worthless life. A vain conversation.
2. It is a worthless life transmitted.
II. IT IS A REDEMPTIONBY A COSTLYSACRIFICE.
1. By the sacrifice ofa life.
2. By the sacrifice ofa most perfect life.
III. IT IS A REDEMPTION ORDAINEDBEFOREALL TIME.

1. Unsought.
2. Unmerited.
3. Absolutely free.
(D. Thomas, D. D.)
The things of this world are insufficient to redeem from
John Rogers.
spiritual bondage: — The reasons hereofmay be these:
1. God hath no need of any of these things, and they are His already (Psalm
24:1; Psalm 50:10).
2. Our soulis an immortal and incorruptible thing, a creature that hath a
beginning, but never shall have end.
3. Sin is a transgressionagainstanInfinite God, and so deservethan infinite
punishment.
4. Many times even for a trespass committedagainstmen, these things will not
be taken for a recompense.
5. These often, when God sends some bodily judgment, are unable to do men
any pleasure, nor can at all pacify God.
6. These cannotredeema man's bodily life and save it from death, nor can
they prolong a man's life an hour beyond his appointed time; much less can
they redeem his soul.
7. These cannotpurchase wit, learning, eloquence for those that want them,
much less sanctificationand grace.
(John Rogers.)
Vain conversationreceivedby tradition
Children infected by parental traditions
N. Byfield.
I. DIVERS SORTS OF EVILS HAVE BROKEN INTO THE LIFE OF MAN
BY THE TRADITIONS OF FATHERS, as —
1. Gross errors in opinion.
2. Divers superstitions in their life, as were the traditions of the Pharisees.
3. Children learn divers sins only, or chiefly from their parents.

II. If any ask WHY THE TRADITIONS OF PARENTS SHOULD BE SO
INFECTIOUS.
1. Becausethey are castinto the natures of the children in the youngestyears,
and so are the more infectious because they were first seasonedwith them.
2. Becauseofthe affection children bear to their parents, and their opinion of
their sufficiency.
3. Becausethey are continually conversantwith them, and so see no other or
no better precepts or examples.
III. The use may be for INSTRUCTION, BOTHTO PARENTS AND
CHILDREN.
1. Parents should be humbled under the considerationof the misery they
bring upon their children, both by propagationand tradition.
2. Children should also learn from hence(1)Notto restwholly upon the
tradition of parents, anal to know it is not a sufficient rule to warrant their
actions.(2)Whatgoodis commended especiallyofthe goodfathers, those we
should embrace, and the rather for their sakes.
3. Shall not this evidently confute their gross folly, that so much urge the
traditions of the fathers?
4. Are men so zealous for the tradition of their fathers of the flesh; and shall
not we be much more zealous for the traditions of God Himself delivered in
His Word? His counsels are all perfect; there can be no defect in them; and
further, no parents canafford us such acceptation, orreward for obedience.
(N. Byfield.)
Vain conversation
Abp. Leighton.
The mind of man, the guide and source of his actions, while it is estranged
from God, is nothing but a forge of vanities. St. Paul speaks this of the
Gentiles, that they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart
was darkened, their greatnaturalists and philosophers not excepted. And thus
the Lord complains by Isaiahof the extreme folly of His people (Isaiah 44:20),
and by Jeremiah, that their hearts are lodges of vain thoughts (Jeremiah
4:14), and these are the true cause ofa vain conversation. The whole course of
a man's life out of Christ is nothing but a continual trading in vanity, running
a circle of toil and labour, and reaping no profit at all. Now, since all a man's
endeavours aim at his satisfactionand contentment, that conversationwhich

gives him nothing of that, but removes him further from it, is justly called
vain conversation. Let the voluptuous person sayupon his death bed what
pleasure or profit doth then abide with him of all his former sinful delights.
Let him tell if there remain anything of them all, but that which he would
gladly not have to remain, the sting of an accusing conscience, whichis as
lasting as the delight of sin was short and vanishing. Let the covetous and
ambitious declare freely, even those of them who have prosperedmost in their
pursuits of riches and honour, what ease alltheir possessions ortitles do then
help them to, whether their pains are the less because their chests are full, or
their houses stately, or a multitude of friends and servants waiting on them
with hat and knee. And if all these things cannot ease the body, how much less
can they quiet the mind! It is a lamentable thing to be deluded a whole lifetime
with a false dream. Would it not grieve any labouring man to work hard all
the day, and have no wages to look for at night? It is a greaterloss to wearout
our whole life, and in the evening of our days find nothing but anguish and
vexation. Let us then think this, that so much of our life as is spent in the ways
of sin is all lost, fruitless, and vain conversation. And as the apostle says here,
you are redeemed from this conversation, this imports it to be a servile slavish
condition, as the other word, vain, expressesit to be fruitless. And this is the
madness of a sinner, that he fancies liberty in that which is the basest
thraldom; as those poor frantic persons that are lying raggedand bound in
chains imagine that they are kings, and that their irons are chains of gold,
their rags robes, and their filthy lodge a palace.
(Abp. Leighton.)
The precious blood of Christ
The precious blood of Christ
J. Cox.
I. WHAT PRECEDEDIT. Bloodof lambs, bulls, and goats, without number,
and through all ages. Types mostcostly. Prophecies grandand minute.
II. THE PRODIGIES WHICH ATTENDEDTHE SHEDDING OF THIS
BLOOD. On previous occasions, whensacrificeshad been offered, there were
tokens of God's favourable notice — Abel, Noah, Abraham, Gideon, etc. But
when was it heard that the sun was clothedas in sackcloth, thatthe rocks
were rent, the earth shaken, etc.

Jesus was flowing with precious blood

Jesus was flowing with precious blood

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