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SERMON XVIII.
THE STONE OF ISRAEL
“Behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua. Upon one stone shall be seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.” – Zech. iii. 9.
Amid all the tribulations which the church has suffered, she has ever been preserved and sustained by the gracious providence of God; like the bush in Horeb – burning, yet unconsumed.
In the days of this prophet, the church was feeble and afflicted. Having just returned from the captivity in Babylon, by which she had been greatly reduced, she resembled the myrtle among the oaks, the firs, and the cedars. But the Messiah appears to the prophet, standing among the myrtle-trees, and encouraging the children of Israel to proceed in rebuilding Jerusalem and the temple. The good success of Zerubbabel is represented by a golden candlestick, with a bowl at the top, and seven lamps for the light, and seven pipes to convey the oil to the lamps, and two olive-trees – one on each side – pouring the oil into the pipes. This was intended also to set forth the relation of Christ to his church, as her head, and the fountain whence she derives strength and nourishment, enabling her to grow in grace, and the saving knowledge of God. As they bring forth the foundation and the corner-stones with joy, wondering at the Divine goodness and mercy, Jehovah shows them that he is about to lay in Zion the foundation and chief corner-stone of a spiritual temple: “Behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua. Upon one stone shall be seven eyes. Behold I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.”
Let us consider the important truths taught us in this metaphorical description of Christ and his mediatorial work.
I. Christ is the foundation and chief corner-stone of his church. This figure is often used in the Holy Scriptures. “From hence is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel” – said Jacob in the blessing of Joseph. “The stone which the builders refused,” said the Psalmist, “is become the head-stone of the corner.” And Isaiah said – “Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I lay in Zion, for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation.” All these predictions were appropriated by Messiah, to whom they were intended to apply. Christ is the foundation and chief corner-stone. “Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” “Ye are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets” – that is, the foundation which they recognized and recommended – “Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone.” He is indeed the foundation of the world; and in the fulness of time, was declared the foundation of the church. All the buildings of mercy that have ever been erected stand firm and immovable on this Rock of Ages.
In the architecture of the first covenant in Eden, there was a Stone under one end, and earth under the other. “The first man was of the earth, earthy.” And when the storm and the flood came, the earth gave way, and the building fell. But in the architecture of the second covenant upon Calvary, God laid help upon one that was mighty. “The second man is the Lord from heaven.” A stone suitable for the foundation of a royal palace is very valuable, because the safety of the building depends upon the firmness of the foundation. This Stone is “chosen of God and precious.” It is long and broad enough for the whole edifice, stretching from eternity to eternity; and sufficiently strong to sustain it, though millions of living stones be built into the spiritual temple; and such is its firmness, that time, with all its storms, shall never destroy it, or injure its beauty. It is a tried and precious stone, composed of all that is excellent on earth, and all that is glorious in heaven – a sinless specimen of humanity, possessing “all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” As a foundation, it is laid deep in the earth; as a corner-stone, it rises above the stars, and binds the whole building in heaven and earth together.
II. This Stone is “laid before Joshua.” God has revealed his Son, as the only foundation, and chief corner-stone, to the wise master-builders of his church, in every age of the world. The seed was promised in Eden. Holy men of old beheld the promises afar off. Abraham desired to see his day; he saw it, and was glad. This was the foundation of the prophets and apostles. As Moses found so much of God in the rod that was in his hand, that he could think of no other means for working a miracle; so the prophets and apostles saw and felt so much of Christ in the revelations of which they were made the media, that they could never think of salvation from sin and hell but through his meritorious death; and the most dreadful tortures, and even martyrdom itself, lost their terrors in “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
This Stone was laid also before Wickliff and Luther. The office and work of Christ had been lost sight of, in the intercession of saints, and the merit of human works. But “the foundation of God standeth sure;” and all the rubbish which Roman monks had heaped upon it could not hide it from the reformers, whose vision had been cleared and quickened by light from heaven. And it was laid before Wesley and Whitefield in England, who built upon it “gold, silver, and precious stones;” and before Powell, Erbery, and Wroth – before Rowlands, Harris, Jones, Evans, Thomas, and Francis – as the foundation of that wonderful revival in Wales, the blessed effects of which we feel to this day.
We are now endeavoring to exhibit the glory and excellency of this Stone, as the foundation of your hopes. Will you build upon Christ? Can you venture your eternal salvation upon the merit of his sacrifice? “He that believeth on him shall not be ashamed.”
III. It is said that “upon one stone shall be seven eyes;” by which we may understand, either seven eyes of others, looking upon the stone; or seven eyes in the stone, looking upon others.
If we take the former idea, there are many eyes looking upon this “One Stone;” some from envy, malice, and wrath; others from astonishment, gratitude, and love. It attracts the gaze of heaven, earth, and hell. The eternal Lawgiver looks to Messiah for satisfaction on behalf of guilty man. Mercy and Truth look upon him as the foundation of their palaces. Righteousness and Peace look upon him as the only place where they can salute each other with a kiss. The devil and his angels, sin, death, and the grave, look upon him with eyes of anger and revenge; determined, if possible, to bruise him with their weapons, and cast him among the rubbish, into the pit of corruption. Celestial spirits look upon him with eyes of wonder and delight; announce his coming to Joseph and Mary, sing his advent to the shepherds of Judea, accompany him through all his pilgrimage of sorrow, minister to him after the temptation in the wilderness, talk with him on the mount of transfiguration, sustain him in the agony of the garden, gather unseen around his cross, roll away the rock from the entrance of his tomb, and attend him with songs as he ascends to glory. And believers look upon him with eyes of faith and love, as the foundation of all their hopes, in this world, and that which is to come – as their “wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.”
The other interpretation refers these “seven eyes” to the perfection of our Lord’s mediatorial character. The priest under the law was to sprinkle the blood seven times upon the mercy-seat, and seven times upon the leper; the first to typify a perfect atonement for sin; the second, a perfect application of its benefits to the believer. When the Lamb of God revived from the ashes on the altar of Calvary, he appeared “in the midst of the throne,” having seven horns and seven eyes, to denote the completeness of his prophetic wisdom, and the fulness of his regal authority. He sustains to his people the threefold relation of high-priest, prophet, and king. He is our high-priest, not after the order of Aaron, whom death robbed of his sacerdotal vesture; but “a high-priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedec.” He is our prophet, speaking with the tongue of the learned, and as one having authority – speaking to the conscience and the heart, and the dead hear his voice and live. He is our king, according to the decree, “on the holy hill of Zion;” exalted by the right-hand of the Father, and “declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead.” Methinks I hear the Father speaking to Caiaphas: – “Have you a law, and do you say that by your law he ought to die? I will read to you the law on the morning of the third day, and you shall see that he is the resurrection and the life – that I have made him both Lord and Christ!” And methinks I hear the voice of the risen Messiah: – “I have travelled through the forest of the world’s temptations, through the dens of lions, the mountains of leopards, the dark haunts of devils, and the dominions of death and the grave; and have opened, through all the desert, a new and living way to my Father’s house. The powers of darkness thought to strip me of my official regalia, and bind me for ever in the grave; but I have broken Cæsar’s seal, and rent the rocks of Joseph’s sepulchre, and am alive for evermore – the high-priest, prophet, and king of Israel. Though I gave myself up to death upon the cross, death could not deprive me of my threefold office. I died with my vesture on, my miter and breastplate, as high-priest over the house of God. I died with the book of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven in my hand, as a prophet to instruct my people, and lead them into all truth. I died with the crown upon my head, and all my enemies beneath my feet, as a king, whose dominion is everlasting, and whose glory shall never end. Death and hell could not take from me my triple diadem; and I came forth from the place of the dead in the power of an endless life; and will continue to wear my robes unspotted, till I have finished my mediatorial work, and gathered all the saints unto myself!”
IV. This stone is fitted and prepared by God himself. “I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the Lord of hosts.”
This figure evidently refers to the sufferings of Christ, by which he was made perfect for his mediatorial work. Many hammers and chisels were upon him from Bethlehem to Calvary; but they were all appointed of God, as the instruments of his preparation to be the sure foundation and chief corner-stone of the church. The Scribes and the Pharisees, Caiaphas, Judas, Pilate, the Jewish populace, and the Roman soldiery, whatever their malicious designs, only accomplished “the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God” upon his well-beloved Son. All was appointed by the Father; all was understood by the Messiah; all was necessary to secure the great objects of his advent. It pleased the Father to bruise him, and put him to grief; and he cheerfully submitted to suffer, that we might be spared. O, wonder of wonders! Emmanuel wounded, that sinners might be healed! the Golden Vessel marred, that the earthen vessels might be saved! the Green Tree dried up, that the dry tree might grow as the lily, and cast forth its roots like Lebanon! According to another metaphor, “the plowers plowed upon his back; they made long their furrows.” And they were deep as well as long. They plowed into his very heart, and his body was covered with blood, and his cry of agony pierced the supernatural gloom of Golgotha, and soured the wine of dragons throughout the region of Gehenna!
Thus the foundation was fitted and prepared; and wicked men and devils but blindly did the work which God had before determined to be done. It is fixed in its place, firm and immovable; and the chief Architect is raising other stones from the quarry, and building them thereon, “for a habitation of God through the Spirit.” Brethren, “look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and the hole of the pit whence ye are digged” – even the flinty rock of impenitence, and the horrible pit of corruption. I have known men relinquish the hewing of stones from the quarry, because it was more expense than profit; and I have known men abandon the digging of ore from the mine, because it was too deep in the mountain. But Christ “descended into the lower parts of the earth,” and imbibed the gas of death. He carried in his hand the hammer of the word, which breaketh the flinty rock in pieces. He expelled the deadly vapor, blasted the solid adamant, and prepared the way for the workmen; and when he ascended, he sent down the apostles, to gather stones for his spiritual temple; while he stands at the top of the shaft, and turns the windlass of intercession, by which he draws up all to himself.
The work was gloriously begun on the day of Pentecost, and men and demons have never yet been able entirely to stop its progress. The pope and the devil tried their best, for a long time, to keep the digging and hewing tools of the twelve wise master-builders concealed in the vaults of the monasteries; but Luther, with the lamp of God in his hand, discovered them, brought them forth, and set them at work; and millions of lively stones have since been dug out, and sent up from the pit, to be placed in the walls of “God’s building.”
And still the gospel is mighty in the salvation of souls, of which we have abundant evidence in the principality. What multitudes were converted at Langeiththo in the days of Rowlands and Williams; when two thousand communicants in the winter, and three thousand in the summer, met every month in the same place around the table of the Lord! And there are now in Wales hundreds of large and flourishing churches among the Baptists and Independents. Glory to God, that I have in my own possession the register of hundreds, who have been hewn from the flinty rock, and raised from the horrible pit, to a place in the Lord’s holy temple – from drunkenness to sobriety, from unbelief to faith in Christ, from enmity to reconciliation to God, from persecution to patient suffering for righteousness’ sake, from disobedience to the filial temper of “sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty;” and many of them I have seen going home, rejoicing, to their Father’s house above!
Hark! what do I hear? The hammers and chisels of mercy all over the mountain of the militant church. The great Architect is building up Zion. He is gathering his materials from Europe, and Asia, and Africa, and America. Glory to God! I hear his footsteps to-day in this mountain; I see his hand in this congregation. Brethren in the ministry, we are workers together with him. Delightful work! How easy it is to preach, when the hand of God is with us! Let us labour on! The topstone will soon be brought forth with shouting, the sound of the building shall cease, and we shall receive our reward!
V. The gracious design for which this Divine Foundation is prepared, is the justification and sanctification of sinners. “I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.”
Christ came to destroy the works of the devil – to take away sin by the offering of himself. As the moon is illuminated by the sun, so the rites and ceremonies of the old testament are illustrated by the facts and doctrines of the new. The priesthood of Jesus explains the priesthood of Aaron. The one sacrifice of Calvary explains all the sacrifices that went before. The glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ enters the windows of Solomon’s temple, and penetrates the Holy of Holies within the vail. All the bloody offerings of the Mosaic ritual were intended only as types of him who “removed the iniquity of that land in one day.”
What land? Emmanuel’s land – a garden enclosed, and measured by the line of God’s eternal purpose; including all the redeemed of the Lord, who will ultimately be brought to glory. The map of “that land” was in the mind of Jehovah, when he made this promise through the prophet. He remembered his covenant engagement before the foundation of the world in reference to its redemption. He saw it encumbered by mountains of sin, and blasted by the fiery curse of the law; and in the fulness of time, he sent his Son to deliver it.
To remove iniquity is to remove its penalty and its pollution. Christ hath accomplished both for believers. He “bore our sins in his own body on the tree!” He carried upon his own shoulder the burden which must have sunk the whole human race to eternal perdition. By enduring our punishment, he provided for our purification. In his own wounds a fountain was opened wherein we may wash and be clean. From his own heart the balm was extracted whereby our moral leprosy may be cured. “Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.” See how our great High-priest removes the iniquity of his people; not, like Aaron, by many sacrifices; but by the single offering of himself, “in one day.”
The word which is here rendered “remove” is in the original the same as that which is used to express the translation of Enoch. As Enoch was removed from the earth, beyond the sight of man, and the power of death; so sin is removed by the Mediator – removed for ever from the believer’s heart and conscience – blotted out – cast into the depth of the sea – carried away into the land of forgetfulness. The removal is perfect and everlasting.
This was a work which Jewish sacrifices were too weak to accomplish. For two thousand years the victims bled upon the altar, and not a single sin was actually removed. Every year the goat of the burnt-offering must bleed afresh, and the scape-goat must be sent away into the wilderness. But Jesus, the great ante-type of all these emblems, removed in one day, by a single offering, the iniquities of all who believe in him, from the fall to the end of time.
All the sacrifices that preceded his coming were intended only to remind men that they were sinners, that they needed an atonement, and that justification and eternal life could flow only from the meritorious sufferings of the future Christ. But when the substance came, the shadows passed away, and the promised work was at once accomplished; and all our iniquities were lost in the sea of mercy, which rose to a full tide in the Mediator’s merit.
Sinners, do you expect ever to be made free from sin? Would you have your leprosy cured, your impurity cleansed, and the curse removed? Come to our great High-priest! Lo, he stands by the altar, and the blood is on his hands! He waits to be gracious! Come, for he has virtually removed your iniquity, and it requires in you but a simple act of faith to realize the benefit! “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved!”
SERMON XIX.
JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH
“But how should man be just with God?” – Job ix. 2.
The Almighty proclaimed himself to Moses, “the Lord, merciful and gracious;” and in the New Testament, he is called “the God of all grace.” “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound; that as sin reigned unto death, even so might grace reign, through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord.” God is determined to glorify the unsearchable riches of his grace in the salvation of sinners. But how can this be done, without casting a cloud over the Divine throne, and bringing into contempt the Divine law? How can the guilty be considered and treated as innocent, without an apparent indifference to the evil of sin, and a total disregard of the claims of eternal justice? How can the rebel be acquitted in the court of Heaven, with honor to the character of God, and safety to the interests of his moral government? This is a question which angels could not answer; but it has been answered by the God of angels. The light of nature and reason is too feeble to afford us any aid in this inquiry; “but we have a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto we do well that we take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place;” for “God hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ.”
Following, then, the guidance of the New Testament, let us consider the nature and the ground of a sinner’s justification with God.
I. To justify is the public act of a judge, declaring a person innocent, not liable to punishment. “It is God that justifieth” the ungodly. Justification, in its strict sense, and remission of sins, are two very different things. Job could forgive his friends; but he could not justify them. But in the gracious economy of the gospel, these are always immediately connected; nor these alone, but other and superior mercies – mercies infinite and unspeakable. Those whom God justifieth are not only forgiven, but also purified and renewed – not only delivered from condemnation, but also entitled to eternal life – not only redeemed from the curse of the law, but also blessed with the spirit and the privilege of adoption – not only liberated from bondage and imprisonment, but also constituted heirs “to an inheritance that fadeth not away.” They are “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.” They are kings and priests, and shall reign for ever and ever. God having given his Son as our surety, and published “the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus,” and taken his seat upon the throne of grace in the character of a merciful judge, he proclaims the believer free from condemnation, and “accepted in the Beloved.”
In a human court, a man may be either justified or forgiven. Sometimes the jury find the prisoner innocent, and he is acquitted; sometimes they find him guilty, and he is forgiven. The former is an act of justice; the latter, an act of mercy. No earthly court can go farther; no earthly court can justify the guilty. But God is able, through the wonderful economy of substitution and atonement revealed in the gospel, in the same court, from the same throne, by the same law, and in the same sentence, to proclaim full pardon and free justification to the sinner. By virtue of the obedience and suffering of Christ on his behalf, he is at once forgiven and justified. Faith unites us to Christ, and gives us an interest in him, as our Mediator, who “bore our sins in his own body on the tree.” “Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man to whom God imputeth righteousness without works: – Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.”
The righteousness by which the sinner is justified infinitely transcends all other righteousness in earth or heaven. It is the righteousness of the Second Adam – an invaluable pearl, to which all the members of Christ’s mystical body are equally entitled. It is the pure gold of the gospel, which cannot be mixed with the works of the law, or derive any increase of value from human merit. It lies upon the very surface of evangelical truth, like oil upon the water. It is the righteousness finished upon the cross – a complete wedding garment furnished by the Son of God, which the sinner has only to put on to be prepared for the marriage supper of the Lamb.
How cold and cheerless is the doctrine of the mere moralist, leaving the poor sinner wallowing in the mire, and weltering in his blood, with nothing but his own works to depend upon for salvation! But the doctrine of justification through the satisfying righteousness of Jesus Christ warms the heart, and quickens the soul of the believer into a new and heavenly life. Here is our deliverance from the curse of the law. Here the relation between us and Adam is annihilated, and another relation is established between us and Christ. Here is the sea into which our sins are cast to rise no more. “There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit;” and they may boldly say – “O Lord, I will praise thee; for though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest me!”
II. The ground of our justification now claims a more particular attention.
This is a subject of the greatest importance; for if we build upon the sand, the whole superstructure inevitably falls, and great must be the fall thereof. The Jews, being ignorant of God’s righteousness – the righteousness of faith – went about to establish their own, which was by the works of the law. Let us examine these two foundations – the righteousness which is of the law, and that which is of faith.
What sort of righteousness does the law demand, as the ground of our acceptance with God? It must originate in the heart. It must be commensurate with life, and not a broken link in the chain, for he that offendeth in one point is guilty of all. It must be so comprehensive as to include all your duties to God, your neighbor and yourself. It must engage all the powers of your mind, without the least imperfection, in thought, word, or deed. The coin must be pure gold, of full weight and measure, and bearing the right and lawful stamp. “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.”
“But what saith the righteousness which is of faith?” “Believe In the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” “He that believeth shall never be confounded.” “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” “He hath magnified the law, and made it honorable.” “He hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.” This is the doctrine which answers all our questions, removes all our guilty fears, and opens to us a path of hope in the valley of the shadow of death. The justifying righteousness of Christ is as deep as the misery of man, as high as the requirements of God, as broad as the commandment, and as long as eternity. It is sufficient for all them that believe, and able to save unto the uttermost. It is a deluge which covers the mountains of transgression, and bears the believer securely in the ark. It comes to the sinner, shut up under the judgment of God, and reads to him the article of his manumission. I hear it addressing the guilty in the following language: —
“I saw the Son of God coming forth from the bosom of the Father, and uniting himself to the nature of man. I saw the mighty God manifested in the Son of Mary, and lying in a manger. I beheld some of his blood shed, as an earnest to the law, when he was eight days old. I stood in the garden of Gethsemane, when he drank the cup of trembling mingled and presented by his Father’s justice. I was with him on Calvary, when he blotted out the handwriting of Eden and Sinai, and nailed it to his cross – when he finished the redemption of man, and spoiled the powers of darkness, and sealed with his own blood the covenant of peace, I beheld him descending to the lower parts of the earth, and lying under the sinner’s sentence in the grave. I beheld him rising in the same human nature, with the keys of death and hell in his hand, and the crown of the mediatorial kingdom upon his head. I beheld him ascending to the right-hand of the Father, leading thy captivity captive, and entering into heaven itself, there to appear in the presence of God for thee. And now I see him in the midst of the throne, as a lamb newly slain; and the merit of his sacrifice, as a sweet-smelling savor, fills the heaven of heavens. On thy behalf he has honored the law, satisfied the claims of justice, and opened a new and living way, whereby God can be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.”
Thus the question is answered – “How should man be just with God?” Sinners are “justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the law.” This is the key-stone of the gospel, and the strength of the arch of salvation. The only way to obtain acceptance with God is by grace; “and if by grace, then it is no more of works.” In the justification of the sinner, Divine grace and human works can no more be mixed together than oil and water, for they belong to different covenants. Christ came into the world, not to repair the old covenant, but to be the mediator of a new covenant, established upon better promises – not to mend the leaky and sinking vessel of the law, but to build and launch a new ark of salvation, and rescue the shipwrecked and the drowning. The law could not save. The law is holy, but we are unclean. The law is spiritual, but we are carnal. The law is righteous, but we are guilty. The law is good, but every imagination of the thoughts of the heart of man is evil, and only evil, and that continually. The law will not consent to a compromise with the sinner, will not relax its claims upon him, nor in any way accommodate itself to his fallen condition. Its power to condemn is commensurate with its authority to command.
Thus we see how it is that no man can be justified by the deeds of the law. We are not under the law, but under grace. Were we under the law, the deeds of the law would be sufficient for our justification. The law demands obedience; obedience satisfies the law. Between obedience and the law there is perfect correspondence and harmony; the one gives what the other asks. There is also a perfect agreement between grace and faith. Grace bestows freely, without money and without price; and faith, having nothing to pay, receives humbly and thankfully. Grace, by bestowing, acquires great glory; faith, by receiving, obtains great happiness. God confers blessings according to the riches of his grace; sinners receive according to the strength of their faith. Faith and the law cannot agree at all, for both are seeking and receiving; neither can works and grace agree, for both live by communicating. Therefore “by grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast.” Ye are justified through the righteousness and merit of Christ, who became your substitute, and both obeyed the law and suffered the penalty in your stead.
