Sermão 478 | Cristo - perfeito através dos sofrimentos

Crendo que Deus conhece de antemão todas as coisas, não podemos deixar de chegar à conclusão de que ele conhece de antemão a queda, e que foi apenas um incidente no grande método pelo qual ele se glorificaria. Prevendo a queda e preordenando e predestinando o plano pelo qual resgataria seus escolhidos das ruínas dela, ele teve o prazer de fazer desse plano uma manifestação de todos os seus atributos e, em grande medida, uma declaração de sua sabedoria. Você não encontra no método de salvação um único toque de loucura. Os gregos podem chamar isso de loucura, mas eles próprios são tolos. O evangelho é o mais alto refinamento da sabedoria, sim, da sabedoria divina, e não podemos deixar de perceber que não apenas em suas características principais, mas em seus pequenos pontos, nos detalhes e nas minúcias, a sabedoria de Deus pode ser vista mais claramente. Assim como na construção do tabernáculo no deserto nem um único laço ou tache foi deixado ao acaso ou ao julgamento humano, também no grande esquema da salvação, nem um único fragmento foi deixado à vontade humana ou à loucura da carne. Parece ser uma lei da ação divina que tudo deve estar de acordo com a conveniência e a necessidade envolvidas na sabedoria perfeita - "Era necessário que Cristo sofresse"; e em nosso texto encontramos: “Convinha àquele de quem são todas as coisas e por quem existem todas as coisas, ao trazer muitos filhos à glória, que ele aperfeiçoasse o capitão de sua salvação através dos sofrimentos”. Parecia ser apenas uma ordem de adequação e congruência naturais, de acordo com a natureza e o caráter de Deus, que o plano de salvação fosse exatamente o que é. Oh! quão cuidadosos devemos ser aqueles que têm que pregá-lo para nunca alterá-lo no menor grau. Como deveríamos elevar nossas orações ao céu para que Deus nos dê uma compreensão clara, primeiro, do que temos a ensinar, e depois um método claro de ensinar o que aprendemos, para que nenhum erro possa ser cometido aqui, pois um erro aqui estragaria aquela imagem expressa de Deus que brilha no evangelho, e impediria nossos ouvintes de verem a bela adequação e proporção que são tão adaptadas para revelar o caráter perfeito de Deus. Dizemos que o plano deve ser o que é; não poderia ser de outra forma para estar de acordo com o caráter divino; e, portanto, é imperativo para nós que não façamos nenhuma alteração nele, não, nem uma palavra, para que não ouçamos o anátema do Apóstolo sibilando no ar como um raio vindo de Deus - "Se nós ou um anjo do céu pregar qualquer outro evangelho além do que vocês receberam, seja anátema!"

Nosso texto nos convida a considerar três detalhes: primeiro, que Cristo é um Salvador perfeito; segundo, que ele se tornou assim através do sofrimento; e em terceiro lugar, que o fato de ele ser aperfeiçoado através do sofrimento enobrecerá e dignificará toda a obra da graça. "Convinha a ele" - parecia apropriado - que ao trazer muitos filhos à glória, ele tornasse o capitão de sua salvação perfeito através dos sofrimentos."

Para começar, então, antes de tudo com o alegre pensamento, tão conhecido de todos vocês, mas tão necessário ainda de ser repetido, que O SENHOR JESUS ​​É UM SALVADOR PERFEITO.

Pois, em primeiro lugar, ele está perfeitamente adaptado para o trabalho de poupar. A constituição singular de sua natureza o adapta ao seu ofício. Ele é Deus. Era necessário que ele fosse assim. Quem senão Deus poderia sustentar o enorme peso da culpa humana? O que senão a Divindade seria capaz de suportar o terrível fardo da ira que seria carregado sobre seus ombros? Que conhecimento senão a Onisciência poderia compreender todo o mal, e que poder senão a Onipotência poderia desfazer esse mal? Que Cristo é Deus deve ser sempre um tema de grata admiração para seu povo. Aqueles que rejeitam a divindade de Cristo só podem ter um fraco fundamento sobre o qual descansar; a areia inconstante, pareceria mais estável do que a base da sua esperança. Basta que um homem desenvolva sua própria obediência; mais do que suficiente para um homem suportar a ira por si mesmo; como, então, ele poderia fazer isso pelos outros e por aquelas incontáveis ​​multidões cuja ruína deveria ser recuperada? Mas, amados, sabemos que se ele fosse apenas Deus, ainda assim não estaria preparado para ser um Salvador perfeito, a menos que tivesse se tornado homem. O homem pecou; o homem deve sofrer. Foi no homem que os propósitos de Deus foram derrotados por algum tempo; deve ser no homem que Deus deve triunfar sobre seu grande inimigo. Ele deve tomar sobre si a semente de Abraão, para que possa ocupar o lugar deles e se tornar seu chefe federal. Um anjo, acreditamos, não poderia ter sofrido na árvore; não teria sido possível que uma natureza angélica tivesse suportado aquelas agonias que a ira de Deus exigia como expiação pela culpa. Mas quando vemos o Senhor Jesus diante de nós, sendo verdadeiramente o Filho do Homem, e certamente o Filho de Deus, percebemos que agora o desejo de Jó é atendido; temos um diarista que pode colocar a mão em ambos e tocar a humanidade em sua fraqueza e a divindade em sua força; pode fazer uma escada entre a terra e o céu; pode transpor a distância que separa a humanidade caída da perfeição do Deus eterno. Nenhuma natureza, a não ser tão complexa como a de Jesus de Nazaré, o Filho de Deus, teria sido perfeitamente adaptada para a obra da salvação.

E como ele foi adaptado em sua natureza, assim, amados, fica muito claro para nós que ele também foi adaptado por sua experiência. Um médico deve ter alguma familiaridade com doenças; como ele saberá o remédio se ignora a doença. Nosso Salvador sabia de tudo porque “ele tomou nossas enfermidades e carregou nossas doenças. Ele foi tentado em todos os aspectos, como nós”. Ele não olhou para o pecado da distância do céu, mas caminhou e viveu no meio dele. Ele não passou apressadamente pelo mundo como alguém pode andar apressadamente por um hospital sem entender claramente a doença, mas viveu seus mais de trinta anos bem no centro dela, vendo o pecado em todas as suas formas; sim, vendo-o em formas que você e eu ainda não vimos. Ele viu isso em formas demoníacas, pois o inferno foi solto por um período, para que o combate pudesse ser mais terrível e a vitória mais gloriosa. Ele viu o pecado ser levado ao seu grau mais agravado, quando crucificou o próprio Deus e pregou Jesus, o herdeiro do céu, no madeiro amaldiçoado. Ele entendeu a doença; ele não era empírico; ele havia estudado todo o caso; por mais enganoso que seja o coração humano, Jesus sabia disso; Por mais inconstante que seja em suas várias aparências - por mais proteico que seja em suas formas constantemente variadas, Cristo conhecia e entendia tudo. Sua caminhada ao longo da vida no hospital da natureza humana lhe ensinou a doença. Ele também conhecia os sujeitos sobre quem operar. Ele conhecia o homem e o que havia nele; sim, melhor do que o cirurgião mais habilidoso pode saber por experiência. Ele sabia por experiência. Ele mesmo tomou nossas enfermidades e expôs nossas tristezas. Ele próprio era o paciente, ele próprio o remédio. Ele assumiu a natureza da raça que veio salvar, e assim cada sentimento o tornou perfeito em seu trabalho; cada pontada o instruía; cada palpitação de angústia o tornou sábio e o tornou ainda mais competente para cumprir os propósitos de Deus ao levar muitos filhos à glória. Se você adicionar à sua experiência perfeita seu caráter maravilhoso, verá como ele estava completamente adaptado ao trabalho. Para um Salvador, precisamos de alguém que seja cheio de amor, cujo amor o torne firme em seu propósito, cujo amor o constranga a vincular todo poder e talento que possui à grande obra. Queremos alguém com zelo tão ardente que o devorará; de coragem tão indomável que enfrentará todos os adversários em vez de renunciar ao seu fim; queremos alguém, ao mesmo tempo, que misture com este bronze da coragem o ouro da mansidão e da gentileza; queremos alguém que esteja determinado a lidar destemidamente com seus adversários, que use o zelo como uma capa e que lide com ternura e compaixão com a doença dos homens enfermos pelo pecado, tal como temos em Cristo. Ninguém pode ler o caráter de Cristo com qualquer tipo de compreensão sem dizer: “Esse é o homem que quero como meu amigo”. O argumento que Cristo usou foi muito poderoso - "Tomai sobre vós o meu jugo e aprendei de mim." Por que? "Pois sou manso e humilde de coração." O carácter de Cristo qualifica-o para ser o Salvador do mundo, e há algo no seu carácter, quando devidamente compreendido, que é tão atraente, que podemos muito bem dizer:

Seu valor se todas as nações soubessem, Claro que o mundo inteiro também o amaria.

Se tivéssemos que fazer nós mesmos um Salvador, e coubesse a um parlamento dos senadores mais sábios da raça formar um personagem ideal que atendesse ao caso do homem, se o Divino nos tivesse emprestado sua própria sabedoria para a ocasião, só poderíamos ter desejado uma pessoa como Cristo é. Em caráter, deveríamos ter precisado exatamente dos traços de natureza e de espírito que vemos em Jesus de Nazaré, o Filho de Deus. Achamos, portanto, que podemos dizer com segurança a todo homem não convertido: Cristo está adaptado para ser um Salvador para você. Sabemos que os santos, sem que o digamos, responderão: “Sim, e ele está perfeitamente preparado para ser um Salvador para nós”. Homem, mas Deus; osso dos nossos ossos, e ainda assim não considerar nenhum roubo ser igual a Deus; sofredor como nós, portador de todos os males da humanidade e, ainda assim, diferente de nós, livre do pecado, santo, inofensivo, imaculado: qualificado em todos os aspectos para empreender e realizar a grande obra; Jesus, tu és um Salvador perfeito para nós.

Furthermore, as Christ is thus perfectly adapted, so he is perfectly able to be a Savior. He is a perfect Savior by reason of ability. He is now able to meet all the needs of sinners. That need is very great. The sinner needs everything. The beggar at the door of Christ, asks not for crumbs or groats, but needs all that Christ can give. Nothing short of all-sufficiency can ever meet the wants of a poor son of Adam fallen by sin. Christ Jesus hath all fullness dwelling in himself. "More than all in Christ we find:" pardon in his blood; justification in his righteousness; wisdom in his teaching; sanctification in his Spirit. He is the God of all grace to us. Deep as our miseries and boundless as our sins may be, the mines of his unfathomable love, his grace, and his power, exceed them still. Send a spirit throughout all nations to hunt up the most abject of all races; discover, at last, a tribe of men degenerated as low as the beasts; select out of these the vilest, one who has been a cannibal; bring before us one lost to all sense of morality, one who has put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter, light for darkness and darkness for light; let that man be red with murder, let him be black with lust; let villainies infest his heart as innumerable and detestable as the frogs of Egypt's plague—yet Christ is able to meet that man's case. It is impossible for us to produce an exaggeration of the work of sin and the devil, which Christ shall not be able to overtop by the plenitude of his power. "He is able to save unto the uttermost them that come unto God by him." That divine word which made heaven and earth, is able to make a new creature in Christ Jesus; and that power which never can be exhausted, which after making ten thousand times ten thousand worlds could make as many morel is all in Christ, and is linked with the virtue of his merit and the prevalence of his blood, and therefore he hath all power in heaven and in earth to save souls. As he has this power to meet all needs, so he can meet all need in all cases. There has never been brought to Christ a man whom he could not heal. If born blind, a touch of his finger has given sight; if lame he has made him leap like a hart; ay, and though dead, the voice of Christ has made Lazarus come forth from his tomb. Some troubled consciences think their case is not in the list of possible cures, let us assure them it must be. I would like to know who is the vilest sinner, for if I knew him I should feel delighted to behold him, since I should see a platform upon which my Lord's grace might stand to be the more gloriously resplendent in the eyes of men. Are you the vilest of the vile this morning? Do you feel so? Does Satan say you are so? Then I pray you do my Master the honor to believe that he is still able to meet your case, and that he can save even you. Though you think yourselves the ends of the earth, the very ravellings of the garment of manhood, yet "look unto him and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth, for he is God, and besides him there is none else." As he can meet all cases, so he can meet all cases at all times. One villainy of hell is to tell sinners that it is too late. While the lamp holds out to burn, the vilest sinner that returns shall find mercy in him. At the eleventh hour he saved the thief; let not this be a reason for your procrastination—that were ungrateful let it, however, be a cause for hope—that were reasonable. He is able to save you now. Now, at this hour, at this very moment, if thou dost trust him thou art saved. If now, without an hour's delay to retire to thy chamber, without even five minutes' time elapsing in which to prepare thy soul for him, if now thou canst believe that Christ can save thee, he will do it, do it at this moment. His cures are instantaneous; a word, and it is done. Swift as the lightning's flash is the accomplishment of his purpose of grace. As the lightning flasheth from the west even to the east, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be at his last great advent; and so is it in his marvellous advent into the hearts of sinners whom he ordains to save. Able to meet all cases, able to meet them at this very hour is Christ. Sinner, Christ is perfectly able to save thee, and to save thee perfectly. I know the will and wit of man want to be doing something to begin salvation. Oh, how wicked is this! Christ is Alpha, why would you take his place and be an Alpha to yourselves? I have had this week two cases in which I have had to hold a solemn argument with troubled souls about this matter. Oh! the "ifs" and "buts" they put; the "perhaps," and "and," and "peradventures," and "Oh, I don't feel this," and "I don't feel that!" Oh, that wicked questioning of Christ! While talking with them, endeavoring to comfort them, and I hope not unsuccessfully, I was led to feel in my own mind what an awful crime it is to doubt God, to doubt Him that speaks from above, to doubt Him when he hangs bleeding on the tree. While it seemed to me to be such a hard thing to bring a sinner to trust Christ, yet it did seem, on the other hand, such a sin of sins, such a master-piece of iniquity that we do not trust Christ at once. Here is the plan of salvation—trust Christ and he will save you. But they say "I do not feel enough;" or else "I have been such a sinner;" or else "I cannot feel the joy I want;" or else "I cannot pray as I would." Then I put it to them. Do you trust Christ? "Yes," they will say, "I do trust Christ, and yet am not saved." Now, this makes God a liar, for he says, "He that believeth in him is not condemned, and he that believeth on him hath everlasting life." When a soul professes to trust Christ, and yet says "I am afraid he will not save me," what is this but telling the Eternal God to his face that he is false? Can you suppose a grosser infamy than this? Oh! that men were wise, that they would take God at his word, and believe that Christ is a perfect Savior, not asking them to help him at the first, but able to begin with them just where they are, and to lift them up from all the hardness of their hearts and the blackness of their souls to the very gates of heaven. He is a perfect Savior, soul, and a perfect Savior for you. You know the old story of the brazen serpent. There may have been some very wise persons who, when the brazen serpent was lifted up, would say "I cannot look there and be healed, for, you see, I do not feel the venom in my veins as my next door neighbor does." The man is bitten, and his veins are swelling, but he says he does not feel the pain so acutely as his neighbor, and he does not feel the joy of those who are healed, or else he would look. "If some angel would come," he says, "and tell me that the brazen serpent was set up on purpose for me, and that I am ordained to be healed by it, then I would look." There is a poor ignorant man over there who asks no questions but does just as he is told. Moses cries "Look, look, ye dying; look and live!" and, asking no questions about what he has felt, or what he was, or what he should feel, yonder poor soul just looks and the deed is done; the flush of health runs through him, and he is restored, while the questioner, the wise man in his oval conceit, too wise indeed, to do as he is told, perishes through his own folly, a victim to the serpents, but yet more a victim to his own conceit. Christ is a perfect Savior to begin with you, and he will also be a perfect Savior to carry on the work. He will never want your help; he is a perfect Savior to finish the work. He will bring you at last to his right-hand, and throned with him in light you shall bless and praise the name of God that He provided a perfect Savior for men.

Once more, let me remind you that Christ is a perfectly successful Savior. I mean by this that, in one sense, he has already finished the work of salvation. All that has to be done to save a soul Christ has done already. There is no more ransom to be paid; to the last drachma he hath counted down the price. There is no more righteousness to be wrought out; to the last stitch he has finished the garment. There is nothing to be done to reconcile God to sinners; he hath reconciled us unto God by his blood. There is nothing wanted to clear the way to the mercy-seat; we have a new and living way through the veil that was rent, even the body of Christ. There is no need of any preparation for our reception on the part of God. "It is finished," was the voice from Calvary; it meant what it said, "It is finished." Christ hath finished transgression, made an end of sin, and brought in everlasting righteousness. And, as he has been successful in doing all the work for us, so, in every case where that work has been applied, perfect success has followed. Produce a single case where an application has been made to Christ without success. Find a single soul in whom Christ has commenced his work, and then left it. You do hear of some who fall from grace: produce them. We are told of some who are children of God to-day, and children of the devil to-morrow: produce them. We are told that whom once he loves he may leave; produce those whom he has ever left. Let them be seen. Hold them up to the gaze of men and devils—the patients in whom Christ's medicine did work awhile, but failed to produce a lasting cure. Heaven were clothed in sackcloth if such a discovery were made, for if he hath failed to keep on earth, why not in heaven? Hell were echoing with infernal laughter if one such instance were found, for where were the honor of God's word and promise? We challenge you, ye princes of darkness, and ye who make the vast assembly of the damped in hell, we challenge you to produce in all your ranks a single case of one who trusted in Christ that he would deliver him and yet Christ cast him away; or one in whom the new spirit was infused and regeneration wrought, and who yet, after all fell and perished like the rest. Lift up your eyes to heaven; innumerable as the stars are the spirits redeemed by blood; so many as they are, they are all witnesses to the fact that Christ is a perfect Savior; that he is no professor who does not perform, for he has carried them all there, and as we gaze upon them are can say, "Thou hast redeemed them unto God by thy blood;" thou canst save, and perfectly save, O Lord Jesus Christ.

Now I have thus dwelt upon the perfect adaptation, the perfect ability, and the perfect success of Christ, our text tells us that it became him for whom are all things that he should give us such a Savior. "For whom are all things," says the Apostle; that is, all things are made for his glory. Now, it could not have been for God's glory to give us an imperfect Savior; to send us one who would mock us with hopes which could not be fulfilled. It would have been a tantalizing of human hope, which I do not hesitate to pronounce an awful cruelty, if any but a complete and perfect Savior had been presented to us. If it had been partly works and partly grace, there had been no grace in it. If it had been needful for us to do something to make Christ's atonement efficacious, it would have been no atonement for us; we must have gone down to the pit of hell with this as an aggravation, that a God who professed to be a God of mercy had offered us a religion of which we could not avail ourselves; a hope which did but delude us, and make our darkness the blacker. I want to know what some of my brethren in the ministry, who preach such very high doctrine, do with their God's character. They are told to preach the gospel to every creature, but they very wisely do not do it, because they feel that the gospel they preach is not a gospel suitable to every creature; so they neglect their Master's mandate, and single out a few. I bless my Master that I have an available gospel, one that is available to you this morning, for "whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life," and I hold that it were inconsistent with the character of him "for whom are all things," and that it were derogatory to his honor if he should have sent to you a salvation that would not meet your case; if he should have sent me to preach a gospel to you which could not completely save. But, glory be to God, the salvation which is here preached, the salvation taught in this Book, brings all to you, and asks nothing from you.

Moreover, Paul calls our God—"him by whom are all things." It would be inconsistent with the character of him by whom are all things if he had sent a part-Savior; for us to do part ourselves, and for Christ to do the rest. Look at the sun. God wills for the sun to light the earth; doth he ask the earth's darkness to contribute to the light? Doth he question night, and ask it whether it has not in its sombre shades something which it may contribute to the brightness of noon? No, my brethren, up rises the sun in the morning, like a giant to run his race, and the earth is made bright. And shall God turn to the dark sinner, and ask him whether there is anything in him that may contribute to eternal light? No; up rises the face of Jesus, like the Sun of Righteousness, with healing beneath his wings, and darkness is, at his coming, light. See ye, too, the showers. When the earth is thirsty and cracking, doth the Lord say unto the clouds, "Wait ye until the earth can help ye, and can minister unto its own fertility?" Nay, verily, but the wind bloweth and the clouds cover the sky, and upon the thirsty earth the refreshing showers come down. So is it with Christ; waiting not for man, and tarrying not for the Son of Man; asking nothing from us, he giveth us of his own rich grace, and is a complete and perfect Savior.

Thus much, then, upon our first head; I would we had more time for our second; but we will pass to it at once.

CHRIST WAS MADE a PERFECT SAVIOR THROUGH SUFFERING.

He was not made perfect in character by his suffering, for he always was perfect—perfect God, perfect man; but he was made officially perfect, perfect as the captain of our salvation through his sufferings, and that in four ways.

By his sufferings he became perfect as a Savior from having offered a complete expiation for sin. Sin could not have been put away by holiness. The best performance of an unsuffering being could not have removed the guilt of man. Suffering was absolutely necessary, for suffering was the penalty of sin. "In the day thou eatest thereof," said God to Adam, "thou shalt surely die." Die then he must. Nothing short of death could meet the case. Christ must go to the cross; he must suffer there; ay, and he must bow his head and give up the ghost, or else no atonement for sin had been possible. The curse came upon us as the result of sin. "Curseth is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them." Now had Christ been never so perfect, yet had he never suffered he never could have taken our curse. "Cursed is every one that hangeth on the tree," but without the tree, without the cross, Christ had not been our substitute, and all he did could have been of no sort of use to us. Being crucified he became accursed; being crucified he died, and thus he could make perfect expiation for sin. Sin demanded punishment; punishment must consist of loss and of pain; Christ lost everything, even to the stripping of his garment; his glory was taken from him; they made nothing of him; they spat in his face; they bowed the knee, and mocked him with bitter irony. There must be pain too, and he endured it; in his body there were the wounds and the fever which the wounds produced, and in his soul there was an exceeding heaviness even unto death, and an agony which no tongue can tell, for we have no words in which to speak of it. We believe that this agony was commensurate with the agonies of the lost in hell; not the same agony, but an equivalent for it; and remember, not the equivalent for the agony of one, but an equivalent for the hells of all that innumerable host whose sins he bore, condensed into one black draught to be drained in a few hours; the miseries of an eternity without an end, miseries caused by a God infinitely angry because of an awful rebellion, and these miseries multiplied by the millions for whom the man Christ Jesus stood as covenant head. What a draught was that, men and brethren! Well might it stagger even him! And yet he drained that cup, drained it to its utmost dregs not a drop was left. For thee, my soul, no flames of hell; for Christ the Paschal-lamb has been roasted in that fire. For thee, my soul, no torments of the damned, for Christ hath been condemned in thy stead. For thee, my spirit, no desertion of thy God, for He was forsaken of God for thee. 'Tis done, 'tis finished, and by thy sufferings, Jesus, thou hast become perfect as the expiation of thy people's sins. Do, my brethren, remember that your sins are perfectly expiated. Do not let them trouble you as to punishment; the punishment has gone. Sins cannot lie in two places at one time; they were put on Christ, and they cannot be on you. In fact, your sins are not to be found; the scapegoat has gone, and your sins will never be found again. Your sins, if they were searched for, could not be discovered, nor by the piercing eye of God can a single blemish be found in you. So far as the punishment of the law is concerned it is finished, and Christ is a perfect Savior.

Again, if Christ had not suffered he could not have been perfect as a Savior, because he could not have brought in a perfect righteousness. It is not enough to expiate sin. God requires of man perfect obedience. If man would be in heaven he must be perfectly obedient. Christ, as he took away our guilt, has supplied us with a matchless righteousness. His works are our works; his doings are, by imputation, our doings. But a part of obedience is a patient endurance of God's will. Patience is no mean part of the full obedience of a sincere soul. Christ must therefore suffer hunger, and cold, and nakedness throughout life, that he may be capable of the virtue of patience. An obedience even unto death is now the only perfect form of obedience. The man who would keep the law of God perfectly must not start back even at martyrdom. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength," would now require death to consummate it. It was not possible for the Master to have made the robe, woven from the top throughout without seam, unless the scarlet thread of crucifixion had run along its edge. But now, my soul, Christ is thy perfect Savior, for he presents thee with a perfect righteousness. There is nothing more to do. Neither my living nor my dying can make my righteousness more complete. No doing, no Iabouring, no denying, no suffering, are needed to finish that which Christ began. "It is finished." Put on thy robe, O Christian; walk ever in it; let it be thy wedding-dress. Angels admire thee; God himself accepts thee; coming into his wedding-feast he sees thee with this garment on, and he asks thee not how thou comest hither, but bids thee sit down and feast for ever, for thou art such as even He can keep company with in his glory.

Yet, thirdly, it was necessary that Christ should suffer to make him a perfect Savior so far as his sympathy goes. After sin is washed away, and righteousness imputed, we yet want a friend, for we are in a land of troubles and of sorrows. Now, if Christ had not suffered he could not have been a faithful high-priest, made like unto his brethren. We should never have had that sweet text—"He was tempted in all points, like as we are, yet without sin," if he had not suffered. But now he knows all shapes of suffering. It is not possible that even out of the thousands now in this house there should be one heart whose case Christ cannot meet.

In every pang that rends the heart
The man of sorrows had a part.

Disease, sickness of body, poverty, need, friendlessness, hopelessness, desertion—he knows all these. You cannot cast human suffering into any shape that is new to Christ. "In all their afflictions he was afflicted." If you feel a thorn in your foot, remember that it once pierced his head. If you have a trouble or a difficulty, you may see there the mark of his hands, for he has climbed that way before. The whole path of sorrow has his blood-bedabbled footsteps all along, for the Man of Sorrows has been there, and he can now have sympathy with you. "Yes," I hear one say, "but my sorrows are the result of sin." So were his; though not his own, yet the result of sin they were. "Yes," you say, "but I am slandered, and I cannot bear it." They called him a drunken man, and a wine-bibber. Why, when you once think of the sufferings of Christ, yours are not worth a thought. Like the small dust of a balance that may be blown away with the breath of an infant, such are our agonies and our trials when compared with his. Drink thy little cup; see what a cup he drained. The little vinegar and gall that fall to thy share thou mayest gladly recede, for these light afflictions, which are but for a moment, are not worthy to be compared to the sufferings through which he passed.

Finally, upon this point; he thus became perfect as our exemplar. This, too, was necessary in bringing many sons unto glory, for we come to heaven by following the example of Christ, as well as by being washed in his blood. "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord;" that holiness is best of all promoted by an investigation of Christ's character, and a studious imitation of all its points. Now had Christ not suffered he could not have been an example to us. We should have said, "Yes, yes, he may be an example to unsuffering angels, but not to men who have to tread the hot coals of the furnace." He could have afforded no example of patience if he had never suffered; he could never have taught us to forgive if he had never felt injuries; he could not have trained us to holy courage if he had never fought a battle; he could never have shown us the way to make tribulation work experience, and experience hope, if through tribulation he had not himself waded to his throne. We want not an example taken from princes to be applied to peasants. We need a poor man to be an example for the poor; we want a man who lives in private to teach us how to live in retirement; we want one who fears not the face of crowds to show us how to walk in our public ways. We want, if we would meet the case of fallen humanity, a man just like the Savior, who passed through all the various phases of life, was in all companies, was shot at from all quarters, was tempted in all points like as we are, and this could not have been if he had been led in quiet ways along a path of joy. He must do business on the tempestuous deeps; his ship must rock, his anchor drag, the thick darkness and the lightnings must gather round him; they did so, and thus the captain of our salvation was made perfect through suffering, as an example for our imitation. I would that we might each of us know him in the efficacy of his blood, in the glory of his righteousness, in the sweetness of his sympathy, and in the perfection of his example, for then should we know him to the joy of our hearts for ever.

And now, lastly, our point—CHRIST's HAVING BEEN MADE PERFECT THROUGH SUFFERING WILL ENNOBLE THE WHOLE WORK OF GRACE.

"It became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory "—that is the great work—"to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering." The whole thing will work for his glory. Oh, my brethren, how this will glorify God at the last, that Christ, the man, should have been perfect through suffering! How this will glorify him in the eyes of devils! Looking upwards from their beds of fire where they bite their iron bands in vain, how will they see the wisdom and power of God as more than a match for the wisdom and might of their leader! It was in man that they defeated God; in man God destroys them. They trampled on man's heel; man has broken their head. They took away from man the transient crown of his Eden-glory; man wears the unfading crown of immortality. Man, even man, sits upon the throne of Godhead, and that man crowned with light and glory everlasting was a man who did encounter Satan; who met him, too, on fair grounds; not a man shielded from pain; not a man who had an immunity from internal or external distress; but a man full of weakness, full of infirmity, like other men, and yet, through God in alliance with his manhood, more than a conqueror, and now reigning for ever and ever. Milton, I think it is, supposes that this may have been the reason for Satan's first rebellion, because he could not bear that an inferior race should be lifted up to be set above himself on God's throne. Whether this be so or not, it must certainly be an aggravation to the misery of that proud arch-traitor, that now the man, the man, the man in whose image God was defeated, is heir of all things, King of kings, and Lord of lords.

How greatly will God be exalted that day in the eyes of lost spirits. Ah! ye that shall perish—God grant there may be none such here!—if you shall ever perish in hell, you will have to glorify God as you see Christ, who was made perfect through suffering, reigning there. You will not be able to say, "My damnation lies at God's door," for you will see in Christ a suitable Savior. You will have to look up and say, "Yes, he who was preached to me on Sabbath-days was God; he could save me. He whom I was bidden to trust in was man, and could sympathise with me, but I would not come unto him that I might have life." In letters of fire ye shall see it written, "Ye knew your duty, but ye did it not;" and even your moans and groans as ye suffer shall be but an utterance of this awful truth—"Great God, thou art just, nay, thou art doubly just; just, first, in damning me for sin, just, next, in trampling me under foot, because I trampled under foot the blood of the Son of God and counted his covenant an unholy thing." Your weepings and wailings shall be but the deep bass of the awful praise which the whole universe, willingly or unwillingly, must give to him who has provided a perfect Savior, and made him perfect through suffering.

Oh, my brethren, what delight and transport will seize the minds of those who are redeemed! How will God ho glorified then! Why, every wound of Christ will cause an everlasting song. As we shall circle his throne, rejoicing, will not this be the very summit of all our harmony—"Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us unto God by thy blood." We must not say what God could do or could not do, but it does seem to me that by no process of creation could he have ever made such beings as we shall be when we are brought to heaven; for if he had made us perfect yet then we should have stood through our own holiness; or if he had forgiven us without an atonement then we should never have seen his justice, nor his amazing love. But in heaven we shall be creatures who feel that we have everything but deserve nothing; creatures that have been the objects of the most wonderful love, and therefore so mightly attached to our Lord that it would be impossible for a thousand Satans ever to lead us astray. Again. We shall be such servants as even the angels cannot be, for we shall feel under deeper obligation to God than even they. They are but created happy; we shall be redeemed by the blood of God's dear Son, and I am sure, brethren, day without night we shall circle God's throne rejoicing, having more happiness than the angels, for they do not know what evil is, but we shall have known it to the full, and yet shall be perfectly free from it. They do not know what pain is, but we shall have known pain, and grief, and death, and yet shall be immortal. They do not know what it is to fall, but we shall look down to the depths of hell and remember that these were our portion. Oh! how we will sing, how we will chant his praise, and this, I say again, shall be the highest note, that we owe all to that bright one, that Lamb in the midst of the throne. We will tell it over, and over, and over again, and find it an inexhaustible theme for melodious joy and song that he became man, that he sweat great drops of blood, that he died, that he rose again. While the angels are singing "Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!" we will bid them stop the song a moment, while we say, "He whom ye thus adore was once covered with bloody sweat." As we cast our crowns at his feet, we will say, "And he was once despised and rejected of men." Lifting up our eyes and saluting him as God over all, blessed for ever, we will remember the reed, the sponge, the vinegar, and the nails; and as we come to him and have fellowship with him, and he shall lead us beside the living fountains of water, we will remember the black brook of Kedron of which he drank, and the awful depths of the grave into which he descended. Amid all the splendours of heaven, we shall never forget the agony, and misery, and dishonor of earth; and even when they sing the loudest sonnets of God's love, and power, and grace, we will sing this after all, and before all, and above all, that Jesus the Son of God died for us, and this shall be our everlasting song—"He loved us and gave himself for us, and we have washed our robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."