The Sermons of the Rev. Robert Murray M'Cheyne

IT is the saying of an old divine, that God often orders it, that when he is in hand with the greatest mercies for us, then we are most of all sinning against him; which he doth to magnify his love the more.

In the words I have read, we find an example of this. At no time did the heart of Jesus overflow with a tenderer and a more sovereign love to his disciples, than when he said, Let not your heart be troubled.” They were troubled by many things. He hid told them that he was going to leave them; he had told them taat one should betray him; that another should deny him; that *hey should all be offended because of him that very night; and perhaps they thought he was going from them in anger. But, whatever the cause of their trouble was, Jesus.’ s bosom was like a vessel full to overflowing, and these words were the overlipping drops of love — “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.” Surely such words of confiding tenderness were never whispered in this cold world before; and O then, think how cold, how dark, how dull is the question with which Thomas breaks in upon the heavenly discourse; “Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way?” And yet how condescendingly does Jesus bear with their cold-hearted dulness! How lovingly does he begin the very alphabet of salvation with them, and not only answers, but over-answers Thomas — gives him more than he could ask or think. He asked about the way and the place, but Christ answers, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” Regarding this, then, as a complete description of the gospel salvation, let us go over the different parts of it.

I. Christ is the Way. — “I am the way; no man cometh,” &c. The whole Bible bears witness that by nature we have no way to the Father. We are by nature full of sin, and God is by nature infinitely holy; that is, he shrinks away from sin. Just as the sensitive plant, by its very nature, shrinks away from the touch of a human hand, so God, by his very nature, shrinks away from the touch of sin. He is everlastingly separate from sinners; he is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.

1. This was impressively taught to Adam and the patriarchs. As long as Adam walked holily, God dwelt in him, and walked in him, and communed with him; but when Adam fell, “God drove the man out of paradise; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden, cherubim and a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life.” This flaming sword between the cherubim was a magnificent emblem of God — the just and sin-hating God. In the bush, he appeared to Moses as a consuming fire — in the temple, he appeared between the cherubim in the milder glory of the Shecinah; but here he appeared between the cherubim as a sword — a just and sin-hating God. And I beseech you to remark, that this flaming sword turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. If it had not turned every way, if it had left some foot-path unglared across, then Adam might have stolen in by that foot-path, and made his own way to the tree of life. But no: whatever avenue he tried — however secret, how ever narrow, however steep and difficult — however silently he crept along, still this flaming meteor met him, and it seemed to say, “How can man be just with God? by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh living be justified.” Well might Adam sit down, wearied with the vain search for a pathway into life; for man by nature has no way to the Father.

But Christ says, “lam the way.” As he says in the 16th Psalm, “Thou wilt show me the path of life.” No man could find out this path of life; but Jesus says, “Thou wilt show it me; in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand are pleasures foi evermore.” Jesus pitied the poor SOLS of Adam vainly struggling to find out a way into the paradise of God, and he left the bosom of the Father, just that he might open up a way for us into the bosom of the Father. And how did he do it? Was it by escaping the vigilance of the flaming sword? No; for it turned every way. Was it by exerting his divine authority, and commanding the glittering blade to withdraw? No; for that would have been to dishonor his Father’s law, instead of magnifying it. He therefore became a man in our stead, yea, became sin. God caused to meet on him the iniquities of us all. He advanced in our stead to meet that fiery meteor; he fell beneath its piercing blade; for he remembered the word of the Prophet, which is written, “Awake, O sword! against my shepherd, ard against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts.”

And now, since the glittering blade is bathed in the side of the Redeemer, th gniltjpet. of sinners, whoever you be, whatever you

SERMON I. It

be, may enter in over his bleeding body, may find access o the paradise of God, to eat of the tree of life, and live for ever. Come quickly — doubt not; lor he says, I am the way.

2. The same fact — that man has by nature no way to the Father — was impressively taught to Moses and the people of Israel.

When God condescended to dwell among the children of Israel, he dwelt peculiarly in the holiest of all — the innermost apartment of the Jewish temple. There the visible token of his presence rested between the cherubim — at one time described to us as a light inaccessible and full of glory — at another time as a cloud that filled the temple. But this innermost apartment, or holiest of all (or secret place, as it is called in the Psalms), was separated from the holy place by a curtain or veil, and through that veil no man was allowed to pass, lest he should die, except the High Priest, who entered in, once in the year, not without blood. Now, no picture could express more plainly that the way into the holiest was not made manifest — that no sinful man has anyway oi coming into the presence of God.

But Jesus says, “I am the way.” Jesus was grieved that we were shut out from the holiest of all, from the presence of God; for he knew by experience that in that presence there is fulness oi joy. But how did he upen the way? Did he pull aside the veil, that we might steal in secretly and easily into the presence of the Father? No: but he offered himself, an offering to satisfy Divine justice, and reconcile us to God. “He said, It is finished, and bowed his head and gave up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain, from the top to the bottom.” It is finished; the punishment of the law is borne, the demands of the law are answered, the way is finished, the veil is rent, from the top to the bottom! Not a shred of the dreadful curtain now remains to intercept us. The guiltiest, the vilest sinner of you all, has now liberty to enter in through the rent veil, under the light of Jehovah’s countenance, to dwell in the secret of his tabernacle, to behold his beauty, and to inquire in his temple.

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