The Fountain of Life Opened Up

Number six. The solemnities with which his funeral rites were performed were all suitable to his humble state. It was indeed a funeral as decently ordered as the straits of time and circumstances would permit, but there was nothing of pomp or outward state. Thus was he laid in his grave, where he continued for three incomplete days and nights in the territories of death, in the land of darkness and forgetfulness, partly to correspond with Jonah, his type, and partly to show the world the reality of his death. Hence, the dead body of our Lord Jesus Christ was decently endured by a small number of his own disciples and continued in the state of the dead for a time. These matters of fact, being so plainly recorded by the several evangelists, we need only here satisfy two inquiries. Why had Christ any funeral at all, since his resurrection was so soon to follow his death? And what manner of funeral he had? Roman numeral one. Why had Christ any funeral, since he was to rise again from the dead within the space that men commonly lie before their interment? And had his body continued longer unburied, it could see no corruption, having never been tainted by sin. Number one. It was necessary Christ should be buried, to ascertain his death, else it might have been looked upon as a cheat. For as his enemies were ready to impose so gross a cheat upon the world at his resurrection that the disciples came by night and stole him away, much more would they have denied at once the reality both of his death and resurrection, had he not been so perfumed and endured. But his being bound in linen with the spices as the manner of the Jews is to bury, and remaining so long in the tomb, gave full assurance to the world of the certainty of his death. Now since our eternal life is wrapped up in Christ's death, it can never be too firmly established. To this therefore we may well suppose providence had special respect in the manner of his burial. Number two. He must be buried to fulfill the types and prophecies. His abode in the grave was prefigured by Jonah's abode three days and nights in the belly of the whale. So shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Matthew 12 verse 40. Yea, the prophet had described the very manner of his funeral, and long before he was born foretold in what kind of tomb his body should be laid. He made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death. Isaiah 53 verse 9. Pointing by that expression at this tomb of Joseph who was a rich man, and the scriptures cannot be broken. Number three. He must be buried to complete his humiliation. This being the lowest step he could possibly descend in to his abased state. They have brought me to the dust of death. Lower he could not be laid. Number four. But the great end and reason of his interment was the conquering of death in its own dominion and territory. With victory over the grave furnished the saints with that triumphant song of deliverance. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 1 Corinthians 15 verse 55. Our graves would not be so sweet and comfortable to us when we come to lie down in them if Jesus had not lain there before us and for us. Death is a dragon, the grave its den, a place of dread and terror. But Christ goes into its den, there grapples with it, and forever overcomes it. Disarms it of all its terror and not only makes it cease to be inimical but to become the greatest blessing to the saints. A bed of rest, a perfumed bed. They do but go into Christ's bed where he lay before them. Roman numeral 2. Let us inquire what manner of funeral Christ had. Number 1. It was a very obscure and private funeral. Here was no external pomp, Christ affected it not in his life, and it was no way suitable to the ends and manner of his death. Humiliation was designed in his death, and pomp is inconsistent with such an end. Besides, he died upon the cross, and persons so dying have not much ceremony and state at their funeral. The dead body of the Lord was not brought from his own house as other men's commonly are, but from the cross. They begged it of his judge. Had they not obtained this favor from Pilate, it must have been buried in Golgotha, cast into a pit dug under the cross. And when buried, it was attended with a very poor train. A few sorrowful women followed it. Other men are accompanied to their graves by their relations and friends. The disciples were all scattered from him, afraid to own him dying and dead. And these few that were resolved to give him a funeral are forced by reason of the state of time to do it in great haste, for the preparation for the Passover was at hand. This was the obscure funeral which the body of the Lord had. Thus was the prince of the kings of the earth who has the keys of death and hell laid in his grave. Yet though men could bestow little honor upon his funeral, the heavens bestowed marks of honor, adorned it with diverse miracles which wiped off the reproach of his death. These miracles preceded or attended his interment. There was an extraordinary and pre-natural eclipse of the sun, such an eclipse as was never seen since it first shone in heaven. The sun fainted at the sight of such a rueful spectacle and closed the whole heaven in black. The sight of this caused a great philosopher who was then far from the place where this unparalleled tragedy was acting, to cry out, either the God of nature now suffers or the flame of the world is dissolved. Such a preternatural eclipse is unknown in the world's history. It was not in the time of conjunction but opposition, the moon being then at full. From the sixth to the ninth hour, there was darkness all over the land. And as Christ's funeral was attended with such a miraculous eclipse which put the heavens and earth into mourning, so the rocks did rend. The veil of the temple was rent in twain from top to bottom, the graves opened, and the dead bodies of many saints arose and went into the holy city and were seen of many. The rending of the rocks was a sign of God's fierce indignation, Nahum 1 verse 6, and manifested the greatness of his power, showing what they deserved and what he could do to them that had committed this horrible deed. Though he rather chose at this time to show the dreadful effects of it upon inanimate rocks than rocky-hearted sinners, but especially it served to convince the world that it was none other but the Son of God that died. As for the rending in twain of the veil, it was a notable miracle, plainly showing that all ceremonies were now accomplished and abolished, no more veils now, as also that believers have now most free access into heaven. At that very instant when the veil was rent, the high priest was officiating in the most holy place, and the veil which hid him from the rest of the people being rent, they might freely see him about his work in the Holy of Holies, a lively emblem of our high priest, whom now we see by faith in the heavens, there performing his intercession work for us. The opening of the graves plainly showed the design and end of Christ entering the graves, that it might not have dominion over the bodies of the saints, but being vanquished and destroyed by death, might yield up all his whom he ransomed from the graves, a specimen whereof was given in those holy ones that rose and appeared to many in the holy city. And now we have seen Jesus interred, he that wears at his girdle the keys of hell and death, himself locked up in the graves. What shall I say of him whom they now laid in the graves? Shall I undertake to tell you what he was, what he did, suffered and deserved? Alas, the tongue of angels must pause and stammer in such a work. He is a son of righteousness, a fountain of life. Of him it might be said in that day, here lies the adorable Jesus, in whom is treasured up whatsoever an angry God can require for his satisfaction, or an empty creature for his perfection. Before him was none like him, and after shall none arise comparable to him. If every leaf and spire of grass saith one, Nay, all the stars, fans, and atoms, were so many souls and seraphim, whose love should double in them every moment to all eternity, yet would it fall infinitely short of what is due to his worth and excellency. Suppose a creature possessed of all the choice endowments that ever dwelt in the best of men since the creation of the world, and added to this the understanding, strength, splendor, and holiness of all the angels. It would all amount but to a dark shadow of this incomparable Jesus. Come and see, believing souls, look upon Jesus in his winding sheet by faith, and say, Lo, this is he of whom the church said, My beloved is white and ruddy. His ruddiness is now gone, and a death-paleness hath prevailed over all his body, but still he is lovely as ever, yea, altogether lovely. If David lamenting the death of Saul and Jonathan said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet with other delights, who put ornaments of gold upon your apparel. Much rather may I say, Children of Zion, weep over Jesus, who clothed you with righteousness and the garments of salvation. This is he who quitted the throne of glory, left the bosom of unspeakable delights, came in the body of flesh produced in perfect holiness, broke through many and great impediments, thy great unworthiness, the wrath of God and man, by the strength of love to bring salvation home to thy soul. Can he that believingly considers this do less than wonder at the love that brought him to the dust of death, and cry out with an ancient worthy, My Lord was crucified. Inference number one. Was Christ buried in this manner? Then a decent and mournful funeral, where it can be had, is very laudable among Christians. I know the departed souls of the saints have no concern for their bodies, yet there is a respect due to them, as they are the temples wherein God has been served and honored by the souls that once dwelt in them. As also an account of their relation to Christ and the glory that will be revealed in them when they shall be changed and made like unto Christ's glorious bodies. Upon such grounds as these, their bodies deserve an honorable treatment as well as from humanity, which owes this honor to the bodies of all men. To have no funeral is accounted a judgment. Ecclesiastes 7 verse 4. We read of many solemn and mournful funerals in Scripture, wherein the people of God have affectionately paid their respects and honors to the dust of the saints, as men that were deeply sensible of their worth, and how great a loss the world sustains by their removal. Christ's funeral had as much of decency and solemnity in it as the time would permit, though he was a stranger to all pomp, both in life and death. Number 2. Did Joseph and Nicodemus so boldly appear at the time of so much danger to beg the body and give it a funeral? Let it be forever a caution to strong Christians not to despise her glory over the weak. You see here a couple of timorous persons that were afraid to be seen in Christ's company when the other disciples professed their readiness to die with him. Yet those flee, and these appear for him when the trial comes indeed. If God deserves the strong and assists the weak, the feeble shall be as David, and the strong as To. I speak not this to discourage any from striving to the utmost to improve the grace imparted to him, for it is ordinarily found in experience that the degrees of assisting grace are given according to the measure of grace in exercises. But I speak it to prevent a sin incident to strong Christians of despising the weak, which God corrects by such instances and examples as this before us. Number 3. Hence we may be assisted in discerning the depths of Christ's humiliation for us by seeing from what and to what his love brought him. It was not enough for him who was in the form of God to become a creature, which was an infinite stoop, nay, to be made a man, an inferior order of creatures, nay, to be a poor man, to spend his days in poverty and contempt. But his dead body must be laid in the tomb for our sakes. O, what manner of love is this! Now, the deeper the humiliation of the Son of God, the more satisfactory must it be to us, for it shows us not only the heinousness of sin that deserves all this, but the fullness of Christ's satisfaction, whereby he restores the breach. O, it was deep humiliation indeed! How unlike himself is he now become! Doth he look like the Son of God? What, the Son of God whom all the angels adore, to be hurried by three or four persons into his grave in an evening, to be carried from Golgotha to the grave in this manner, and there lie as a captive to death for a time? Never was such a change of conditions, never such abasement. From this funeral of Christ results the purest and strongest consolation and encouragement to believers against the fear of death and the grave. If Jesus hath lain in the grave before you, let me say then to you, as the Lord spoke to Jacob, Fear not to go down into Egypt, for I will go down with thee, and thy will also surely bring thee up again. Genesis 46, verses 3 and 4 Fear not, believer, to go down to the grave, for God will be with thee there and will surely bring thee up thence. This consideration that Jesus Christ hath lain in the grave himself gives manifold encouragement to the people of God against the terrors of the grave. The grave received, but could not destroy Jesus Christ, and it was with Christ's personal body, so shall it be with Christ's mystical body. It could not retain him, it shall not forever retain them. This resurrection of Christ out of his grave is the very ground of our hope for a resurrection out of our graves. Christ is risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 20 As the union between the body of Christ and the divine nature was not dissolved when that body was laid in the grave, so the union between Christ and believers is not, cannot be dissolved when their bodies are laid in their graves. It is true the natural union between his soul and body was dissolved for a time, but the essential union was not dissolved, no, not for a moment. That body was the body of the Son of God when it was in the sepulcher. In like manner, the natural union between our souls and bodies is dissolved by death, but the mystical union between us and Christ can never be dissolved. As Christ's body when it was in the grave did there rest in hope, so shall the bodies of the saints when they lay them down in the dust. My flesh also shall rest in hope, saith Christ. Psalm 16, verse 9 In like manner the saints commit their bodies to the dust in hope. The righteous hath hope in his death. Proverbs 14, verse 32 And as Christ's hope was not a vain hope, so neither shall their hope be vain. Christ, lying in the grave before us, hath quite changed the nature of the grave, so that it is not what it once was. Dost thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return, was a part of the threatening and curse for sin. The grave was, as a prison, to keep the bodies of sinners against the great assizes, and then deliver them up into the hands of a great and terrible God. But now it is no prison, but a bed of rest, where Christ lay before us, which is a sweet consideration of the grave indeed. They shall enter into peace, they shall rest in their beds, Isaiah 57, verse 2 O then let not believers stand in fear of the grave. He that hath one foot in heaven need not fear to put the other into the grave. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Psalm 23, verse 4 Indeed the grave is a terrible place to them that are out of Christ. Death is the Lord's officer to arrest them. The grave is the Lord's prison to secure them. When death draws them into the grave, it draws them thither, as a lion doth his prey into the den, to devour it. Death shall feed or prey upon them. Psalm 49, verse 14 Death there reigns over them in its full power. Romans 5, verse 14 And though at last it shall render them back again to God, yet it were better for them to lie everlastingly where they were, than to rise to such an end. For they are brought out of their graves as a condemned prisoner out of the prison, to go to execution. But with the saints it is not so. The grave, thanks be to our Lord Jesus Christ, is a privileged place to them while they sleep there. And when they awake, it will be with singing. When they awake, they shall be satisfied with His likeness. Number 5 Since Christ was laid in the grave, and His people reaped such privileges by it, as ever you expect rest or comfort in your grave, see that you now become united with Christ. It was an ancient custom of the Jews to put rich treasures into the grave with their friends, as well as to bestow much upon their sepulchres. It is possible that you have no great sum to bestow upon your funerals, nor are they likely to be splendid. No stately monuments, no hidden treasure. But if Christ be yours, you carry with you to your grave what is better than all the gold and silver in the world. What would you be the better if your coffin were made of beaten gold, or your gravestone set fit with glittering diamonds? But if you die in the Lord, that is, interested in and united to Him, you shall carry six grounds of comfort with you to your grave, the least of which is not to be purchased with the wealth of both the Indies. The first is that the covenant of God holds firmly with the very dust of the believer all the days of its appointed time in the grave. So much Christ tells us, Matthew 22 verses 31 and 32. I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are naturally dead, but inasmuch as God, long after their death, proclaimed Himself their God, they live, that is, their covenant relation still lives. Whether we live or whether we die, saith the Apostle, we are the Lord's. Romans 14 verses 7 through 9. Now what encouragement is here? I am as much the Lord's in the state of death as I was in the state of the living. Death puts an end to all other relations and bonds, but the bond of the covenant decays not in the grave. Our dust is still the Lord's. As God's covenant, so His love to our very dust abides. The Apostle is expressed, Romans 8 verses 38 and 39, that death separates not the believer from the love of God. As at first it was not our natural comeliness or beauty that engaged His love to us, so neither will He cease to love us when that beauty is gone and we become objects of loathing to all flesh. When a husband cannot endure to see his wife or a wife her husband, but sayeth of them that were once dear and pleasant, as Abraham said of his beloved Sarah, Bury my dead out of my sight. Yet then the Lord delights in it as much as ever. As God's love will be with you in the grave, so God's providence shall take order when you shall be laid in it. He will bring you thither in the best of time. Thou shalt come to thy grave as a shock of corn in its season. Job 5, 26 You shall be ripe and ready before God house you there. It is said of David that after he had served his generation by the will of God, he fell asleep. Acts 13, 36 Oh, what a holy and wise will is that will of God that so orders our death! And how proper is it that our will should be lost in his. If you be in Christ, God's pardons have loosed all the bonds of guilt from you before you lie down in the grave, so that you shall not die in your sins. It is a grievous threatening, ye shall die in your sins. John 8, 24 Better be cast alive into a pit among dragons and serpents than into your grave dead in sin. Oh, what a terrible word is that! His bones are full of the sins of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust. Job 20, 11 But from the company of sin, in the grave, all the saints are delivered. God's full, free and final pardon has shut guilt out of your grave. Whenever you come to your grave, you shall find the enmity of the grave slain by Christ. It is no enemy, nay, you will find it a privileged place to you. It will be as sweet to you that are in Christ as a soft bed in a still, quiet chamber to one that is weary. Therefore it is said, Death is yours. 1 Corinthians 3, 22 Yours as a privilege, your friend. There you shall find sweet rest in Jesus, be hurried, pained, and troubled no more. If in Christ, know this for your comfort, that your own Lord Jesus keeps the keys of all the chambers of death, and as he unlocks the door of death when you enter it, so he will open it again for you when you awake, and from the time he opens to let you in till the time he opens to receive you, he himself watches over you while you sleep there. I have the keys of death. Revelation 1, verse 18 O then, as you expect peace or rest in the chamber of death, get union with Christ. A grave with Christ is a comfortable place. Chapter 38, page 462 Four weighty ends of Christ's humiliation. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. Isaiah 53, verse 11 We come now to speak of the blessed ends for which Christ was so deeply abased. It is inconsistent with common prudence for a man to be at a vast expanse of time, pains, and cost without a worthy design. And it is much less imaginable that Christ should abase himself by stooping from the bosom of his father to the state of the dead if he had not some excellent and glorious design, the attainment of which might be equivalent to the sorrows and abasements he endured. That he had such a design is plainly implied in the words before us. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. In which we have, number one, the travailing pangs of Christ. So the agonies of his soul and torments of his body are fitly called not only because of their sharpness and acuteness, but because they forerun and make way for the birth, which abundantly recompenses all those labors. Number two, the assured fruits and effects of this travail. He shall see of the travail of his soul. By seeing, understand the fruition, obtaining, or enjoyment of the end of his sufferings. He shall not shed his blood at hazard. His design shall not fail, but he shall certainly see the ends at which he aimed. Number three, this shall yield him great satisfaction. As a woman forgets her sorrow for joy that a man is born into the world, John 16 21, he shall see it and be satisfied. As God, when he had finished the work of creation, viewed his work with pleasure and satisfaction, so doth our exalted Redeemer behold the happy issue of his sufferings. It affords pleasure to a man to see great enterprises brought to a happy issue. Much more doth it yield delight to Jesus Christ, to see the results of the most profound wisdom and love shown in the work of redemption. Hence all the blessed designs and ends for which the Lord Jesus Christ humbled himself to the death of the cross shall certainly be attained. My present design is not to prove this proposition, nor to show the joy Christ will derive from the results of his death, but to inquire into some of the main and principal designs and ends of his humiliation. And we shall find that as the sprinkling of the typical blood in the Old Testament was for four weighty ends or uses, so also the precious and invaluable blood of the testator and surety of the New Testament is shed for four weighty ends. That typical blood was shed and applied to deliver from danger. And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are, and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt. Exodus 12 13 Roman numeral 2 That blood was shed to make an atonement between God and the people. And he shall do with the bullock as he did with the bullock for a sin offering. So shall he do with this. And the priest shall make an atonement for them, and it shall be forgiven them. Leviticus 4 20 Roman numeral 3 That blood was shed to purify persons from their ceremonial pollution. He shall dip the cedar wood and the scarlet and the hyssop with the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water. And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose in the open field. Leviticus 14 verses 6 and 7 Roman numeral 4 That blood was shed to ratify and confirm the testament or covenant of God with the people. And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words. Exodus 24 verse 8 These were the four main ends for shedding and sprinkling that typical blood. And in like manner there are four principal ends for shedding and applying Christ's blood. As that typical blood was shed to deliver from danger, so this was shed to deliver from wrath, even the wrath to come. That was shed to make an atonement, so was this. That was shed to purify persons from uncleanness, so was this. That was shed to confirm the testament, so was this. As will fully more appear in the following particulars. Roman numeral 1. One principal design and end of shedding the blood of Christ was to deliver his people from danger, the danger of that wrath which burns to the lowest hell. So you find in 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 10, even Jesus who delivered us from the wrath to come. Here our misery is specified by the term wrath, a word of deep and dreadful signification. The damned best understand the import of that word. But more, it is called wrath to come, implying both its futurity and perpetuity. It is wrath that shall certainly and inevitably come upon sinners. As surely as the night follows day, as surely as the winter follows summer, so shall wrath follow sin and its pleasures. Yea, it is not only to come, but when it comes it will be abiding wrath, or wrath still coming. When millions of years and ages are gone, this will still be wrath to come, ever coming, as a river ever flowing. From this wrath to come, Jesus hath delivered his people by his death, which was the price of their redemption from the wrath of the great and terrible God. Much more then, being justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath through him. Romans 5 verse 9 The blood of Jesus was the price that ransomed man from this wrath. And, number 1, he delivered his people freely by his own voluntary interposition and undertaking of the mediatorial office, moved thereunto by his own pity and compassion, which yearned over them in their misery. The saints were once a lost generation that had sold themselves and their inheritance also, and had not wherewithal to redeem either. But there was one who became their near kinsman, to whom the right of redemption belonged, who, being the heir of all things, undertook to be their God, and out of his own proper substance to retain both them and their inheritance, them to be his own inheritance, Ephesians 1.11, and heaven to be theirs, 1 Peter 1 verse 4. All this he did most freely, when none made supplication to him. No sighing of the prisoners came before him. He designed it for us before we had a being, and in the fullness of time freely expended the infinite treasures of his blood to purchase our deliverance from wrath. Number 2. Christ by death hath also delivered his people fully. A full deliverance it is, both in respect to time and degrees. It was not a reprieve, but a deliverance. Therefore is he become the author of eternal salvation to them that obey him. Hebrews 5 verse 9. And he died not to procure a mitigation or abatement of the rigor or severity of the sentence, but to rescue his people fully from all degrees of wrath, so that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ. Romans 8 verse 1. Number 3. This deliverance obtained for us by the death of Christ is a special and distinguishing deliverance, not common to all, but peculiar to some, and they by nature know better than those that are left under wrath. Yea, as to natural disposition, moral qualifications, and external endowments, oftentimes far inferior to them that perish. You see your calling, brethren. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 29. Number 4. It is a wonderful salvation. It would weary the arm of an angel to write all the wonders of this salvation, that ever such a design should be laid, such a project of grace contrived in the heart of God who might have suffered the whole race to perish, that it should be for man, and not the angels, by nature more excellent than we, that Christ himself should go forth upon this glorious design, that he should effect it in such a way by taking our nature and suffering the penalty of law therein, that our deliverance should be wrought out and finished when both the Redeemer and his design seem to be lost and to have perished. These, with many more, are such wonders that it will employ eternity itself to search and render praise for them. Before I part from this verse end of the death of Christ, give me leave to deduce two useful inferences from it, and then proceed to the second. Inference number one. Hath Christ by his death delivered his people from the wrath that comes? How ungrateful and unworthy must it be for those that have obtained such a deliverance, to repine at the light afflictions they suffer for Christ in this world. Alas, what are these sufferings that we should complain of them? Are they like those which the Redeemer suffered for our deliverance? Did ever any of us endure for him what he endured for us? Or is there anything you can suffer for Christ in this world comparable to the wrath to come, which you must have endured, had he not, by the price of his own blood, rescued you from it? Reader, wilt thou but make the comparison in thine own thoughts, and then pronounce when thou hast duly compared. What is the wrath of man to the wrath of God? What is the arm of a creature to the anger of Deity? Can man thunder with an arm like God? What are the sufferings of the vile body here to the tortures of a soul and body in hell? What are the troubles of a moment to that wrath, which after millions of years are gone, will still be called wrath to come? Oh, what comparison between a point of time and the interminable duration of vast eternity! What comparison between the transient sorrows and sufferings of this life and the continued uninterrupted wrath to come! Our troubles here are not constant. There are gracious relaxations, lucid intervals. But the wrath to come allows not a moment's mitigation. What light troubles are those which work under the blessing of God to the everlasting good of them that love Him, compared with that wrath to come, out of which no good is possible to the souls on which it lies? And how much more comfortable is it to suffer in fellowship with Christ and His saints for righteousness' sake than with devils and reprobates as the penalty of sin? Complain not then, O ye that are delivered by Jesus from wrath to come, of anything ye suffer or shall suffer from Christ or for Christ in this world. 2. If Jesus Christ have thus delivered His people, how little comfort can any man take in His present enjoyment while it remains a question whether He be delivered from the wrath to come. It is well for the present, but will it be so always? Man regards the future, and it will not satisfy him that his present condition is comfortable, except he have some hope it shall be so hereafter. It can afford him little content that all is easy and pleasant about him now, while thus terrible hints of wrath to come are given him by his own conscience daily. Or me think such a thought is this, What if I am reserved for the wrath to come? Should be to him as the fingers appearing upon the plaster of the wall, or to Belshazzar in the height of his festivity. Give not sleep to thine eyes, reader, till thou hast good evidence that thou art of that number whom Jesus hath delivered from the wrath to come, till thou canst say, Christ is mine. Three things may give thee evidence that this is thy happy portion. If Jesus have delivered thee from sin, the cause of wrath, thou mayest conclude He hath delivered thee from wrath, the effect and fruit of sin. Upon this account the name of Jesus was given. Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. Matthew 1 verse 21 While a man lies under the dominion and guilt of sin, he lies exposed to wrath to come. And when he is delivered from the guilt and power of sin, he is certainly delivered from the danger of this coming wrath. Where sin is not imputed, wrath is not threatened. If thy soul do set an inestimable value on Jesus Christ and be endeared to Him on account of that inexpressible grace manifested in this deliverance, it is a good sign thy soul hath a share in it. Mark what an epitaph the saints give Christ upon this account, giving thanks unto the Father who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son. Colossians 1 verses 12 and 13 Christ is therefore dear, and dear beyond all expression to His people. A disposition and readiness of mind to do or endure anything for Christ is a good evidence that you are delivered from the wrath to come. That we may walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work. Colossians 1 verse 10 There is a readiness to do for Christ, strengthened with all might according to His glorious power unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness. Verse 11 There is a cheerful readiness to endure anything for Christ, and how both these flow from the sense of this great deliverance from wrath, the verses following just cited will show. O then be serious and assiduous in gaining this evidence, till this be, nothing can be pleasant to thy soul. Romans 2 As the typical blood was shed and sprinkled to deliver from danger, so it was shed to make atonement. He shall make an atonement for them, and it shall be forgiven them. Leviticus 4 verse 20 The meaning is that by the blood of the bullock, all whose efficacy consisted in its relation to the blood of Christ signified and shadowed by it, the people for whom it was shed, should be reconciled to God by the expiation and remission of their sins. And what was shadowed in this typical blood was really accomplished by Jesus Christ in the shedding of His blood. Our reconciliation to God is therefore another of the glorious results for which Christ prevailed. So you find it expressly Romans 5 verse 10 If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. This if is not a word of doubting but argumentation. The apostle supposes it a known truth or principle yielded by all Christians that the death of Christ was to reconcile the redeemed to God. And again he confirms it with light clearness having made peace through the blood of His cross by Him to reconcile all things. Colossians 1 verse 20 And that this was a name and principle and designed both by the Father and Son in the humiliation of Christ is plain from 2 Corinthians 5 verse 19 God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. God filled the humanity with grace and authority the Spirit of God was in Him to qualify. The authority was in Him by His commission to make all that He did valid. This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. SWRB makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available free and for sale in audio, video, and printed formats. Our many free resources as well as our complete mail order catalog contain thousands of classic and contemporary Puritan and Reform books, tapes, and videos at great discounts is on the web at