Sermon 45

Isaiah 53:11 He shall see of the travel of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many: for he shall bear their iniquities.

The work of redemption is a business that was very gravely and very seriously contrived and prosecuted; in respect of God, and of the Mediator, there was much earnestness in it as to them; and yet notwithstanding (which is a wonder) men whom it concerns so much, whose salvation depends on it, and to whom the benefit of it redounds, are but very little serious in their thoughts of it. Our Lord Jesus was in travel, soul-travel, sore soul-travel to bring about this work; and that the gospel might be preached to sinners, that they might have thereby a ground to their faith, to expect life and remission of sins through Him. Is it not then sad, that we should speak and hear of it, and be in a manner, like the stone in the wall, no more, or little more affected with it, than if it were a matter that did not at all concern us? The reading and hearing of these words will doubtless be a great conviction to secure sinners, that our Lord Jesus was at such pains, and put to such sore soul-travel, and suffering, and that yet such sinners were never stirred, nor made serious, to have the application of this purchased redemption made to them.

The scope of these words is to show the great inward soul-travels, conflicts, and straits that our blessed Lord Jesus had and was put to, in throughing of the work of redemption, and in paying the price due to the justice of God, for the sins of the elect. It's a wonder that ever we should have it to speak of, and that you should hear of this subject, which is the very text, (to say so) and sum of the gospel; and therefore, before we leave it, we shall speak a little more to the use of it; and truly if we make not use of this doctrine, we will make use of none. Though I confess it is a great practice how to draw it to use, and to conform ourselves in our practice to the use of it.

We proposed some things the last day which we could not then prosecute; as 1. something for exhortation. 2. Something for reproof, and expostulation, which rising clearly from the doctrine drawn from the words, we may now insist a little in them.

1. For exhortation, considering Christ's sufferings and the extremity of them, and that they were undergone for sinners, we would exhort you to love Him as you ought. There is ground and warrant here to require it of you, seeing that love in His bosom came to such a height, that He was content to lay down His life, yes, seeing He was in such a hot flame of love, that the cup of wrath did not quench it, but His love drank and dried it up. Greater love than this has no man. It is a most wonderful love considered with all the circumstances, by which it is heightened. And there is ground here to excite and stir you up, to give Him a kindly meeting, and to welcome His love with love. It will surely be a great shame, if our Lord's love stood at nothing, so that He might do the Father's will, and finish the work committed to Him, which was the perfecting of the work of sinners' redemption, the redeeming of His lost sheep. If every trifle, or any trifle, shall quench love in our hearts to Him — O, what a shame will it be in the day of judgment to many, when this man shall be brought forth loving this idol, and another man loving that idol more than Christ, this man loving his lust, that man his ease, and another man his wealth or honor, and preferring them to Christ, and when it shall be found, that they would not quit nor part with their right eye, nor their right hand (which are not worth the name of members, being called so, because they are members of the body of death) out of love to Him. Think what folks will, that native impression of the obligation that lies upon them to love Christ is wanting, and that divine, and soul-ravishing influence, that His love should have on hearts. It is true, you all think that you love Him, unless it be some of them who indeed love Him; but if you could reflect upon yourselves, you would find that you have little or no love at all to Him indeed. And therefore, for undeceiving of you, beside what we said the last day, take two or three characters of genuine love to Christ. 1. This love is never satisfied with any degree, or measure that it has attained, so as to sit down on it. It has these two things in it: a desire to be further on in love, and a weightedness that it cannot win at growth in Him. The loving soul is disposed to think that its love to Christ is not worthy to be called love, and it breathes after it, even to have itself warmed with it to Him, and to be brought to a further nearness to Him, as we may see through the Song of Solomon, and particularly chapter 7 at the close. "There will I give you my loves." And chapter 8: "O that you were as my brother that sucked the breasts of my mother." Genuine love to Him puts the soul to long for an opportunity to vent its love towards Him. 2. Where this love is, the soul will be as serious in praying for it, that it may attain it, as if it wanted it, and it will be as much affected for the want of the lively exercise of it, and will be as much challenged for coming short in it, as it will be for any other sin. There is no benefit that it seeks more after, than to have the heart circumcised to love Him, and O, but it will be accounted a great benefit, to get love to Christ. And as it is one of the things that it seeks in prayer, so it is one of the things that it watches in repentance. It is much affected with the want of it, confesses it to Him, and aggravates the sin thereof against itself, from this ground, that it loves not Christ as it should. I know not if there be much of this among us — many will be sorry if they fall in drunkenness, or in any other gross sin, but O, how few repent of their want of love to Christ, and that He gets not His own room in the heart. 3. Where this love is, it is ever suspicious and jealous lest the heart cling and cleave to some other thing, and give it room to the prejudice of Christ. It is a sad thing, when folks let their affections go out at random, and are not afraid, lest they overshoot themselves in loving the world, their pleasures, their credit, etc. But rather they are like the whore in the Proverbs, who says come and let us take our fill of loves. Love to Christ has a weanedness from these things, and a jealousy lest they usurp a room in the heart that is not due to them. Because, as John says, there is not a consistency between the love of God, and the love of the world in the heart, and therefore it is the watchful care of a poor believer, to keep out inordinate love of the world, and of these things that the heart is given to go a-whoring after. Hence David prays (Psalm 119): "Incline my heart to your law, and not to covetousness, and turn away my eyes from beholding vanity." There is in too many a sort of rooted confidence, that they love Christ, and they never suspect themselves of the contrary, when yet some other thing has his room.

Second, there is ground here to exhort you to believe on Him, as the Prince of Life, and a Savior that is well fitted and qualified to give repentance, and remission of sins. And this is the very native use that flows from this doctrine, even to lay a solid ground of faith to a soul lying under the sense of sin, to step forward to God's bar, with confidence, considering Jesus Christ crucified, and put to soul-travail for elect sinners, who should betake themselves to Him. Which if it had not been, there had not been any ground for faith. And the lower He came in His sufferings, we have the more native and broad ground of faith, and the stronger motive to draw us to take hold of Him, and to found and fix our faith on His satisfaction. To clear this branch of the use a little: 1. Consider here a ground for faith, in a fourfold respect; and 2. the force of the motives that arise from these grounds, pressing a sensible sinner to exercise faith on them, or on Him by them; and 3. the necessity that we are under, so to do.

For the first, 1. In general, there is ground here to bring the heart to be thorough in the Historical Faith of what is spoken concerning the truths of the covenant; for, does not this soul-travel of our Lord say, that men are lying naturally in a sinful condition, and liable to wrath? That there is a covenant made between the Father and the Son, for delivering of elect sinners out of that condition, and that by the sufferings of the Mediator; and that by our betaking ourselves to Him, we may be freed from sin and wrath? Otherwise, why did the Mediator come thus low; except it had been true, that man was under a debt that he could not pay; and why did the Father send His Son, except He had been really minded, that He should offer Himself up a propitiatory sacrifice to God for man's sin? And His accepting of the satisfaction tells plainly, that He was content, that the guarantor's payment should stand for the principal debtor's: all this supposes a covenant, which is as real, as if we had seen, and had been ear-witnesses of the reading over of the covenant in all the articles of it; we wish that many were come this length, as to be confirmed in the Historical Faith of the general truths of the gospel, summed up in Christ's sufferings; and there cannot be any serious reading, or hearing of Christ's sufferings, but there must also be some considering of their rise and end; if it be otherwise, we do but superficially run over them. 2. As this shows the Lord's seriousness in pressing the offer of redemption on sinners, so it calls you to be serious in accepting of it, according to that in (John 12), when I am lifted up, I will draw all men after me; where Christ's lifting up is made an attractive to draw lost sinners after Him; and can there be a greater ground of faith, or a stronger motive to persuade a sinner to be reconciled to God, and to rest upon Christ's satisfaction, in order to that, than this, that Jesus Christ has purposely laid down His life, and undergone suffering, even to such an extremity, to bring it about. 3. When we say that Christ's soul-travel calls for faith; it requires this, and gives ground for it, that they that betake themselves to Christ for justification before God, may confidently commit themselves to His guiding in all other things; for will He not be tender of them in these, when out of respect to them, when there was not a covenant between Him and them (though they were mentioned in the covenant of redemption) He laid down His life, and suffered such things for them? May we not from this reason, as the Apostle does (Romans 8), he that spared not his own son, but gave him to the death for us, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Can there be a greater ground for sinners that fear to give Him credit, to trust Him with all things that concern them, than this? — that He suffered so much for them. 4. Having betaken ourselves to Him, it serves to confirm our faith, and to bring us to the quieting of ourselves in resting on Him, and acquiescing in Him; for what more could we require for our settlement and quieting than this, that He has come so low, and condescended so far for the behalf of poor sinners? Therefore in all these respects, let me exhort you, and in His name, who was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, entreat you, not to keep at distance from Him, but take with your sin, by faith to flee to Him and to the efficacy of His blood; O! yield yourselves by faith to Him for use making of Him for your justification: and a little more particularly, let me here speak a word to two sorts of persons. 1. To them that are yet strangers to God. 2. To them that are looking towards Christ; and 1. for you that are strangers to God, whose hearts were never yet affected with the conviction of the necessity of believing, who can lie down and rise up without serious thoughts of your soul's estate, or of the necessity of making sure your peace with God; I beseech you, lay to heart your condition, and beware of trampling the blood of the covenant under your feet, let not the grace that is offered to you in this gospel be heard and received in vain, but by the acknowledgment of sin, and of God's justice to which you are liable for the same, timely betake yourselves to Christ's suffering for a shelter from the wrath of God, that will be as a storm against the wall: thus we press as the great use of this doctrine upon you, that you improve the cup of wrath that the Mediator has drunk, for your exempting from the curse that is due to you, and that cup that you deserved to have drunk eternally. 2. For you, who under the conviction of sin, are looking towards Christ, let me entreat you not to stay on this side of the city of refuge, but step forward and improve this soul-travel of the Lord for your spiritual ease, settlement, quiet and comfort, as well as from keeping you from wrath, otherwise it will bring bitterness in the end; if you make not use of Christ's sufferings, if you betake not yourselves to Him, and do not trust Him for justification and life, you will make yourselves guilty of His blood, and will be found traders of it under foot.

And therefore, let me here speak a word to the second thing proposed. That is the grounds, or reasons, or motives, that should press you to make use of these sufferings, and of the grounds of faith, that they hold out to you; and first, in general, let me ask, Is there not need that you should do so? Is there not guilt, and hazard of wrath, because of guilt? And if so, why stand you at a distance from the Savior? If it were sinless saints and angels that were exhorted to make use of Him, it would be the less wonder, that there were so little thinking of a Mediator, but when it is sinners that are called upon, and sinners in such eminent hazard, it is indeed a wonder that there is not greater flocking to Him, and pressing on Him. If there had not been need, would the Father have so pursued the Son? Or do you think that it was for a complement that He laid down His life? Which sure He would not have done, if salvation could have been had another way. Secondly, and more particularly, as you would consider the marvelous grounds that He has laid down for faith to rest upon, so you would consider the many motives that you have to press you to rest on these grounds, which we shall draw to these four. First, the fullness and sufficiency of the ground that is given to faith in Christ's sufferings, which the deeper they draw on His soul, faith has the fuller and better ground to make use of them. Second, the power and ability that are conspicuously in Him, to make application of His purchase; He has encountered wrath and has overcome; He is absolved and justified before God, and is exalted to be a prince and a savior, to give repentance to Israel and remission of sins. And having satisfied justice, and defeated the Devil, and being thus exalted He can bring through, and land safe, such sinners as betake themselves to Him. And these two, to wit, a sufficient price paid for the debt of the elect, and a sufficient prince and savior able to save to the uttermost all that come to God through Him, and who is exalted, and sits at God's right hand, to make intercession for us, as they are a solid ground for faith to rest on, so a strong motive to press believing. Third, the great faithfulness of God, that brightly shines, and wonderfully appears here, who, according to the covenant, sends His Son, and pursues the quarrel against Him, and in so doing, keeps the promise made to Abraham. And the great faithfulness of the Mediator, in coming and performing all that He undertook for the elect. Both of them are so faithful in performing all that was covenanted to the least iota thereof, as is evident, by what our Lord says, I have finished the work which you gave me to do. Seeing therefore there is such exact faithfulness in keeping, and fulfilling of all that passed in the covenant of redemption, and of all that was promised to the fathers, and seeing the Mediator has said, that of all that come to him, he will cast out none, nor put them away, is there not here a strong motive to believing? Will not the Lord Jesus be as faithful, in keeping the promise made to those who come to Him, as the Father and He have been in performing of what was covenanted concerning their redemption? The fourth is the great love of God, and of the Mediator, that eminently shined here, in their willingness to make the application. As He is faithful, so is He willing to be employed, and what greater evidence of love would we have, than this, that our Lord Jesus has delighted so much in the salvation of sinners, that He laid down His life, and endured much more soul travail for this very end? We beheld (says John, 1:14) his glory, the glory as of the only begotten Son, of the Father full of grace and truth. In His humiliation, He was glorious in both these, glorious in His truth, making His faithfulness to shine, in exact keeping of what was agreed upon, and promised; glorious in His grace to poor sinners, in making application of His purchase, freely and fully. Yes, the more that He was obscured by His humiliation, the more did His grace shine forth; how much more glorious will He be in these when He is now exalted. Thirdly, if these two persuade you not to believe on Him, to wit the grounds that He has given for believing and the powerfully pressing motives to make use of these grounds, consider the absolute necessity that you lie under of making use of these grounds, without which you will never be able to shift the wrath of God. Is there any that can give God a recompense? The redemption of the soul is precious, and ceases for ever, as to you. Or, if any could have been able, why did the Mediator come thus low? And where should have been the glory of grace and truth, that has shined so radiantly in His sufferings? And therefore from all these be exhorted, to give Him the credit of your salvation, by making use of His righteousness, and by founding your plea before God on His sufferings as ever you would have your souls saved. Otherwise you can expect nothing, but to fall under the rigor of justice, and to be made to satisfy for your own debt, to the uttermost farthing, and when will that be? Dare the most innocent among you step in to satisfy justice for themselves? If not, is there not a necessity to make use of His sufferings for that end? Which He has made attainable, by His tearing of the veil of His own flesh, that sinners may step in with humble boldness to the Holy of Holies. This is the end of all our preaching, and of your hearing, which, when it is not simply aimed at, and endeavored to be reached, we are useless in both.

And therefore, secondly, may we not expostulate with you, that are hearers of this Gospel, and yet continue strangers to Christ, that can hear of His sufferings, and of His having been in an agony for this very end, that sinners might have a warrant to their faith, and yet have never to this very hour actually fled to Him to find shelter? I know that many will not take with this, and therefore in more close application of this use (seeing here lies the great treasure of the Gospel, which, if it be not, what can be improved to any purpose?) we shall speak a word to two sorts. 1. To the generality of hearers, who are strangers to the right use-making of Christ's righteousness; and though you may think this to be a hard charge, and cannot well endure to be expostulated with as unbelievers, yet let me ask you. 1. Do you think that all of you will go to Heaven? If not, but that it is a truth, that the most part of the hearers of the Gospel will perish; then, sure all are not believers; for all believers will go to Heaven, and not one of them shall perish, and though you will not now believe this, the day is coming, when you shall, if grace prevent not, see and find it; when believers will be taken in with Christ, and others shut out. Many of you may think that this doctrine is needless, the more needless that many of you think it to be, it is so much the more needful, and useful to be insisted on with you. 2. If you say you have faith, I ask you, from where did it come, and how did you get it? I know, many of you will say, we believed always, since we had understanding to know good by ill; yet, when you are put to tell what it is, you know not how to answer, nor can you give the least satisfying account of it; and yet you question not, but it will be well with you, and never once feared to go to Hell; and is that faith, do you think? Alas no, it is a plain counterfeit, and a very cheat. Others are ready to say, we believed not always, yet we believe sometimes, to wit, when we do some duties, and abstain from gross evils; but when challenges come, for the neglect of duties, and for the commission of sins, we want it, and have nothing of it; and when death comes, such are forced to say, we fear we have been beguiling ourselves. From where does this come? But even from this ground, that they would never suffer it to light, but they had faith, which yet will never be accounted to be faith, because it has not Christ's righteousness for the ground of it, and therefore, when any challenge is awakened it is a seeking, and quite gone; whereas true faith will in some measure stand it out against a challenge, and will abide the trial of a challenge, on the account of Christ's righteousness fled to. 3. We ask you this question, are you sure of your faith? You will say, we hope so and believe so, and this is all you can say which in effect comes to this, we groundlessly presumed so. And it is observable, that if you be put to a second question, what ground have you for your faith? you have none at all. If you be asked, whether you be certain, that you are believers, you will answer, no body is certain, God knows that. Is not this strange? And has it not in it an utter inconsistency? That men and women should confidently assert, and maintain their faith, and yet when they are put to prove it, they will tell you, that they are uncertain, and that none can be certain of it. Therefore, think it not strange, that we expostulate with you, that you have been so long hearing of Christ, and that yet you have little, or rather, no faith at all in the use-making of His righteousness. But to make this the more convincingly clear, we shall give you four characteristics, whereby true faith may be tried, and known, which will serve also to discover the unsoundness of the faith of many. 1. It may be tried by the ground that it leans upon; solid faith has for the ground of it Christ's righteousness, and satisfaction, His sufferings, the price that He paid to justice for sinners' debt; that He who knew no sin might become sin for us, as it is (2 Corinthians 5, last verse). You that say you hope to come to Heaven, and will assert strongly, that you believe, try it, I beseech you by this, what is it that warrants you to believe, or, on what is your faith founded? Is it Christ's righteousness that gives your faith a ground? You will say, yes, and who does otherwise? Are there any, but they expect life through Christ? But deceive not yourselves; there are many that have some sort of respect to Christ, who do not at all rightly respect His sufferings; many will look upon Christ as a sovereign, and as one that can pardon them their sins, and will pray to Him for pardon of them, who yet never seriously lay the weight of their obtaining pardon on His death, but expect pardon immediately, without an intervening satisfaction; indeed, they never look upon that as needful. Others again, look only to Christ's ability to save, and will pray to Him as to an able Savior; and here also by such, His righteousness and merit is shut out, as if it were superfluous, and unnecessary. A third sort look to His mercy, and think that He is very kind and gracious, and that as one man forgives another, so will He forgive them; and do not respect His righteousness, nor found their faith and expectation of pardon upon Him, as upon one that has satisfied justice by the travail of His soul, that pardon might come to them, who come to Him. But where true faith is, the soul begins to look on itself, as arraigned before the tribunal of justice, and charged as unable to pay its own debt, judges itself, and has not only some piece of exercise to be freed from a challenge (which is all the faith that many have) but has serious exercise, how to have the challenge answered, by betaking itself to Christ's satisfaction; from these grounds that a satisfaction is given, that this satisfaction is made offer of in the Gospel, and that the soul is content to make use of it, and thereupon it draws the conclusion about pardon. It has intervening between the consideration of its guilt, and its application of pardon, both the covenant of redemption on God's side, and the covenant of reconciliation on the sinner's side, which the soul does eye, as that which gives it warrant to lay hold on Christ's suffering; which the other who presumes, does not. The believing soul says, if this satisfaction had not been, I could never have expected mercy. 2. In the solid faith of a believer, there is, as a use-making of Christ crucified solely, as the meritorious cause of justification and life, so he is exercised in this to be solely settled on Him as such. As for presumptuous souls, as they find it easy to believe, so they find it easy to believe, and to rest on Him only; but as the true believer has it for one piece of exercise to him, how to come to Christ, so it is a second piece of exercise to him, to get Him rested on only, and to get Him as crucified, made the ground of his faith, as the Apostle insinuates, when he says, (1 Corinthians 2:2) I determined to know nothing among you, but Christ Jesus, and him crucified, where we have three grounds of saving faith, or knowledge. 1. Jesus Christ. 2. Him as crucified. And 3. A determining to know no other thing, but Him to rest upon for life and salvation. It is in this respect that the Apostle, (Philippians 3) does count all things to be but loss and dung and cast, as it were, all overboard, that he may win Christ, and be found in Him. Many find it no difficult business to rest on Christ only, and to keep out other things from being joined with Him, and never once suspect themselves in this by any thing; but the believer, (as I just now said) has here an exercise and difficulty to get Christ alone rested on, so that nothing else be in the least rested on; because he knows nothing else to be a sure foundation, and because he knows that it is natural to him to rest on other things beside Christ. 3. The true believer is taken up, not only to have a sure ground to build on, but also to have his own gripping at, and building on that ground made sure; it is his exercise to have it out of question, that his faith is true faith, and not presumption or guessing; to have the grace of faith actually and really taking hold of, or apprehending Christ. Whereas another that presumes, and has only an opinion, or conjecture in place of faith; as he is in his own opinion easily brought to Christ, so he finds it easy to exercise believing on Him; he will, it may be, grant, that he cannot sanctify the Sabbath day, and yet he can believe, as if believing were less difficult than to sanctify the Sabbath; so, many will grant, that they cannot pray, and therefore do decline worshipping of God, in their families, who yet will confidently say that they can believe, and that they do believe always, as if believing were less difficult, than to pray for a quarter, or half a quarter of an hour. But where solid faith is, the exercise of it is a difficult thing, and the person that has it, has a holy jealousy of it; and the experience of many others, and of himself, sometime telling him, that he may be mistaken, he is often trying it, and does not, nay, he dare not trust much to it, and is put often with that man spoken of, (Mark 9) to cry, and sometimes with tears, Lord I believe, help my unbelief. He dare not trust much to his own grip, and therefore has recourse to Christ to get it secured, and to have Him taking and keeping the grip of his grip, as it was with the Apostle, (Philippians 3:12). 4. When believers have betaken themselves to Christ, they have a new exercise, to know that it is so indeed; it is not only an exercise to them how to ground their faith right, how to quit all other things, and to betake themselves to Christ only, and to cast their burden on Him; but it is an exercise to them to make clear that it is Christ indeed, that they rest on, or to be clear, that they have rested on Him. It is no good token, when people are soon satisfied with their believing, and never put it to the trial; and this is it that makes many go on guessing, till they come to death, which makes a divorce between them and their fancied faith, and discovers it to be but a delusion. Whereas it is the believer's work, to try whether they have, and to know that they have believed, which they do not soon come to know; and the reason is, because the sense of sin, the apprehension of wrath, and their love to God, and to Christ the Mediator, with their desire to enjoy Him, suffer them not to be quiet till they be sure. We may see all the four together, (Philippians 3:7-10), where the Apostle speaking of his case, when he was a converted Christian, in opposition to what it was when he was a Pharisee, and thought himself to be very well, and a strong believer, says, what things were gain to me, I counted loss for Christ, indeed, doubtless I count all things to be but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, etc. The object he would be at, is Christ, the manner how, is, not having my own righteousness, the means through which, is, faith in Him; this is it that brings him to union with Him; and then he would know experimentally, that he does know Him savingly, as a believer in Him, by finding the power of his resurrection by having fellowship in his sufferings, and by being made conformable to his death, whereby he would prove, and make out, to his own quieting and consolation, that he is indeed a believer. The believer is never right till he be in Christ, and it is his exercise to be quit rid of all other things, and to rest upon him alone; neither does he rest here, but he must be clear, that he is in Him, and that he has fellowship in His sufferings and conformity to His death: this we would recommend to you as your main study, as ever you would comfortably evidence to yourselves, your believing in Him.