THE CRUCIFIED ONE, THE LIVING ONE,
THE HOLY ONE
These three scriptures, I trust, will engage us with the glorious Person and work of our Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, presenting Him to us, as the crucified One, then as the living One, and in John 6 we read of Him as the holy One. One is assured that the attention of every interested person would be involved in the presentation of such a Saviour. Who can measure the depths to which divine grace has gone in the crucified One, because it was for us—poor sinners, undeserving, unmerited—that the mighty sovereign work has been effected to save us, save us from the guilt of our sins. And the penalty and the judgment of our sins has been borne on the cross by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Mark’s gospel brings that out peculiarly. We often speak of Matthew and Mark as the pressure gospels. I will tell you why: they give us the detail of the forsaking. They give us the very words Jesus uttered when hanging there, alive on the cross, bearing the sins of believers. He uttered those words, quoting from the Psalm: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”, Mark 15: 34. One hesitates to speak of such things. If the whole earth was engulfed in darkness during those three awful hours, what human mind would venture to penetrate beyond what has been recorded: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” They were the words of the crucified One. That is the death He accepted, “and that the death of the cross” (Phil 2: 8), as if, perhaps we could say, it went beyond what was envisaged. He came to die. He came “to seek and to save that which is lost”, Luke 19: 10. He came from heaven to do this in the glory of His Person, in humanity in flesh and blood conditions, to become the sin-bearer for everyone who believes. I trust you are numbered among them. If not, get numbered among them—quick! Before the meeting is through, be sure you are numbered among the believers in Jesus! We understand that death by crucifixion is the cruellest death depraved man could devise, and it was meted out to the spotless Saviour and He accepted it. He did not even receive what might have relieved the agony, He refused it. Our blessed Saviour went through the dreadfulness of what He suffered at the hands of wicked men, by whom He was crucified and slain. Think of it! Still more, He bore the awful judgment against sin and sinners. We come into the gain of that wonderful finished work by faith in His Person and in His blood. It says, “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin”, 1 John 1: 7. That is a Christian speaking. It is John who says that, the disciple whom Jesus loved. You might say, if you only knew my history you would hesitate to say, “all sin”. No! I would not. The word of God establishes it; there is not one too great a sinner to be saved.
Why not put in your claim? What does it mean to be saved? You confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord—these are the terms—and “believe in thine heart that God has raised him from among the dead”—that is what I have read: “He is risen, he is not here”; “thou shalt be saved” (Rom 10: 9)—an unconditional promise if only you will believe. God has made it so easy—we might say too easy for the intellectual or the foolish or depraved. We have known persons thought too senile to be saved. Oh the grace of God! Tonight, my friend, it is within your reach; more! it is within easy reach, in the simplicity of putting out your hand in faith and embracing the terms of God’s glad tidings. You will never regret it. There will be many alas! unbelievers who will regret it. Terrible thing to die in your sins! The Lord speaks to the Jews that way: you will die in your sins, see John 8: 24. I cannot think of anything more terrible or more unnecessary. It is to a sinner’s advantage to be saved, to get the burden rolled off. You come to the cross for that. You are going to do that, I trust. It is a wonderful thing to be a Christian. In some sense you have to experience it to know the wonder of it, to know that not a charge can be raised: “cleanses us from all sin”. Prove it, my friend! The crucified One! Each one needs to come to the cross with that awful burden; it was borne away, sufferingly. You say, how could He do that? We generalise too much. He bore our sins, one by one. Think of it: believers’ sins! Paul says, He “died for our sins” (1 Cor 15: 3), that is Christians. We could not say He died for the sins of unbelievers. Now, do not get me wrong! He died for all. It is “towards all, and upon all those who believe”, Rom 3: 22. There will come a moment when those who have died in their sins will be raised in their sins to be judged in their sins and to be banished in their sins. Do you know what heads the list of such? The fearful and the unbelieving. That is not persons who have not heard the gospel, it is persons who have heard the gospel and alas! to their eternal folly, have said, No. Do not be among them! You need not be. The grace of God gives us an opportunity, and be assured that you are sheltered by the blood of the crucified One, the Lamb of God, the taker-away of the sin of the world. Has He taken yours away? You know: God knows; I do not know. We would not presume to know anyone’s heart. God knows your heart. He is the heart-knowing God and He knows even the blackest history. What is He doing? What is He saying? He is commending His love to you. Even while we were yet sinners, even then, He commends His love to you: the best commendation that we could ever pass on to you is that God loves the sinner. He does not love your sins. He dealt with the whole matter of sin. The cross met the whole question of good and evil. Has it been met in your history? It is a wonderful thing to come by faith to that finished work, to know everything, absolutely, from God’s side. He is satisfied—“when I see the blood, I will pass over you”, Exod 12: 13. That was said in Egypt where that passover lamb was cherished, then slain, its blood put up on the doorposts and on the lintel; that house was sheltered. It is a wonderful favour to be brought up in a Christian home, in a baptised home. What protection it is! The whole world is under judgment. Do not be deceived. Many are allowing themselves to become engulfed in a world about to be judged. You say, I do not believe it. Well, you think again! It is God’s strange work, but it will inevitably come. He will judge the world in righteousness; more than that, the day is appointed when that will be. There is no mistake. The prince of this world is clothing it with all sorts of attractions to lead you into its morass. Beware of it! It has been rightly said that the higher you get in this world, the nearer to its god. I would appeal to every fellow-Christian: do not steer your course as near to the world as possible; flee it! “The world is passing, and its lust”, 1 John 2: 17. Flee it! Keep as far away from it as possible!
There is another sphere in which you can live, the world of the Son of God, the living One; that is what I want to come to. The living One: how wonderful that is! John says in the Revelation, quoting the Lord: “and I became dead”, chap 1: 18. No one took His life from Him. Why? He is the originator of life! Peter said, when he preached, “the originator of life ye slew”, Acts 3: 15. What folly, even from a human point of view, to slay the originator of life! Men are doing their utmost to prolong life. Why? They fear death. The Christian does not. Death to a Christian is blessing. You might not think it, but it is. Death for a Christian is to be with Christ where He is, where the living One is. Oh let this hope burn in us, beloved brethren and friends! What a propitious atmosphere we find ourselves in this afternoon. God is propitious towards us. He is commending His love to us. Do not turn away from it! For your own sake do not turn a deaf ear! Do not be bothered about appearances! Be real and genuine, honest with yourself and honest with God. It is so worthwhile. The whole world’s system is built up on a veneer. Look behind the curtains, what do you find? Corruption and wickedness. I am not wanting to dwell on that. I would like to tell you about another world, the world of the Son of God. It is worthwhile, a thousand times, to face the reality of where you stand with God.
So I come to this reference in Luke, to the living One. Those who came to the tomb, these beloved women, were lovers of the Lord. “They found not the body of the Lord Jesus” (v 3)—how touching that is! They were looking for the body of the Lord Jesus. He had lain there for three days and three nights. Scripture says, “in the heart of the earth”, Matt 12: 40. That was His vicarious work too. He not only met my sins vicariously but He removed the whole man that sinned. Think of Him going through the whole penalty of death! Not on His own account. He had no sin. He was sinless, the spotless One. The thief on the cross said, “but this man has done nothing amiss”, Luke 23: 41. “Nothing amiss”—uniqueness is in that. Could you point to anyone else of whom that could be said? No! We have all done plenty amiss. The holy, spotless Lamb of God has taken on the whole liability of everyone that believes. Oh, be a believer! Put your trust in Him! You cannot be too simple or too real. Just get down to the very facts of your present conscious need and put your trust in the Saviour! Do not wait until after the meeting! We were singing just now about snatching away the seed (see hymn 109). The seed is in the word of God; it is not in what man has thought up. Value it! If you do not have a Bible, get one! If you are not reading it, read it! If you do not believe it, begin to believe it, because the word of God is true and every word will be fulfilled. There is no mistake about it.
So Jesus is the living One: “Why seek ye the living one among the dead?” What precious words these would be to them, to find the One to whom they owed everything was risen: “Why seek ye the living one among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spoke to you, being yet in Galilee”. I would like to introduce you to the living One. He has the keys of death and of hades: “I became dead, and behold, I am living to the ages of ages, and have the keys”, Rev 1: 18. What door do they open? To life out of death. The shadow of death can never come is what He will introduce you into by faith, your link with Himself on the other side of death. I know no greater glad tidings; they bring me into conscious relationship with the Man on the other side of death. On this side of death it is the fear of death: “through fear of death through the whole of their life were subject to bondage”, Heb 2: 15. But He has “annulled death, and brought to light life and incorruptibility by the glad tidings”, 2 Tim 1: 10. Think of death being annulled! It is not annulled in the world yet. No! People die. In some parts of the earth, we hear, people are getting their bodies frozen, hoping that at some time there will be some means to prolong their lives. There is no faith in that. What a wretched business that would be! Why? Faith introduces you into a scene of things where death can never come. I know nothing more wonderful than to be attached to the living One on the other side of death.
The crucified One and the living One, the cross and the blood of His cross—He has “made peace by the blood of his cross” (Col 1: 20)—meet and settle the whole question of my eternal salvation and destiny. Is that a settled matter, my friend? Could we pause just one moment longer to persuade you and appeal to you and assure you that that can become an absolute settled matter because that work on the cross established divine righteousness in the very place of sin, and you can be free in the absolute assurance that you are saved for eternity, sheltered from the judgment to come.
Now I go on to a further thought—the holy One in John 6. How are you going to spend the rest of your time here, either until we are taken—as I said, for a Christian that is blessing, better to be with Christ, “far better”, Paul says—or until the Lord comes? Christians all over the world are speaking about the coming of the Lord. We do not disregard that. You say, how do you know? There are plenty of mockers who say as Peter records it: “Where is the promise of his coming?” 2 Pet 3: 4. They say, people of every generation have been talking about the coming of the Lord. I tell you it is nearer. Personally, I believe it is at the door. I do not force that on you: I would seek to stimulate your like faith. How, therefore, are we going to comport ourselves in the few moments that may remain until every believer in Jesus hears that assembling shout, the voice of the Son of God; that will be the first thing, and they will be raised incorruptible. It would appear that even their graves will be opened according to Matthew, see chap 27: 52. These things are realities and they are imminent. I ask again, in the few moments that remain, how am I going to comport myself?
John 6 is a long chapter and a very full one. We often describe it as somewhat difficult; it is a chapter of reduction. But it is a chapter of food, and we need the food it portrays. The Lord could feed five thousand from those few loaves and those few little fishes that a boy had. Ah! He can do everything. I suppose the millennial time will show what He is able to do in this world. There will be no starving millions then. The earth will produce prolifically under the administration of a righteous King: “a king shall reign in righteousness”, Isa 32: 1. This chapter portrays reduction in numbers. How we have seen it: reduction! Are you prepared for “the day of small things”, Zech 4: 10? Can you not see the moral glory that attaches to a few lovers of Jesus, attached to Him and attached to one another, finding their way through a perishing world? Why? Because of their attachment to the holy One of God. Many were going back; it says, “From that time many of his disciples went away back and walked no more with him”. How far back? It does not say. Beloved, the dreadful clouds of apostasy are sweeping this world. It is not full yet; it will be, and then the judgment. Do not get caught in the tide of those who went away back! Where could it lead such? How solemn! Maybe many would not intend it to be so, but they get caught in that receding tide. Where could it lead you? Back and into the dreadful vortex of apostasy. I am not saying that any true believer would ever be lost, but you could be lost for the present testimony of our Lord. Do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, outwardly in such frailty, weakness and sorrow. We will not find perfection here; we find it in Jesus up there. Paul laboured to “present every man perfect in Christ”, Col 1: 28. I wonder sometimes whether there is something in the testimony now that corresponds with the closing phase of the Saviour’s life in the ignominy and the shame and the smallness of what that life was, leading to the cross and to the grave. Let us value the moment of suffering with Him and for Him!
So the Lord raises the question, “Will ye also go away?” Let that “also” burn into us. It is as if the Lord is saying, I am feeling it when anyone goes away back. Remember how He raised the question as to those ten lepers when only one out of the ten returned to give thanks: “the nine, where are they?”, Luke 17: 17. Where are you, my friend? Are you the one that has returned to give thanks or are you one of the nine that never returned to give thanks? I want to leave this appeal: “Will ye also go away?” Peter rises to it; he says, “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast words of life eternal; and we have believed and known that thou art the holy one of God”. That is a lovely allusion to Jesus: “the holy one of God”. I firmly believe that what will hold us in faithfulness to the end is attachment to the holy One of God. Without holiness no one shall see the Lord, see Heb 12: 14. Cleave to the holy One of God! Cleave to the company of those who love Him! Cleave to the word of God! Cleave to the truth! “Lord, to whom shall we go?” were the words of one who was attached to Jesus. Remember how in John 21, Jesus probed Peter three times as to his love for Him. Earlier he had boastfully said he would not do certain things, but he did them. How wonderful is the power of divine grace that meets us in all our waywardness and our selfassertiveness and our pride. God hates pride: “God sets himself against the proud, but gives grace to the lowly”, Jas 4: 6. Peter went through it. I do not think Peter’s sins are recorded to expose Peter. They expose me. I am no different but for the power of divine grace. So the Lord probed him and says, “Lovest thou me more than these?”, and the third time Peter says, “Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I am attached to thee”, John 21: 17. Let us prove it! Beloved hearer, demonstrate it in a way of life, maybe a fresh way of life, demonstrate that you are not going back, that you are attached to the holy One of God. May the Lord help us and seal home these things to us and may faith be active to believe in the glad tidings. For His Name’s sake.
GRIMSBY
10th April 1988
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