ENEMIES RECONCILED THROUGH DEATH - Robert Murray Mcchene

“And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy, and unblameable, and unreproveable in his sight: if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel.”—Col. i., 21-23.

I. The past condition of all who are now believers: “You that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works.” When two families have quarreled with one another, they become alienated’ from one another: they do not visit one another any more; their children are not allowed to speak together as formerly; if they meet in the street, they look another way. So it is with unconverted sinners and God; they are alienated from God; they do not visit God; they do not seek his presence; they do not love to meet his children; they do not like their words nor their ways. When God meets them in a pointed sermon or providence, they try to look another way, that they may not meet God’s eye.

1. Alienated.—This word is used three times: “Ye were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel.” Eph. ii., 12. “Alienated from the life of God.” Eph. iv., 18. And again here. In all, it paints to the life the true character of every unconverted man. It is vain to conceal it, dear unconverted brethren. You may pretend the greatest love to ministers, to sacraments, to meetings of Christians; still the true state of your heart is estrangement from God. Ah! I fear there are many of you come to the church, and even to the -sacrament, with the name of Christ on your lips, and a cold, estranged heart in your breast: “They did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues; for their heart was not right with God.” Psalm lxxviii., 36.2. Enemies in your minds.—This is more than estrangement. You may be strange to a man, and yet not hate him; but unconverted souls hate God. The whole Bible bears witness that all unconverted men hate God. In Rom. i., 29, it is said: “They did not like to retain God in their knowledge;” so that God gave them up to a reprobate mind, so that they became “HATERS OF GOD.” In Exod. xx., 5, God says: “I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.” And again: “Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity against God? Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world, must be the enemy of God.” James iv., 4.

Would God say this if it were not the case? God knows best what is really in the heart of man. It is true you may not show this hatred in your words, or in your manner; you may not curse God, not even in a whisper; but God says it is in your mind. It is at the bottom of that muddy pool. In hell, where all restraints are lifted away, you will curse God through all eternity.

The most amazing trial of this that could be, was when God came into this world. God was manifest in the flesh. In him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. All the perfections of- God flowed through his bosom. There was not a feature of God but it was shining through his glorious countenance, yet softened to human eyes by all the perfections of his manhood. Did men love him when they saw him? Let Isaiah (liii.) answer: “He is despised and rejected of men.” Or, hear his own words: “The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil.”—John vii., 7. And, again: “He that hateth me, hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin; but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.”—John xv., 23, 24. How did they deal with him? They slew him, and hanged him on a tree, they buffeted him and spat on him, they scourged and crucified him, they nailed and pierced him. They were no worse than other men; men of like passions as we are: and yet the opportunity showed what is in man.

It is vain for you to conceal it, dear unconverted brethren, that your heart is full of enmity to God; that you are haters of God Although it is fearful to think of, yet it is true, that all of you who are friends of the world are enemies of God; and though I believe in my heart there is not one of you here present that would wantonly kill a fly or a worm, yet I fear there are many who, if you could, would kill God.

What is the reason of this enmity? Ans. “By wicked works.” It is the love of their sins that makes men hate God. Jesus himself tells you this: “Me it hateth, because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil.” You could hardly imagine it possible that any one could hate the Lord Jesus. “He is altogether lovely.” There is no perfection in God but it dwelt in him; there is no loveliness in man but it shone in him. And then his errand was one of purest love. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. He healed all that came; spoke lovingly to all. Even his threatenings were mingled with tears of compassion. How could they hate him? He told them of their sins; that these sins were sinking them to hell. He said: “Ye shall die in your sins, and whither I go ye cannot come.” He offered to save them from their sins; to give them rest; rest from the weary load of guilt; rest from the tossing of a wicked heart. It was this which enraged them. They loved their wicked works; they did not want to be saved out of them; therefore, they hated Jesus.

So is it still. Many of you, when you first heard the Gospel,

said; “This is very fine; we will hear thee again of this matter.” The offer of pardon and heaven, a crown and a harp, and freedom from hell—all this sounded well; but when you found out that you must “break off your sins by righteousness,” that Christ “will save his people from their sins,” then you began to linger, to ponder, to hesitate, to turn back and hate God. When you saw that Christ would part you from your glass, from your oaths, from your cards and dice, from your lusts—then you hated him. Alas I what a sad choice you have made! loved your sin, and hated the Saviour I “They that hate me love death.”

Children of God, this was your state. Eat bitter herbs with your passover this day. Oh! do not forget your sin. You were sometime alienated and enemies of God by wicked works. Can you look back without being confounded ?

II. The reconciliation: “Yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death.”—Verse 21. This is the amazing work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is the blessed state into which he brings every saved soul.

1. He took on him a body of flesh. Out of pure love to helldeserving worms, “he that was in the form of God, and thought it no robbery to be equal with God, emptied himself, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.” In order to be the Saviour of sinners, he must obey the law, which we had never obeyed—he must live a lifetime of sinless obedience; but how shall the great God who made the law do this? He was made of a woman, made under the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law. Again: if he will save sinners, he must drink their cup of suffering, he must bear their stripes, their sins—on his own body. But how shall the infinitely holy, happy, and unchangeable God, suffer this? Because the children were of flesh, he himself likewise took part of the same. He became united to a weak, frail, human soul and body; so that he could suffer, weep, groan, bleed, die. “Great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh.” Again: if he will be the Saviour and elder brother of sinners; if he will know their sorrows, and be their tender shepherd; he must have a human heart; a breast filled with all the milk of a mother’s tenderness. But how can this be, when he is infinitely holy, wise, just, and true? Ah! he became bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh “When all the tribes of Israel came to David to Hebron, they said, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh” (2 Sam. v., 1); and so can we in going to Christ: “He is one that can be touched with a feeling of our infirmity.” Ah! to all eternity the incarnation of Jesus will be the theme of our wonder and praise. Brethren, you will all see that face. Some of you will wail when you see it. When that lovely countenance gleams through the clouds, you will call on rocks and mountains to cover you. It is the Saviour you have rejected and despised.

2. He died: “Through death.”—The death of Christ is the most amazing event that ever took place in the universe; and therefore the Lord’s supper is the most amazing of all ordinances. The angels desire to look into it. I doubt not that angels hover round the communion table, and sing their sweetest praises to the Lamb, when they see that bread broken, arid that wine poured out. If the incarnation of Jesus was wonderful, far more wonderful was his dying. This was the highest summit of his obedience: “Obedient unto death.” It was the lowest depth of his humiliation. He stood silent under our accusations; he lay down under our curse; he bore our hell, and died our death. He was the great Lawgiver—the Judge of all—before whom every creature must stand and be judged; and yet he consented to come and stand at the bar of his wicked creatures, and to be condemned by them! He was adored by every holy creature; their sweetest praises were poured out at his feet; and yet he came to be spit upon and reviled—to be mocked, and nailed, and crucified, by the vilest of men! “In him was life.” He was the Prince of life— the author of all natural and spiritual life; he gave to all life and breath, and all things; and yet they killed him. He gave up the ghost— he lay in the cold grave. The Father loved him infinitely, eternally—without beginning, or intermission, or end; and yet he was made a curse for us—bore the same wrath that is poured upon damned spirits.

Ah! brethren, herein was infinite love. Infidels scoff at it— fools despise it; but it is the wonder of all heaven. The Lamb that was slain will be the wonder of eternity. To-day Christ is evidently set forth crucified among you. Angels, I doubt not, will look down in amazing wonder at that table. Will you look on with cold, unmoved hearts? It is a sight of the Lamb slain that moves the hosts of heaven to praise.—Rev. v., 8. When that Lamb, as it had been slain, appears, they fall down before him, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odors. Will you not praise him ?

3. He hath reconciled us: “Yet now hath he reconciled.”— Sinners, we are not reconciled in the day of our election, nor at the death of Christ, but in the hour of conversion. Oh! that is a precious now: “Now hath he reconciled.” It is a happy moment, when the Lord Jesus draws near to the sinful soul, and washes him clean in his precious blood, and clothes him in his white raiment, and so reconciles him to God. There is a double reconciliation takes place in the hour of believing. (1.) God becomes reconciled to the soul. When the soul is found in Christ, the Father says: “I will heal his backsliding, I will love him freely, for mine anger is turned away from him.”— os. xiv., 4. The soul replies to God: “I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me.” Goa does not impute to that soul his trespasses; he reckons to him the obedience of the Lord Jesus. God’ justifies him: “He will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love; he will joy over thee with singing.”—Zeph. iii., 17. (2.) The soul is reconciled to God. The Holy Spirit, who bends the soul to submit to Jesus, changes the heart to love him. When the beasts came into the ark, their natures were changed; they did not tear one another to pieces, but lovingly entered two and two into the ark; the lion did not devour the gentle deer’, nor did the eagle pursue the dove. So, when sinners come to Christ, their heart is changed from enmity to love.

Dear brethren, has he reconciled you to God? You were sometime afar off; have you been brought nigh? You were sometime darkness; have you been made light in the Lord? You were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind; has he reconciled you? has he brought you into the light of God’s reconciled countenance? Is God’s anger turned away from you? Can you sing; “O Lord, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me” (Isa. xii.); or, “Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction?”—Ps. ciii. Have you been changed to love God? Do you love his Word, his people, his way of leading you ?

III. The future object in view: “That he might present you holy, and unblameable, and unreproveable in his sight.”

Sacrament days are solemn days: but there is a more solemn day at hand, even at the door. Here we meet to teach you and feed you, and get you to meet with Christ, and to live upon him; there we shall meet to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. In that day Christ will take those of you whom he has redeemed and reconciled, and present you to himself a glorious Church. He will confess your name before his Father, and present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. There is a double perfection the saints will have in that day.

1. You will be perfectly righteous. You will be “unreproveable.” Satan will accuse you, and the world, and conscience; but Christ will say: “The chastisement of their peace was upon me.” Christ will show his scars, and say: “I died for that soul.”2. You will be perfectly holy: “Holy and unblameable.” The body of sin you will leave behind you. The Spirit who dwells in you now will complete his work. You will be like Jesus; for you will see him as he is. You will be holy as God is holy, pure as Christ is pure.

Every one whom Christ reconciles he makes holy, and confesses before his Father: “Whom he justified, them he glorified.” If Christ has truly begun a good work in you, he will perform it to the day of Christ Jesus. Christ says: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending.” Whenever he begins, he will make an end. Whenever he builds a stone as the foundation, he will preserve it unshaken to the end. Only make sure that you are upon the foundation, that you are reconciled, that you have true peace with God, and then you may look across the mountains and rivers that are between you and that day, and say: “He is able to keep me from falling.” You have but two shallow brooks to pass through—sickness and death; and he has promised to meet you, to go with you, foot for foot. A few more tears, a few more temptations, a few more agonizing prayers, a few more sacraments, and you will stand with the Lamb upon Mount Zion !

IV. Perseverance is needful to salvation: “If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel.”—Verse 28. All whom Christ reconciles will be saved; but only in the way of persevering in the faith. He ground? and settles them in the cleft rock, and keeps them from being moved.

Dear believers, see that you continue in the faith. Remember you will be tried.

1. You may be tried by false doctrine. Satan may change himself into an angel of light, and try to beguile you by another Gospel. “Hold fast the form of sound words.”

2. You will be tried by persecution. The world will hate you for your love to Christ. They will speak all manner of evil against you falsely.

3. You will be tried by flattery. The world will smile on you. Satan will spread his paths with flowers; he will perfume his bed with myrrh, and aloes, and cinnamon.

Will you continue in the faith? Will you not be moved away? Can you withstand all these enemies? Remember, perseverance is needful to salvation; as needful as faith, or as the new birth. True, every one that believes in Christ will be saved; but they will be saved through perseverance: “If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.” Behold, in Jesus there is strength for perseverance. This bread and wine to-day are a pledge of that. Seek persevering grace to-day. Ask this when you take that bread and wine.

Hypocrites! you will one day be known by this. Many of you seem to be united, who truly are not. All who have had convictions of sin which have passed away, all who have the outward appearance of Christians, but within an unconverted heart, all who attend ordinances, but live in some way of sin, you will soon be discovered. You put on an appearance, you pretend that you do cleave to Christ, and get grace from Christ, oh! how soon you will be shown in your true colors. Oh! that the thought may pierce your heart, that even now, though you came with a lying profession in your right hand, you may be persuaded to cleave to Jesus in truth. Amen. 

St Peter’s, Aug. 1,1841.—(Action Sermon.)