Satan, and Death, and but for Christ must, with all his posterity, have so abided for ever, if this was the case with Adam, who was formed in purity and innocence, then how ought we to fear; with what trembling ought we to work out our salvation, who are formed not in the likeness of Adam's innocence in which God created him, but in the likeness of that sinful nature which he obtained for himself! My brethren, this is an awful consideration. We come to church; we attend the Holy Communion of Christ's Body and Blood; we humble ourselves before our God; we pray for His grace; we confess to Him our sins; we strive, it may be, after greater holiness and a more earnest religious life; but all the while we bear within us unseen, in the very constitution of our own being, an enemy to our spiritual life, which, without increased watchfulness on our parts, is able to poison the whole of our future immortality. And this enemy, the flesh, is not alone, but is aided and assisted by Satan on the one hand, and the World on the other. Satan by himself was sufficient to destroy Adam, although created in innocence. Satan, the World, and the Flesh, all three together, are arrayed against us, who were born in sin. Oh, let the best of us fear, lest he be deluded by the deceitfulness of sin! Oh, let the best of us watch, lest he fall into temptation! Oh, let the best of us be afraid, "lest, a promise having been left us of entering into rest, we should seem to come short of it." But, coupled with this holy trembling, let us never forget, that in the second Adam we have an eternal Protector, who was not like the first, tempted and thereby fell, but being tempted overcame, and "having been tempted, is able to succour them that are tempted." He will bear up those who believe in Him, and do not trust in themselves, provided they obey His commandments, and walk by that light which He gives. His arm is mighty to save. He knows our secret endeavours, which the world cannot see. Let us "be faithful unto death, and He will give" us "a crown of life.”3 "The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law ; but thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord."4 1 Heb. iv. 1. 3 Rev. ii. 10. 2 Heb. ii. 18. SERMON III. CHRIST'S ETERNITY. THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT. JOHN viii. 12. "Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." : IN the chapter from which our text is taken, our Lord declares to us, in His own gracious words, many things concerning Himself, by which we may understand in part who and what He is. Let us consider these sayings one by one. First, then, at the twelfth verse you hear what our Saviour says of Himself, namely, that He is the light of the world. "I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." By nature, let us be certain, "we all walk in darkness." That is to say, by nature our souls are ignorant, and dark, and blind, and know nothing rightly concerning God or concerning themselves. This is the real natural condition of the whole world. You will ask, How came it to be so? I answer, Through the fall of Adam, when he yielded to the temptation of Satan, and ate of the forbidden tree. Then it was that his natnre, which at first was made pure, became evil and corrupt. And our souls and bodies are like unto his, and partake of his fall, inasmuch as by nature we are descended from him. By nature, then, we what saith our Saviour? But are in darkness. "I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness." Jesus Christ came to be the second Adam. As by the first Adam came darkness, so by the second Adam comes light into the world. And those who follow Christ shall no longer walk in darkness, that is, in ignorance and sin, but "shall have the light of life;" not light only, but "the light of life." What a promise is here! And we may be assured that so far as any one amongst us now, or any other in former ages of the world, has ever had the least light in him, it has not come from himself, but from Christ. And whosoever will follow Christ shall obtain more light and yet more, from Him; for "he that hath, to him shall be given." And as "to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom He hath sent, is life eternal;" so this very knowledge comes from Christ, through the Holy Ghost, and must be sought from Him. For other fountain of light there is none to the soul of man, save Christ, the 1 Mark iv. 25. 2 John xvii. 3. real Light of the world, "which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." Now let us go on to another saying of Christ concerning Himself in the same chapter. Look, then, to the sixteenth verse, and observe what our Saviour declares. "I am not alone," He says, "but I and the Father that sent Me." When we say that Christ is the only Light of the world, we must not think that He exists alone in Himself, and without Another. Christ is "the everlasting Son of the Father." He is "God of God." That Light which He is, He is so, not as Light in Himself only, but as " Light of Light." And there is also a Third, the Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son. Therefore here also the Son declares concerning Himself, "I am not alone, but I and the Father;" for from all eternity He hath been One with the Father through the Holy Ghost. As in another place He says, "I and My Father are One." Not that the Son is the same as the Father, for He is One Person, and the Father Another; but as he Himself says, "Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me." And here again He says, "I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent Me." For even when sent by the Father He was still with the Father, and the Father with Him. Oh, what a mystery is this! And when He says, "the Father sent Me," if we would un 1 John i. 9. 2 John x. 30. 3 John xiv. 11. D |