Mt Sinai Precedes Mt. Calvary

Earlier in the week, I referred to a sermon preached by Charles H. Spurgeon on the "new birth."

I wanted today to mention another sermon by Spurgeon, preached in 1883 that I think reveals a problem in many contemporary evangelistic efforts today. That is, until a person understands, embraces, and believes the "bad news" that we are condemned and guilty before a holy God, he/she will never understand and embrace the "good news" of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hear it better from Spurgeon: In the beginning, the preacher's business is not to convert men, but the very reverse. It is idle to attempt to heal those who are not wounded, to attempt to clothe those who have never been stripped, and to make those rich who have never realized their poverty (The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vol. 44, p. 421).

In other words, a person has to be brought to Mt. Sinai before he/she can be brought to Mt. Calvary. Sinai represents the law that condemns us as law breakers. This is the picture of the Prodigal Son who was brought to know "that he was a sinner, that his very nature was vile and filthy."

Indeed, to add to this thought, Martyn Lloyd Jones asserts until you experience that, you know nothing; that is the first thing a man or woman can ever really "know." What is more, unless you have experienced that, unless you have known that, you are not a Christian, you do not believe in Christ as your personal Saviour. Until you realize that, you cannot possibly have felt the need of Christ; you may have felt the need of help and advice and comfort, but until you awake to the face that your nature itself is evil, until you realize that your trouble is not that you do this and that which is wrong, but that you yourself are wrong, and that your whole nature is wrong, until you realize that, you will never have felt the need of a Savior. Christ cannot help or advise or comfort you until He has first of all saved you, until He has changed your nature. Oh, my friends, have you yet felt this? God have mercy upon you if you haven't. You need not be a rotter or a scamp to be a sinner. It makes no difference who you are or what you are, it makes no difference how good you may appear to be or how much good work you may do. You may have been inside the church all your life and actively engaged in its work, but still I say that unless you have at some time or other felt that your nature itself is sinful, that you are..."dead in sins", then you have never known Jesus Christ as a Saviour, and if you do not know Him as a Saviour you do not know Him at all (Sermon on Luke 15, preached June 19, 1927; cited in D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The First Forty Years 1899-1939, by Iain Murray, p. 208-09).

Be Radical With Sin--And Trust in Jesus Who Was Radical "For Us"

If your hand causes you to sin, cut if off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where "their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched." (Mark 9:43-48).

Tim Keller's words on this passage are insightful and urgent: Sinful behavior (the reference to hand and foot) and sinful desires (the reference to the eye) are like a fire that has broken out in your living room. Let's say a cushion on your couch has ignited. You cannot just sit there and say, "Well, the whole house isn't burning--it's just a cushion." If you don't do something immediately and decisively about the cushion, the whole house will be engulfed. Fire is never satisfied. It can't be allowed to smolder; it can't be confined to a corner. It will overtake you eventually. Sin is the same way: It never stays in its place. It always leads to seperation from God, which results in intense suffering, first in this life and then in the next. The Bible calls that hell. That's why Jesus uses the drastic image of amputation. There can be no compromises. We must do anything we can to avoid it (King's Cross, 75-76).

However, as Keller adds, Jesus has already pointed out that our biggest problem is not our hand, foot, or eye, its our heart: For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All those evils come from inside.... (Mark 7:20-23).

Hence, what we need more than avoiding temptation or forming accountability groups or saying "no" to sin (as important as these things are!) is an inside-out cleansing.

We need one who will take our penalty and punishment so that we can get what Revelation 19:7-8 depicts: Let us rejoice and be glad...Fine linen, bright and clean, is given (to us) to wear; yes, pure linen--perfectly clean--without stain or blemish. Hebrews 13 states Jesus was crucified outside the gate where bodies are burned--the garbage heap, a place of absolute uncleanliness--so that we can be made clean. Through the Lord Jesus, at infinite cost to himself, God has clothed us in costly garments. It cost him his blood, his life. And it is the only thing that can deal with the problem of our hearts.

So, let's be radical with sin. Let's also be radical in our faith in Jesus. He was certainly radical "for us."