The Great High Priest

[A Sermon Preached At West Street Chapel, Brighton, By Rev. George Abrahams, Minister Of Regent Street Chapel, City Road, London, On Sunday, October 19, 1851]

“But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.”—Hebrews 10:12,13

The word of God, namely the Bible, which is given by the inspiration of God, is like a beautiful and grand cabinet, full of all manner of precious things. The people of the earth, or the world, would be highly delighted with such a cabinet; so especially would they be delighted could they choose from it, or rather, could some grand, superior personage choose from it, for them, some of the precious things it contains. Their admiration for the cabinet and its treasures would be great, but it would be far greater for the things given from it: “These are my own” they would say, “my grandfather left it me and he was loyd so-and-so.” In this way people will treasure up the things brought from that great cabinet the Exhibition. They admire them there, but when in their possession how will their value be increased! So with the word of God, not only is it beautiful, great, and wondrous as a whole, but the precious things to be obtained from it enhance its value.

“There,” says the dear soul, “that is my own, it was given me by my covenant God. God the Father gave it me by an eternal sovereign gift, God the Son secured it to me, God the Holy Ghost revealed it in me. I feel that it is to give me strength, and I treasure it and hug it to my very heart; nay more I expect that still greater riches will be mine before I depart hence. Oh,” continues the dear soul, “that I could get that which would in value outweigh all, that would make up for all!” Poor little faith! This God-Man, Christ Jesus, does make up all our wants. He is the pearl of great price. A man may chance all when he gets Jesus Christ, when he feels him in his soul. If Christ was not in me, and precious to my soul, I might as well have remained a Jew. If Christ is not precious, if he is not all, aye and it does not stop short here, if he is not all—and in all. He must be felt to be all, all in heaven, all in earth, all in the world, all in the church. “Well,” says little faith, “I have come that I might hear of this, for God is my witness, I love the Lord Jesus Christ and want him to be my portion.” Then poor little faith—I reply the poor Jew is come to Brighton to preach Him, for I would not give a straw for all the churches or cathedrals of England if I might not preach Christ in them.

Let us now turn to my text. That is taken from the epistle to the Hebrews. I said, we dearly love that part of the treasure which we have got for our own, which is given us and is ours: and to you dear people of God, you who have known him by his teaching, to you I appeal as witnesses of God’s truth, have been given the word of promise, the word of encouragement, the word of God has been spoken years ago, and that word is precious to you; you will not part with it. Well, the Lord in his mercy spoke to me especially such a word. In my trouble, when I was utterly cast down and in despair, then was this epistle to the Hebrews made a greater blessing than ten thousand tongues can describe. If I thought there was a soul in this chapel that would doubt how dear that epistle was to me, I would have brought my polyglot Bible, and shewed how every page of it, wet a hundred times with tears is as black as my coat. Turn to any other part and the page is clear enough, for though I read all parts my heart was not broken over them as over this epistle, for there I have the golden key which the Pope never had, that opens the great lock of the Old Testament. The epistle to the Hebrews is the master-piece of the Old Testament. In that the poor Jew found the secret of God’s truth. Not that it brought him peace in the outset. No, you cannot think how he was distressed and harassed by the influence of the old law, by the creed he was born in; rotten as it was, and it was rotten enough God knows, for it was all ceremony, yet it had still power to terrify him. Oh, my soul trembled when the feast of the Passover came, and the feast of Tabernacles. Then came that of the Atonement, when the High Priest went into the Holy of holies, and that terrified me; but when I opened the epistle to the Hebrews that shewed me what was better than all the ceremonies of the old creed, what indeed they only typified and foreshadowed, and I took courage and found comfort. And it is from this, from the recollection of what I have experienced from it, that when I go out I always think I can preach from the Hebrews. I have taken my text thence to day, and now I will see what I may say concerning it.

First, Let me say a few words, and how few can even angels, cherubims and seraphims speak in comparison with the theme, or the subject of the text. “But this man.”

Secondly, Let us consider his act, as the Holy Ghost says, “this man after he had offered one sacrifice for sin.”

Thirdly, What became of him after that act? Is he dead, is he gone into oblivion, is he no more? No, for “he sat down at the right hand of God.”

Fourthly, For what did he do so, what is he doing there? He is expecting, “from henceforth expecting, till his enemies be made his footstool.”

Fifthly, Who are his enemies who must be made his footstool.

Sixthly, What was meant by being made a footstool? What sort of a footstool would these enemies make?

Seventhly, What is all this to those who believe in God? Is it anything to you or to me to know these things? Are you the enemies or the elect of God?

I. We come first to the person spoken of—“that man.” The man, the personal man is here spoken of, but the words are “that man.” Was there another man then? Well it sounds like it. You are such and such a one, and such-a-one is another, and so also he was a person and a person went before Him. And who was it? See the 11th verse: “And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering often­ times the same sacrifice,” that is, the same things over again, “which can never take away sins.” Professedly it did take away sins but it never could absolutely do so. It was only efficacious in that it did by the blood shed point to something better, to a more perfect sacrifice of which it was the type. In this sense it did serve God’s chosen ones, did cleanse their souls from sin, and obtain mercy for them; not by the blood shed, but by the sacrifice to which it pointed. But we have first to do not with the sacrifice but with the man, “this man,” and we will regard him in his priestly office. In the ancient church there were several orders of priests. There was first the high priest, then a second priest, then an order of priests that waited daily for the slaughter of the beasts and bringing them to the high priest. But in “this man” all these offices were united. In the ancient church priests had to “stand daily offering in the temple.” They had “to stand.” Why? Because when people are busy they have no time to set down. These men stood daily, laboured daily, sacrificed daily, but when “this man” had offered one sacrifice he “sat down,” as I read “for ever.” He had done with it, his task was over, he “sat down.” But concerning “this man.” Who is He? Why is he called “this man?” My reply is in the words of Timothy, in the 2nd chapter of his epistle, 5th verse, there are these words, “there is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus.” That is the man. But is he only a man? If the dear child of God will look back to the third verse in the same chapter he will find that he was not: “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour.” By that you see our Saviour is our God also. Then why in the plain statement of my text, is He simply spoken of as “this man?” Because it was the man Christ Jesus that could alone be made a sacrifice for atonement for sin. God could not suffer; he could not be sacrificed or slain. But was it a man absolutely sacrificed? No, that would not do, for the creature could not suffer of itself; the lamb could not cut its own throat, or offer itself on the altar, or burn itself. Some one was needed to perform the office, and if you cannot see that it was in his double nature as God-man that he offered up his body, his humanity, you must be hood-winked by the devil indeed! But I do not forget that God’s people want teaching as well as scolding. Some preachers think they should take nothing but the horsewhip with them into their pulpits, but I know that teaching is also the preachers’ work. This man, then, the man Christ whose coming was ordained before the foundation of the world. What does the Holy Ghost call him? The son of God who sat down at his right hand. The Man whom God the Father made strong for himself, the Man who was the perfection of beauty; he was “fairer than the children of men,” because grace was poured into his lips. The Man, God’s only, dear, inestimable Son; not a Son by human nature, but a son in the glorious Godhead. This Man equal in divinity with the Father, endowed with a complex nature that he might be made fit for his high work—this is the Man of my text! What do you think of this man? Did you ever see him? Were the eyes of your understanding ever set on him, so that you felt you were feasting on the sight. That is the great point. “Oh ye daughters of Jerusalem, oh, ye people of God! I am dying by inches unless he come, yes, ”says the dear soul, “I have longed for a sight of him to my eyes of faith, I have prayed, longed for such a sight.” Then he is a little precious to you? “Oh yes, he is the man for us, he was life to us when we were dead, he was light out of darkness, and in darkness refreshing and consoling to us; his presence is heaven to our souls, and when we go to heaven his presence will gladden our souls for ever and ever.”

What is the constitution of this man? Man, the noblest work in the glorious creation of God, has a complex nature; partly spiritual, partly natural, a soul and a body. The soul is immaterial and cannot die, the body is material and may suffer death. Consequently every man and woman may be described as complex, made of two sorts of material; and in this distinguished from animals who having no souls are of single substance. Well, what next? Why, this man, Christ, is also of a complex nature. He is at once God and man. He is not God that was made man and ceases to be God. No, that is a blas­phemous lie. Nor is he man that was made God and ceased to be man. That is another lie. He is still one God-man, Christ Jesus. “Oh,”, say you, “that is a very dear and precious Man.” Oh, he is a wonderful man of whom I speak; at once man and Almighty God. I use no metaphor; I speak not in parables; but I speak of Christ Jesus who is full of compassion, and mercy, and feeling for little faith, and all God’s people. In his god-head he is the maker of the heavens and the earth and all therein and thereon: he is the Lord and master of all, for all is his own; but in his manhood, in his human nature it was given to him to be made a sacrifice for man, to descend from the throne of his majesty, to suffer, and to die for the salvation of his people. Furthermore, “this Man” was able to do this thing. He, and he only could do it; he was the only man holy and without blame, incorruptible and inviolable in God’s sight. 

He became the high priest, and only “a merciful and faithful high priest” became us. The only high priest suitable to our case was one “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sin;” else he could not redeem sinners; he must redeem himself first. “This man” had His personality by being in union with God the Son.

One word more and we pass on. “This Man,”—for I must keep to my text. It is not good when the servant of God is so at sea that he drifts miles away from his text. What were then the use of taking a text? “This man” is also a high priest, everlastingly. His priesthood is eternal. “He is a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.” He who had neither father nor mother, beginning of days or end of life, because he hath an unchangeable priesthood. What is said of him? “Lo I come, in the volume of the book,” that is in the volume of God’s eternal decree, “it is written of me, I delight to do thy will O my God.” “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” The sacrifices under the law are superseded: the lumber of the Jews is done away with. Blessed be God we have got rid of that. Did I call it lumber wrongly? What says the Holy Ghost? The Holy Ghost calls them, “beggarly elements.” And what do we get in exchange for these “beggarly elements?” It is expressed in the words, “a body hast thou prepared for me.” The Father prepared it, the Son assumed and took it into union with himself; the Holy Ghost made it a holy thing, and it became the great element in the mystery of the Triune God.

This man then has a body, a soul, and is a high priest. What more? Oh, he has a title above that of any in the Jewish priesthood! He is the Prince Messiah. He is the Prince of elected ones, the prince of priests, of kings, principalities, of everything. Yes, “this man,” this dear man, whom we love, because he loved us first, to whom we cling because he clung to us first, to whom we hold fast because he died for us; not for the angels but for the children of Abraham.

II. We come to enquire what has this Man done? “After,” says the text, “after he had offered one sacrifice for sins;” and there follow two words diversely given in different bibles. Those words are “for ever.” In my bible the passage reads “After he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever,” here comes the comma. In other bibles the comma follows after “sins.” The commentators doubt whether the “for ever” applies to the sacrifice or to the sitting down at the right hand of God. “Then what would you have us do?” asks the dear soul. Why do this—read it both ways and you are sure to be right. “But this man after he had offered one sacrifice,” only one sacrifice, “sat down for ever.” This suggests four subdivisions.

1. Of the offering.

2. Of the offerer.

3. Why did he offer it?

4. The time, or rather the duration of it, which is “for ever.”

First, of the offering,—“He had offered.” What did he offer? In a sacrifice the thing offered was cut asunder, it was killed by the hand of the slaughterer, and this sacrifice was no feigned thing, no metaphor. It is the devil who prompted the belief of the Mahometans that it was only a shadow, that the Jews were cheated, and when they thought they sacrificed a man, they laid hands on no real man. It was a real sacrifice, “a sweet smelling sacrifice” of body and soul. Pain and suffering was the lot of the victim to sacrificial rites. Christ crucified experienced more pain, more dolorous cries and tears were wrung from him than from millions of victims “on Jewish altars slain.” What can a beast say when its throat is cut? It can only make a little noise, and what is that to a man bleeding to death! Oh, the agony in that garden of Gethsemane where he was brought to his death throes, when the great drops of blood streamed from him! Oh, the sufferings of the cross too, when he was wrung to the heart, and weeping, prayed to his father to deliver him, to him who is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God through him. This sacrifice, this great and awful sacrifice, was perfect in all respects; it was a sacrifice in the completeness of which, strange to say, the Jews, with all their profession, chiefly doubted. They would not accept Christ crucified. To them it was a complete blank. “We preach,” says the apostle, “Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greek foolishness, but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” Oh, that garden of Gethsemane! Had one under the law brought a bullock to the high priest and said, “that is for a sacrifice of atonement, but mark, you must make it feel,” the priest had looked amazed, “the man is crazed” he would have said. “It will not feel before I begin to cut it.” Not so the great victim; the agony in the garden makes even the angels look down in wonder. My soul is in an amazement, in consternation at the thought. Tell me, have you never passed by the garden of Gethsemane, never drawn back to behold the precious Son of God in agony? “I could wish to see that,” says the poor soul. But now, why was this suffering? Did the Saviour deserve it? God pardon the thought. Did he justly receive the punishment? He? He was holy and undefiled. Whence then his agony? Because the sins of God’s church were laid upon him. Trembling like an aspen-leaf he was brought into extremity, and in his suffering, in his agony, he prayed till drops of blood flowed from him, and thus his church was baptized in blood.

This amazing sacrifice was offered—to whom? Would the Great High Priest offer a sacrifice to the devil? No, he made it to God. He gave “himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour.” The Son of God bore our sins, and came to make a full atonement for them. He poured out his precious life, his precious strength. “Strength enough” says dear Hart “and none to spare!” Yes, child of God, it was for us that he bled, it was to Almighty God that he offered himself. Would that God would give us a vision of that sacrifice. I think some long for it. To see him bleeding how would our hearts bleed too! If they did not there is not much in our religion. ‘‘Oh,” you would say, “this is a sacrifice!” Hark ye angels, listen, and you dear children of God listen also, (for God Almighty make you also partakers,) hark! Who is crying that stupendous cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” I am lost in love, in praise, in wonder! I cannot understand it; no, nor will mathematics teach me the mystery of it. It is enough to stun the angels in heaven, and in vain would they penetrate into it, in vain ask why the Son of God is crying, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Once I was questioned on these words by a Jew, a question was thrust at me with all the maliciousness of which he was capable. “Why,” said he, “if Christ was the Son of God, why did he not cry, ‘my father, rather than ‘my God?’” The man concluded like an old heretic that I was confounded. Oh, no. My heart sunk within me, but I appealed to the Almighty and would not be intimidated, and I calmly replied, “You are mistaken my friend, he cried, ‘father’ too; and in his utmost extremity in the garden he called God doubly his father. His words were, “Abba, father.” The Jew was astonished; he was confounded. Was he? Yes. Here are the words, not father only, but, as Romaine used to say, “Abba, father,” that is “father, father.” This Jew had his mouth stopped, and thou, dear little faith, are not thy lips stopped, is not thy mind confused, thy senses stunned, seeking to dive to the depth of that agony, the agony that cried, “Why hast thou forsaken me?” This was a sacrifice, a vicarious sacrifice, solemn indeed to contemplate. What, does the dear soul ask, what is a vicarious sacrifice? An oblation made for us. But for him we must have died in sin, must have endured the torments of hell to all eternity. Can I tell you more about hell? No, let us pass on. I tremble at the holiness of the place I stand on. I must stand in awe and not prate like a fool. That is a depth our minds cannot fathom, let us in all reverence pass it by.

We have looked on the sacrifice, on the offering, but who offered it? Let us now enquire that? “After he had offered one sacrifice.” Who is this HE? Just turn to the first chapter of Hebrews, and we shall find that “God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son,” “who being the brightness of his glory,” that is of God the Father’s glory, “and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power,” that is by his own might, “when he had himself purged our sins sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.” Thus then we learn that the Son of God was the priest; his body and soul was the sacrifice and he offered it himself. It was so wonderful a sacrifice it must not be separated. What is the meaning of “he offered himself?” Hear his own words: “I lay down my life of myself; no man taketh it from me. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.” No man can say the human nature of Christ was mortal, that is nonsense. Yet Gill does so; but he is not my father confessor. Romaine does so; but he is not my priest. Toplady does so; he is in heaven. The Holy Ghost calls him human, and having, used the word, I may use it. He tells us He “was put to death in the flesh.” That is a mighty word; I want no other. But I have another in the last chapter of the 2 Cor 5:3, 4. “Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking to me which to you-ward is not weak, but is mighty in you; for though he was crucified through weakness yet he liveth by the power of God.” That is enough for me; I need enquire no farther. I dare not supersede the Holy Ghost in inventing words, for God charged me twenty years ago when I first began speaking, in these words, “If any man speak let him speak as the oracles of God.” Men are wont to neglect these oracles of God; to substitute their own learning and conceits for the leading of the Holy Ghost. “You are not an experimental preacher then?” Yes, I should be a hypocrite otherwise if I could not speak of experience, but let us have Christ first. What I call experience is what the Holy Ghost has taught us to know experimentally of Christ and of our own sins. That is quite enough. Christ is the root of experience, and the root must be better than the fruit, for that abides while the fruit drops and withers, and is gone.

III. Now we get to our third idea. What did he offer the sacrifice for? Such a stupendous sacrifice—for what? Why, for sin. “But this man after he had offered one sacrifice for sins,” and for the present I read as in my bible “for ever.” He made a sacrifice for sins for ever. But whose sins, what sins are these? Sins—do you know what sin means? What does it mean? “Sin is the transgression of the law.” That is what sin is. Blessed be God, we are not left to philosophize about the nature of it; the Holy Ghost has told us, and made us know its nature, and know that it is incidental to the whole race of Adam. Sin is in the human nature of each of us. It is called “the corruption of our nature.”

But what sins, whose sins are referred to in the text? When Christ died he made a sacrifice for the sins of God’s elect, for the sins of God’s church, for the sins of God’s people. And what was the use of it? I heard a dear old man of the church of England—they called him the London cuckoo, this is the way these beautiful clergymen can go on, and they call us schismatics!—This dear old man, Wilkinson by name, said, “They say that Christ died for every individual creature, made a general atonement, what they call a universal atonement. I don’t know how they read the bible. I know my brethren in the ministry quote scripture, but, I am astonished, “they use scripture to their own discomfiture.” God’s word which they read, says it is the blood of the everlasting covenant, what meaning can they attach to that covenant? How can they put Cain into it, how can they put the whole world into it? That would be destroying it. If I and another man enter into at compact, and sign it with my blood, would the whole kingdom have a right to it, would the whole people claim part in it and put their names in it? God made an everlasting covenant; he prepared it so that we might have no finger in it, he made it sure that no man might say, “I did it.” That sacrifice was made for the sins of God’s elect, for that is the covenant, and no one can hold otherwise without contradicting God’s righteous word.

I see my time is leaving me though the matter of my text is far from exhausted; but as I preach; again this evening, and on Tuesday, I will neither tire you now nor hurry to the close of the subject, but will reserve it. If I hit upon a sweet text I love to go fully into it. Such a text I lately met with while preaching in the country, in the words, “They that are delivered from the noise of archers.” I could not at the first, nor at the second time get to the bottom of the basket. Well, thought I, the miners in California if they find a vein of gold will not run from that when it is half-worked to search for another, why then should I begin at another vein? I went on and it still yielded such riches that I had half a-mind to take it again in Brighton. But God would not have it so.

After twenty-two years preaching I am not to be frightened by every one that looks to the clock, but I feel within myself that we have had enough for this morning. If we meet this evening and my strength will allow me we will proceed to our third point.

“But this man,” was our first.

What he did “when he had offered one sacrifice for sins,” was our second. That is, when he had made the sacrifice it was done with for ever; he did not want to offer it again.

The third general heading is, what became of him after he had made it. He died, “he bowed his head and gave up the ghost.” We give up the ghost, and then our head falls! but He reversed this order! He bowed his head ere he had given up the ghost and said, “It is finished.” Glorious finish! Oh, ye angels, ye cherubims and seraphims, can ye tell me the full meaning of those words, “It is finished?” Yes, the reign of sin was finished, the sacrifice was done, the reconciliation between God and man was completed, and the Mediator was ready to sit down at the right hand of his Father—for ever.

Evening Sermon

The Lord enabled me by his goodness and his grace to open this portion of his word to you this morning, and to say some few things respecting it. My introduction was simply intended to show that the Epistle to the Hebrews was a beautiful golden key to the mysteries among us in the old church, and that it was very dear to my soul, because it opens them so beautifully. I then drew your attention specially to that portion of it contained in my text, and pointed out the divisions it suggested to me, namely,—The person spoken of. “But this man,” what he did, “after he had offered one sacrifice for sin.” “For ever” my version adds, but it appears they have been altering it at Oxford, and I would that they had put a double comma after “sins” and “ever,” so that it might read either way; next, what became of him? Is he dead? Is he gone into oblivion? “No,” says the Holy Ghost, “He liveth, and in an exalted state; he sat down at the right hand of God.” Then what is he doing there? Wonderful thing! He is in expectation; for the Holy Ghost tells us he “henceforth expecteth till his enemies be made his footstool.” 

Fifthly, We examine who are his enemies?

Sixthly, What is meant by their being his footstool? 

Lastly, What these things have to do with our souls.

With the man and the sacrifice we have done, though of the latter I may remark that “He offered one sacrifice for ever,” is I believe as we should read, for in the very next verse to the text we have “for by one offering he perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” By that sacrifice “he put away sin,” removed it as far as the east is from the west, or as another inspired writer has it, “he cast all our sins into the sea” of his precious blood; or as another, “He hath cast them all behind his back,” thus signifying that by one offering, one grand sacrifice, he hath removed sin, death, and condemnation from the church of God, for ever.

Now we come to our third heading, under which another phrase of the great and glorious gospel comes into consideration, and we pass from the person of Christ and his great sacrifice to the triumphant result whereby “This Man,” endued with all power and authority in heaven and earth, becomes the protector, guide, and director of his church, guarding his people from the wiles of the evil one, and from “the noise of the archers.” “After he had made this sacrifice for sins for ever,” says the text, “he sat down at the right hand of God.” Here if you attend we will show you four things, four things to be noted in relation to the act here stated; four things transpired between the offering of the sacrifice, or after “he bowed his head and gave up the ghost,” and cried “It is finished,” and his glorified state expressed in the text.

1. We must note that he was buried after he died.

2. That he rose after he was buried, and rose the selfsame man that was crucified.

3. That he ascended into heaven after his resurrection, and

4. That he sat down at the right hand of God.

These things are necessary for consideration, before we contemplate Christ sitting at the right hand of his Father.

Is it nothing to the church of God that the Son of God, the great and glorious Christ of God, lay in the grave three nights and three days? Yes, for in that their consciences told them they had to do with something strange, and Christ crucified, Christ buried is the astonishment of all, the terror of all. In vain was the stone and the watch, “Come and see,”—oh, have you never had such an invitation? “Come and see” said the angels early in the morning “where the Lord lay.” Yes, the Son of God, though brought to the lowest depths was alive, of his people he was still the Lord, the holy one of Israel, the king of glory might be laid in the tomb, the sun might be set, the sun of righteousness eclipsed, sunk into the dark night of death, but it must rise and burst forth in its loveliness again; and in that rising the bundle of human sin, as John Bunyan hath it, fell back into the tomb. Let not the child of God fear; it can rise no more in the sight of justice.

The third day is the day of the resurrection. It is the early dawn, the sun has net risen, but the beasts of prey slowly withdraw,—“Early in the morning, even before the sun rose” says the scripture,—and the Son of God must rise, a sun that shall envelope the world in its glorious light. “Christ is risen,” say the angels. Who is risen? “This man” who made himself an offering, a sacrifice for sin. What is risen? That body which hung upon the cross, that same body, not changed, for then it would cease to be the Son of God, the body, flesh, and blood as laid in the tomb has emerged from it. “The Lord,” says the angel, “The Lord is risen.” His time had come. The powers of death and the grave could hold him no longer, “for in that he died he died unto sin once, but in that he liveth—he liveth unto God.” He stood once more among the disciples; “handle me and see,” he says, “for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see I have.” It was a miracle, but he stood there in reality, not in an assumed form that might be looked at, but in his own individuality, to be seen and handled. He was handled and they were convinced it was no spirit, but he himself. What more is there to say of the resurrection? This; if Christ is not risen then are we all dead in our sins, but “now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept.” He was borne to the grave in ignominy; he rose in majesty. He “was brought like a lamb to the slaughter;” but now the work of his deep humiliation is finished, and he rose triumphant over prin­cipalities and powers; he the antitypical Sampson broke the prison bars of death and carried them up the mount. After his resurrection to whom did he shew himself? To the whole church of God. For how long? For forty days, he was with them eating and drinking, and after the forty days were ended, this is a great mystery, he ascended into heaven, and on the fiftieth day, ten days after, came the Feast of Pentecost, and the descent of the Holy Ghost,—after he was risen, had been handled, and was ascended into heaven. Oh, Christ’s ascension is a grand and glorious thing in all its bearings! It was in the sight of angels and of men. It was real, it was an actual transit from one place to another, it was local, he went from earth to heaven. It is in vain that the Papist eats his wafers, and talks of the presence of the real body and blood of Christ in them, in ten thousand places at once. He has appeared once among us; he is seen no more. As God he is everywhere, all the world is filled with his glory, and Christ as united in the God-head may be talked of as everywhere also, but to say he is actually below is of the devil.

He ascended into heaven. What was his reception there? When he arrived there what was the tumultuous shout? “Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up ye ever­ lasting doors, that the king of glory may come in.” What mean the doors and the gates of heaven? The language is figurative, but it conveys to us a scene such as we witness when in the metropolis her Majesty visits the city, and as she draws near Temple Bar, even the Lord Mayor himself is glad to do his homage, as well he may. But what power is to open these gates? “Why, that which would have shut them for ever—namely, God’s decree that nothing sinful or defiled should come in, and under which not one of the sons of men could have entered, if Christ had not first made the way by his blood, but since that cry, “open ye the everlasting doors that the King of Glory may come in,” re­sounded, the Way is made free, the barrier is removed; there is no spiritual Temple Bar in future; the child of God shall find no let or hindrance to his entry.

We come now to consider the fourth point. Christ has ascended, and the Father bids him sit down on his right hand. “He sat down on the right hand of God,” says the text, and it leads us to ask first what is meant by “sat down,” and what by “the right hand of God.” In sitting down Christ acted in contradistinction to the practice of the high priests under the law, for it was his duty to remain standing. “For every priest,” says the context “standeth daily ministering and offering oftimes the same sacrifice, which can never take away sins.” The expression “sat down” is a figurative one; it expresses that his work was done, his work of suffering is at an end. So we read in the Exodus that God created all things in six days, and on the seventh day he was refreshed. What, God refreshed! Was he, how do you get at that? Why, I take it to signify that he was perfectly satisfied with his wonderful creation, in the same way as a parent who has done all he can for his wife and family is refreshed at the thought that God has blessed all the labour of his hands. Whenever God puts gratitude into our hearts we see and acknowledge that “he has done all things well;” and he knowing this was satisfied and refreshed. In this figurative sense Christ resting from all his labours perfectly satisfied that all was finished, everything completed, is said to sit down. There was no more occasion for him to stand; he could rest, for as the preacher has it, “What can the man do that cometh after the king? In that he hath already done.” This was the contrast to the high priest of old. The high priest finished nothing. He only showed something, he did not complete it; but when Christ, the great high priest, did his work he ended it; there was nothing more to be done. When he “ascended on high and led captivity captive,” he was to sit down as a king upon his throne. On that throne he sits as king and priest, King of Salem and King of Righteousness. Now at the right hand of God. What is meant by that? It had been construed to mean the post of honour, as Queen Sheba sat at Solomon’s right hand; others have thought it expressed that Christ became the right hand of God, in the sense that we should say of a man whose services were indispensible to us; “he is my right hand.” I understand from it this, that Christ is exalted to a position very lofty indeed. He it is to whom the Father had committed all power and government; for “the government is to be upon his shoulder.” All I understand then is, that there is none nearer to the majesty of God. Of all the angels, all the cherubims and seraphims, none approach nearer than “this man” Jesus Christ. Perhaps the second explanation noticed may be true also. I knew a dear man who literally fretted himself to death, one day he came into my vestry weeping like a child, and quite broken in spirit, he said his tears flowed because he had lost his only son, the son he so prized, who was his right hand, and without whom he should be ruined for ever. He fretted himself to death. Now, Christ might be called the right hand of God, without whom he could do nothing. He has committed all power and authority to him as the Queen of England would commit all her thoughts to her ministry.

The next great division of the text, and heading in my discourse, is, what is Christ doing there? The text says he is “henceforth expecting.” What, you ask, is he still waiting? The Holy Ghost tells us so, and we must listen to it. What, expecting, still in suspense. He is to be the head over all things to the church, “The fulness of him that filleth all in all.” But he is not yet full; he will not be until every soul shall be saved. He must have his fulness, for he is promised “to see the travail of his soul and be satisfied. Therefore it is that he expects. He sits in anticipation, waiting, longing, until all be done. He is “expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.” There is something especially grand in that idea, Christ in heaven filling his great mediatorial office, appealing there for us his people; he, the Lamb, that hath been slain for us, the high priest, “ever living to make intercession for us.” He is the good bishop overlooking his church, and none but the devil ever invented the Pope to stand instead of him. He is ever looking down with the “seven eyes and seven horns,” which signifies “the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth” of the church of God. “Expecting!” Dear child of God, why does the devil drive thee to despair. Why dost thou mourn and sigh that perfection is not yet come. Surely to dream of perfection in the flesh is a delusion. Patience, brethren, the Lord waits, and while he is expecting we shall not be cut off, he will not abandon those whom he has saved. “The Redeemer shall come to Zion and unto them that turn from transgression, saith the Lord.” Every obstacle must be removed, every enemy overcome. That is his glorious expectation. “Oh,” says the child of God, “I have many enemies I can do nothing with.” But glory be to God Christ can do something with them. He will do what is promised in the text, and there is a very glorious promise in the Psalms confirming that, “The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” Then will come the kingdom, and the end be attained.

Now a word or two in the Fifth place on the enemies. What are the enemies he expects to overcome and make his footstool? I will show you five things that are the enemies of Christ’s kingdom. The first enemy is sin; the second, the law, the strength of sin; third, the accuser of sin, the devil; fourth, the wages of sin, death; fifthly, the place for sinners, hell. Sin then is the great enemy of God’s elect, the church of God. Yes; and whenever you rebel against God’s will sin triumphs. “Sin is the transgressor of the law;” there has been much discussion about what sin is, and that is what it is. That is one of the enemies that the Lord declares he must make his footstool. Then the law of God is an enemy. An enemy? Yes. How? By it is the knowledge of sin: “the strength of sin is the law,” and “the end of sin is death;” thus they stand together. If we have no law we have no condemnation. Hence it is written, “He took away the writing that was against us, and nailed it to the cross.” The Lord must overcome the law as it condemns the conscience, as it is “the ministration of condemnation.” While we are under the law we are under the terror of the law, and cannot serve the Lord truly. Twenty-three years ago I had a great struggle in my heart about the law. I said, if the Lord gave a law I could do nothing with; for if I tried my best the result would be only condemnation. Poor fool that I was! The Holy Ghost soon showed me it had nothing to do with me. Adam received it when he was just, but because man fell into sin God was not therefore to alter the law. No human king would alter a law because his subject broke it. “No, no,” he would say, “you have engaged to do thus, and you can do it, and I will not alter my laws; they are like the laws of the Medes and Persians which alter not.” God did not alter his law, and it stands against us, keeps us in bondage; it is for Christ to overcome it. The next great enemy is the devil, the accuser of sin; he would persuade us that as there is sin and the law we cannot be saved, and would insinuate that the atonement was not made for us; but let us not heed him, remembering that he is “the father of lies,” and a great enemy to Christ and his church. Not only the devil, but death is also an enemy, as the Holy Ghost says in Corinthians 15. “He must reign until he hath put all enemies under his feet; the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” Hell must be overcome also; he must “spoil all principalities and powers” and triumph over every enemy, before the salvation of his elect is perfected. Bunyan talks of a whole army of election doubters. Is there an election doubter here? What are you doubting about—that God has not a right to choose whom he will? Do you make choice ever? “Yes, if I want a wife I choose one.” Then may not he choose of his own if he will?

Of these five enemies—captains over the hosts that must be overcome as were the host of Egypt, the enemies of Israel in the old time,—the Holy Ghost says Christ shall make an easy thing of them, that is a footstool, Sir. Well, never mind my good friend. I speak plainly; with five such enemies it is right I should. “I call Mr. Abrahams” (said a man of Edenbridge) “Mr. Stoutheart; he cares for nobody.” Why should I? It is the Lord hath triumphed, and let the earth tremble I shall never be dispirited. What is the meaning of footstool, how can sin and these other enemies be made a footstool? You know what a footstool is? Yes, it is something to give us ease. No, that is not quite the meaning here. I will show you the meaning through God’s word. When the enemies of Israel fought against Joshua he took five of their kings and shut them up. “Shut them up in the cave,” he said, and they were shut in with great stones. Like the five enemies of Christ they were overcome and shut up. All his enemies are shut up. Sin and the law are as in a cave. “Ye are not under the law,” says the Holy Ghost. Christ gave all satisfaction to the law. It was not intended to be a rule of life, but of condemnation; a rule of death and damnation, and not of life. What a bungler a man must be to regard a rule of condemnation as a rule of life. A person is cast for treason under the law of England, and that to him is the law of death. What would be to him the law of life? The sovereign will of Her Majesty to forgive him. The law would always condemn him. Well, Christ hath taken the power of the law away; he hath shut that up. The devil too, he sits in chains until the day of judgment. In chains? Yes. What do you chain a dog for? Why, that he may not bite. So is Satan chained. God’s law, “thus far shalt thou go and no further” is his chain. He would stretch that, but he cannot. Then, for death, where is death? “Death is swallowed up in victory.” An aged servant of God said, “the pain of death is all in imagination; but the soul is so in love with the body, the body is so in prison with the soul, that they do not like to part. God ordained that the body of flesh and blood should be raised again and the soul united therewith; thus death is swallowed up in victory and shall be eternally destroyed. Finally, hell must be overcome; Christ will be the terror of the wicked.

Well, these kings remained shut up in their cave, and the fight went on, but when the battle was fought, then said Joshua; “bring them out.” They were brought out, and he said, “Come now, put your feet upon the necks of these kings. Fear not; be not dismayed, thus shall the Lord do to all your enemies against whom ye fight.” This Joshua is a type of Jesus, and Jesus in Greek is Joshua. Thus we see what is meant by making his enemies his footstool.

“I must now draw to a close, and ask in the last place what, dearly beloved, is all this to you? How does it concern you? Oh, Lord, make thyself dear and precious to thy people, spy to them, “Fear not, I am thy salvation.” “I wish,” says some dear child of God, “I wish he would, for sometimes I am sore troubled, and fear lest I am no child of his, no vessel of mercy, not included in the covenant.” Blessed are all who feel thus, who can say, “Christ do I seek,” for he has himself said he will not tarry long. Let them trust in his strength, and that strength will he show; by that he has covered all their sins, sins past, sins present, and sins yet to be, for “the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin.” Whenever his conscience is wounded, whenever he is cast down and sighs for the balm of Gilead, let the child of God remember that the Captain is stronger than all that oppose, him, and He will be his succour. As Krummacher has said, “We may stand at the mouth of hell and hollow down.” “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifies, who is he that condemns?” Is it evil consciences, hypocrites, sin. Christ is superior to all. “Come,” he says to me, “Do not be afraid; come and put your feet upon the necks of all, upon sin, upon the condemning part of the law, for you are not under condemnation; I have executed God’s righteous law, fear not the devil, he is regained; fear not death, I have swallowed it up in victory; neither fear the powers of hell, they shall not harm thee. And can I help praising and blessing God for this? No, and why should you dear child? There is no difference whatever between us. Do you think I got it through my own strength? No, but through the grace of God who has done all things for me, and why not for others? I am the chief of sinners by nature, but every sin hath God wiped away. On what condition? None. A friend’s child was promised in my presence some fruit, if he did not speak over the dinner table. “There,” said I, “that is a conditional gospel.” No child of God could live under a conditional gospel. Some men call the condition “duty,” then, I say, we must all be unprofitable servants. The assurance of election is a comfort and an encouragement that we might hold on and hold out to the end. May God of his mercy grant his divine blessing on the few observations he has permitted me to make, that they may redound to your advantage and to his glory.

George Abrahams

George Abrahams (1800-1867) was a Particular Baptist preacher. He was appointed pastor of the church meeting at Regent-Street Chapel, City Road. As a Polish Jew, he enjoyed a distinguished ministry in London, his accent alone setting him apart from his co-labourers in the gospel. He belonged to the Hight-Calvinist section of churches.