This description of Christ is of great importance. II. The benefit of receiving him under that cha racter There is no benefit which can accrue to a wellattended flock, which does not arise to those who believe in Christ 1. Security; "He shall be saved" [Protection is of unspeakable benefit to a defenceless sheep but who can estimate the value of salvation to an immortal soul? Yet, such is the portion of those who enter into the fold aright: they shall be rescued out of the jaws of the devouring lion: they shall be freed from the curse and condemnation of the lawP: death itself, disarmed of its sting, shall have no power to hurt them: every kind and degree of penal evil shall be averted from them. He that is empowered, is also engaged, to "save them to the uttermost :" and this benefit he bestows, because they come unto God by him1."] 66 2. Liberty; "He shall go in and out" [A sheep left to wander on the mountains infested with wolves, might boast of its freedom from restraint; but it would soon find what little reason there was to glory in such a privilege its truest liberty is to submit itself to the direction of the shepherd. Thus they, who live without God in the world, may boast of their liberty; but their very freedom is, in fact, the sorest bondage: and every moment they are in danger of everlasting destruction. It is far otherwise with those who have entered into the fold by Christ. Whether at large by day, or enclosed by night, they feel no restraint. Through Christ they have all the liberty which their souls can desire". Secure of God's favour, "they go in and out" before him in perfect peace.] 3. Provision; "He shall find pasture" [Good pasture comprises all the wants of a highly favoured flock: and how rich, how abundant is that, which the sheep of Christ partake of! There are "exceeding great and precious promises," on which they feed. It is utterly their own fault if ever they experience a dearth". David from his personal knowledge attests this truth; and God confirms it o 2 Tim. ii. 26. 1 Pet. v. 8. 9 1 Cor. xv. 55-57. I Heb. vii. 25, t Ps. vii. 12, 13. Deut. xxxii. 35. 1 Ps. xxv. 13. P Rom. viii. 1. 2 Pet. ii. 19. u John viii. 36. y Ps xxiii. 2. z Ps. xxii. 26. by an express promise to all his people. This privilege too, no less than the others, is the consequence of entering into the fold by the appointed door.] ADDRESS 1. Those who are wandering at a distance from the fold [Perhaps, like the silly sheep, you are insensible of your danger; but the more confident you are of safety, the more certain is your ruin. If they only, who enter in by the door, are saved, what can you expect? O consider, that the loss of bodily life, is not to be compared with the doom that awaits you; nor do you know how soon that doom may be inflicted upon you. Blessed be God, however, the door is yet open to all who come, and the Saviour's declaration is yet sounding in your ears He is even now desirous to bring you home on his shoulders rejoicing. Stay not then till the door be for ever closed upon you. Let the caution given by our Lord stir you up to improve the present momente-] с 2. Those who are desirous of returning to God[It has been already shewn, that they only are saved who enter in at the door. Now our proud hearts are extremely averse to be saved in this way. We would rather come into the fold by some less humiliating means. But our self-righteous attempts will be of no avail. We must come unto God by Christ, or not at all: salvation never was, nor can be, obtained through any other name than his. Seek then, and that with earnestness, to enter in at the strait gate, and then you shall have that promise fulfilled to you "--] h. 3. Those who are dwelling in the fold of God [What debtors are ye to the grace which brought you to the knowledge of Christ! and what inestimable blessings are you now made to enjoy! Yet these are only an earnest of the blessings that await you hereafter. Rich as your present pastures are, they are not to be compared with those above. Let nothing tempt you then to wander from the fold to which you are brought. Follow not those who are but "goats," or "wolves in sheep's clothing." Let it be your delight to hear your Shepherd's voice, and to follow his steps: then shall you be separated from the goats in the day of judgment1, and receive from the Chief Shepherd the portion reserved for you.] John X. MDCLXIII. LIFE ABUNDANTLY BY CHRIST. 10. I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. THE parables of our blessed Lord, though exceedingly clear and striking, lose much of their force by reason of the difference of our habits from those which obtained amongst the Jews. For instance, the office of a shepherd, though simple in itself, was widely different in Canaan from that which men are called to discharge in our land. In Canaan, where there were beasts of prey, it was attended with danger; and a man was often called to expose his own life for the protection of his flock. Such was the office which Christ undertook for us: only, instead of endangering his own life for the preservation of ours, he actually laid down his life, in order that we might obtain life. He was "the Good Shepherd, who gave his own life for the sheep";" and who came, not only that we might have life, but that we might have it more abundantly." 66 To elucidate these words, I will shew, I. The gracious purpose of our Lord's advent"He came that we might have life." We could not, by any means, obtain it for ourselves [We were in the state of the fallen angels, so far as respects both guilt and condemnation; and were as incapable of removing these, and of restoring ourselves to the Divine favour, as they — -] But Christ came in order that we might be restored to the possession of it— [He came in order to purchase life for us, and to impart it to us; to purchase it by his blood and to impart it to us by his Spirit- And this he has effected, so far, that every one who believes in him has actually a title to life, and the very beginning of it in his soul-] a ver. 11. But the text leads us further to consider, II. The extent to which he has accomplished it— "He has come, that we might have life more abundantly." And, the very instant we believe in him, we have life, 1. With more abundant evidence than was enjoyed under the Mosaic dispensation [The promises given to the Jews were mostly temporal. It is surprising how little is spoken of eternal life in the Old Testament, and especially of the resurrection of the body to a participation of it. And the access which men had to God was very distant. No one could offer sacrifice, except through the instrumentality of the priest; nor could any one but the High Priest go into the holy of holies; and he only on one day in the year; nor could even he go then, without the blood of his sacrifice. But the Lord Jesus Christ has "opened a way for us, a new and living way, into the holiest of all," with his own blood; and, the vail, having been rent in twain from the top to the bottom, the way is made quite plain, and all his people, as "a royal priesthood," may go, every one for himself, into the very presence of his God Moreover, "a spirit of adoption" is now given by Christ to his believing people; and every one of his true followers is authorized to claim God as his Father, and to consider himself as possessed of an inheritance which, in body as well as in his soul, he shall Yes, in this sense are enjoy to all eternity 66 life and immortality brought to light by the Gospel:" nor has any believer now any more doubt respecting either the present acceptance of a saint, or of his future reign with Christ in glory, than he has of the existence of a God. All this, though very partially and indistinctly known under the Mosaic dispensation, is now so clearly revealed, that a little child may see it, and "he who runs may read it" -] 2. In a more abundant measure than it would ever have been enjoyed, if man had never fallen [By the Prophet Zechariah, God says, "Turn ye to the strong-hold, ye prisoners of hope: even to-day do I declare that I will render double unto thee":" so Christ here offers to us a double measure of life. Man, if he had never fallen, would have possessed but a creature-righteousness; whereas, through faith in Christ, he becomes possessed of a divine righteousness, and is entitled to address the Saviour himself as "Jehovah, our Righteousness" Moreover, if man b Zech. ix. 12. had never fallen, he would have had very narrow and contracted views of God, in comparison of those which are revealed to him in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. As a creature, he would have beheld the goodness of God: but he could have formed no conception of the justice, and holiness, and mercy, and truth of God; and much less of the union and harmony of all these attributes, as simultaneously exhibited in the person of a crucified Redeemer -- I add, too, that had he never fallen, his happiness would have been only the gift of grace; whereas, through the coming of Christ, every blessing that he shall enjoy in the eternal world, will bear upon it a stamp of the price it cost, and will be enjoyed by the soul as the fruit and purchase of the Redeemer's blood-Take this view of the blessedness which Christ has obtained for us; and I hesitate not to say, that it as far exceeds all that man would otherwise have enjoyed, as the noon-day sun exceeds in radiance the morning-star, or the feeble glimmering of the glowworm ---] 1. Let not any of you, then, be satisfied without this light [Shall the Son of the living God have left the bosom of his Father, and assumed our nature, and died upon the cross for us, and we be indifferent about the life that he has purchased for us? Would not "the very stones cry out against us?" Tell me, would the apostate spirits, if they were favoured with one such message of mercy as is vouchsafed to you, make light of it as you do? I charge you, then, be in earnest; and, whilst the invitations of the Gospel are yet sounding in your ears, go to this good Shepherd, and seek from him. the life which he has come from heaven to bestow — — —] 2. Let not any be satisfied with a small measure of life [Christ came," that you might have it more abundantly." O brethren! you should not be content to live; but should seek to live in the richest possible enjoyment of the Divine favour, and in the most perfect meetness for glory. St. Paul, after all his attainments, "forgot what was behind, and reached forward to that which was before." And that should be the habit of your minds. This is the way to answer the ends of Christ's first advent; and it will be your best preparation for his future advent, when he shall come to judge the world in righteousness, and to bestow, in all its fulness, the life which he has purchased for you |