A SERMON
Preached on Lord's Day Morning May 8th, 1859
By Mister JAMES WELLS
AT THE SURREY TABERNACLE, BOROUGH ROAD
Volume 1 Number 20
THE two chief departments, we have this morning to notice, will be first, the transfer of this stone from one kingdom to another; and then, secondly, the order after which this was brought about; “cut out of the mountain without hands;” again observing, that the mountain in some other parts of the word of God means a kingdom; and therefore, Christ is transferred from one kingdom to another kingdom. And I need not occupy time by reminding you of the way in which he was one with the Old Testament kingdom. I may, however, by way of introduction, just make a few more remarks upon that. In the first place, the Lord Jesus Christ was there typically: that is to say; the paschal lamb sacrifice set forth the Savior; and that paschal lamb would not have been there but for the Lord Jesus Christ; the very object and business of that was to set forth the Savior. Therefore, he was there in type; he was a part of that kingdom. But then what was the sacrificial lamb in comparison of that one eternal sacrifice by which he has put away sin? So that you will see here, a contrast between the two dispensations, or the two kingdoms. And the Lord Jesus Christ was there also in salvation, salvation from Egypt. But what was that salvation in that dispensation, in that kingdom, in comparison of that eternal salvation which his own Omnipotent arm has wrought? Again, he was there in a way of typical sustentation. Hence, they did all eat that same spiritual, typically spiritual meat, and drink of that rock, literal, but spiritual in its meaning, Christ. That rock as Paul says, was Christ. That was the sustentation of the people. But what was that sustentation of the body through the wilderness to an earthly Canaan, in comparison of that sustentation of faith, and hope, and love, which endures unto everlasting life, to bring us to that eternal rest that remains for the people of God? Then, again, the Lord Jesus Christ was there also in a way of victory. It was by him that victory was given, that under Joshua they might take possession of the land. Yet what was that victory in comparison of that eternal conquest that we have by Him who has accomplished that warfare which no one else could accomplish? And then, again, he was there in national distinction; they were distinguished from all other nations. And yet what was that distinction, in comparison of that distinction, in its various departments, traced out by the apostle Peter in few words, when he says, “You are a chosen generation a royal priesthood; a holy nation, a peculiar people; to show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
I notice then, first, THE SEPARATION OF THIS STONE FROM THAT KINGDOM, AND ITS TRANSFER TO ANOTHER; and then secondly, THE ORDER; “without hands.”
Now, our text says he was cutout; therefore, this stone underwent something; it is represented here as submitting to something; as passive, undergoing something. I shall, therefore, take a three-fold view of Christ's separation from that kingdom. What was the first step of separation from it, think you? Why, the first step out of that typical kingdom into his ultimate kingdom is a step that no Christian can contemplate without being more or less charmed with it. The very words are beautiful “He was made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law;” as another Scripture has it, “He became debtor to do the whole law.” Here then, friends, sin is compared to a debt. Now, sin is a kind of two-fold debt; a preceptive and penal; that is to say, we owe perfect obedience to the law; and through the state we are in as sinners, we are utterly incapable of rendering it, either in whole or in part. Now Jesus Christ undertook to render obedience to the precept of the law. And the second part of the debt we owe is that of penalty; we owe a debt of eternal suffering; this is an awful debt, awful to the last degree; and hence, those solemn words, “You shall not come out thence till you have paid the very last mite.” Now, then, this two-fold debt the Savior undertook to pay, which he did by his wondrous life, and by his precious death; and thus: he underwent that by which he was severed from a kingdom very much too inferior for him, not good enough for him, nor for his people either; not suited to him. And therefore, although it cost him so much to reach the new kingdom, the new covenant kingdom, to reach that point which he declares in the book of Revelation, and which people think refers to something future; I grant it refers to something future, and to something past as well, and to something that is in progression now, where the Savior says, “Behold, I make all things new.” Why, his taking this debt upon him, and setting us entirely free, everlastingly free, is not this something new? although it cost him so much to reach this new kingdom, yet he did not shrink from it. That then, is the first step towards the new kingdom. And there is a beautiful analogy here between what the Savior underwent, and the Lord's dealings with his people, to bring them into the advantages of what he underwent. And hence, “Hearken unto me, you that follow after righteousness.” Now, where can we find righteousness, but in him who became a debtor to do the whole law, to suffer its whole penalty, and has done so. “Hearken unto me, you that follow after righteousness; you that seek the Lord;” that is, you are following after Christ's righteousness, and then you are seeking the Lord, to make manifest that it is yours's; that he lived for you, he paid the mighty debt you owed; that not one sin will be laid to your account; that you have to live free, and to die free, and to rise free, and to be free to all eternity. The Lord says to such, “Hearken unto me, you that follow after righteousness; look unto the rock whence you are hewn.” Christ was severed from that dispensational kingdom; and there is a kingdom you belong to by nature; you belong to Satan's kingdom; we are all involved in the kingdom of hell, in the kingdom of sin, in the kingdom of death; this kingdom is lying like a mighty rock at the very mouth of hell; therefore, the Lord says, “Look unto the rock whence you are hewn.” See the rock of humanity fallen; see it lying at the very mouth of hell. “And to the hole of the pit whence you are dug.” Take notice of this; as this wonderful Person thus became a debtor to the whole law, that he might be severed from the old kingdom, and reach a new kingdom; so, we must be severed from Satan's kingdom, from sin's kingdom, and from death's kingdom; and be brought up out of the horrible pit, out of the miry clay; out of that pit wherein there is no water. We can be brought out only by the blood of the everlasting covenant. And when we look at what the Lord has done in the way of deliverance, then we are to look at Abraham as a pattern of it. “I called him alone, there was none with me; and blessed him, and increased him.” And just so it is now; it is a personal matter; and the Lord calls, blesses, and increases. Now, let us hear the apostle's description of the Savior's progress towards a new kingdom, under this head of his becoming a debtor to do the whole law. And the apostle would have us one with the Savior in this; he would have us know Jesus Christ in this; he would have us love Jesus Christ in this; he would have us participate in his spirit of submission to the blessed God in this matter, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who, though he was in the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be equal with God, yet made himself of no reputation.” Here is the stone undergoing this separation from the old kingdom, “Made himself of no reputation.” Oh, my hearer, if the Lord Jesus Christ had taken up the Jewish kingdom, the old kingdom, he would so have governed the twelve tribes, and he would have reigned in such perfect accordance with all the laws of that dispensation, that he would have boundlessly eclipsed, in an earthly sense, all the glory of Solomon. Solomon arrived at great glory; but the Savior, if he had taken up a temporal kingdom, would have far, far surpassed Solomon in glory. But instead of taking up this earthly kingdom, he made himself of no reputation; he might have been the only monarch whose name would have been worth naming; all other monarchs would have sunk into eclipse in comparison of such an earthly monarch as he might have become. There he was, rich, by ancestral or genealogical right; there he was, rich, regally so, by right of descent; “Yet for our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich.” And yet, bless his holy name, by making himself in that sense of no reputation, he was on his way to a reputation infinitely better, infinitely higher, infinitely more durable; there is no fame now that is like the fame of Jesus. “He took upon him the form of a servant, there is the debtor; there is the separation from the old kingdom; “He took upon him,” not for himself, but for others, “the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.” I do like this succession of testimony until we reach the end. Whenever the Scriptures take up anything relative to Christ, they always go on to the end; whenever they take up anything relative to the child of God, they always go on to the end. The old covenant is obliged to stop short; and with mere professors, we are obliged to stop short; but with the real people of God, there is no stopping short. So, you will find here, “Being found in fashion as a man, he became obedient;” still progressing, you see; still undergoing; and he learnt how hard it was, how difficult it was to obey in perfection God's eternal law amidst the assaults of hell, the provocations of men, the trials of the way. And oh, mysterious person! not all he ever met with could cause him to commit the shade or shadow of an error, not one thought of his heart ever run for one moment out of its place; not one erroneous word, not one wrong word, not one wrong step, not one wrong look. Oh, well might the poet sing,
“Perfection, then, in him we view,
His saints in him are perfect too.”
“He became obedient unto death;” continued on his way to the new kingdom; could not be stopped; oh, no! nothing could stop him; his triumphant march from the first iota to the last iota of the law, from the first sin of the church to the last, was predicted, and he verified the whole, “even to the death of the cross.” Then comes the new kingdom. “Wherefore God has highly exalted him.” Ah, that he has; in your hearts, has he not? In your affections, has he not? In these very relations, in these very matters, he has given him a name which is above every name that is named; not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. So that you may prepare, if I may speak in that way, to,
“Crown him Lord of all” there, as well as here; you may prepare to recognize him in his greatness there, as well as here. I should be really rather backward in going to heaven myself, if there some person, or some name there, that had done nothing for us and yet that name was greater than Christ's name. No! His name is all in all. God the Father dwells in him; the Holy Spirit dwells in him; all the fulness of the Godhead bodily dwells in him. Here then is one idea of the separation of this stone. He became a debtor to do the whole law. Now, my hearer, if you and I, if we have been put to the test of what that law is, and know something of the solemnity of those words, “Pay that you owe;” and have been made to tremble at our condition, and look about for a surety, and the Holy Spirit has revealed this blessed Redeemer unto us, I am sure he must be glorious in our eyes, and dear to our hearts.
Secondly, he not only passed from one kingdom to another, by becoming a debtor to do the whole law, but also by the testimony which he bore. And here again, you will find that I am in complete accordance with the figure, “cutout.” What did his testimony subject them to? It subjected him, as you well know, to all kinds of reproach. From this arose the schism, if I may so call it, at any rate, the separation, between Christ and the generation among which he lived, which increased the longer he remained on earth; and by which, he incurred their hatred and persecution. When he brought in the vital reality of regeneration; when he brought in the sovereignty of God; that “there were many widows in the days of Elijah,” but unto none of them was Elijah sent, but to a Gentile widow; many lepers in the days of Elisha, but none were healed but a Gentile leper; why, these things filled them with wrath. And therefore, by the testimony he bore, he was on his way to the new kingdom, and giving up the old kingdom; instead of trying to make himself one with the Jews, he bore testimony of the nothingness of that dispensation, in comparison of the kingdom to which he was hastening. Where (say you,) did he bear such a testimony as that? In John 6, and in many other places. “Our fathers (said the people,) did eat manna in the wilderness; as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat.” Well, the Savior says, I know they did, but they are dead; they died all the same for that; that was not intended to keep them alive for ever. I know your fathers were fed by a miracle; but they died; that has passed away. But I have a new kingdom; I am leaving that dispensation, leaving that mountain; I have a new kingdom; “The bread that I shall give shall endure unto everlasting life he that shall eat of this bread shall never die; and he that shall drink of the water that I shall give him, it shall be in him a well of living water, springing up unto everlasting life.” Now, I feel anxious to keep up that idea before you, all through my discourse this morning; that the beginning and the end in this matter, are inseparable. So, you will find that the Savior showed this in his testimony. Take any of the characters that he bore. I think one will suffice, perhaps, to illustrate this point, his pastoral character. “I am the Good Shepherd;” there is the beginning; he comes into the character of a surety; shepherd there will mean also a surety. He is on his way to a new kingdom; undergoing a separation from this Old Testament dispensation; that is step the first; then, becoming the Shepherd, accepting the sheep; he accepted the sheep, those that were given to him. Then the next step was, that he laid down his life for them, “I lay down my life for the sheep.” And the all-sufficiency of his atoning death, the certainty of his resurrection, and the certainty of his own personal eternal glory, all this is implied in what he says to these sheep, or what he says concerning them, he says, “I give unto them eternal life;” that implies, that he himself should rise and live forever. “And they shall never perish;” that implies, that he should not see corruption. “Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hands.” So, then he should rise, and live, and take care of them forever. And so, if you come to the last verse of Revelations 7, you find the Savior as the shepherd in his exaltation feeding them and taking care of them. As he has been a shepherd in his humiliation to die for them, he is still their shepherd in his exaltation, to deal with them as there described. There it is said, “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” How clear, then, is our text; that Christ was thus cut out of that mountain, that dispensation, first by becoming a debtor to do the whole law; and we see in that department he reached the end. And so, in his pastoral department; for he was severed, cut off, from that dispensation by his testimony. Now, there is a closeness here between the Savior and his people. Was he severed from that dispensation by the testimony he bore? So are his people now, manifestly so; their separation from the kingdom of Satan is indicated by the testimony they bear, and the way in which they bear it. When the sinner is to feel what he is, poor, helpless, sin condemned, he will bear testimony of the same; and the world will hate him for it. And therefore, the enmity between the two seeds still exists. One means therefore, by which Christ was severed was the testimony he bore. And so, my hearer, if your testimony be scriptural; if you have a right knowledge of yourself; if you can find salvation nowhere but where salvation is; first, in God the Father's good pleasure; second, in the Savior's perfect work; third, in the Holy Ghost's sovereign operation; you cannot find it anywhere else; what is the consequence? Why, such men in all ages, whether prophets or apostles, or good men since that day, by the testimony they bear, it is manifest they are hewn out of the quarry of nature, that they are on their way to the new kingdom; they have left the old kingdom; old things have passed away, all things are becoming new, and the world hates them and despises them, never mind; all the tribulations you undergo will only sever you the more quickly and effectually. Why, the few men, the sprinkling that we have over the country, that preach the truth, would not preach it with half so much power and earnestness as they do, perhaps, were it not that they are hated, for so doing? Depend upon it, the more a man that loves the truth is hated for it, the more he will love it; because he feels his need of it to strengthen him and support him. Oh, he says, now I am put to the test; will that truth stand by me; it stood by me in the day of prosperity, will it sustain me in the day of adversity? And when he finds that it goes with him into the sick chamber, into the prison, and in all places the truth is with him; he can then rejoice, though all men may hate him; yes, he can rejoice in God's boundless and immutable love in Christ Jesus. The stone then was severed by the testimony it bore; they could not receive his testimony. But still that truth did not stop there; nor did he vary it when he got into his kingdom; for after he rose from the dead he was virtually in his new kingdom; and he preached just the same truths after his resurrection that he had preached during his life. And you know how beautifully he sums up the mission, as given by one of the evangelists, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.” What say we to this living stone, friends? Can we say that we have some hope in God, by Jesus Christ? Do we love the testimony, the new covenant testimony, he bears, a testimony of certainty? I would ask every one of you, in the name of the Lord, did the Lord Jesus Christ either before or after his resurrection, leave upon the minds of the disciples the slightest doubt whatever as to their ultimate safety and glory? Did he not, before his death, tell them that he would go and prepare a place for them, and come again, and receive them to himself? Did he not after his resurrection declare that he was with them all ways, to the end of the world? And did not the apostles bear testimony to the same thing? Did not one say, “I know that he will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom?” Did not the same say that he that had begun the good work would carry it on unto the day of Jesus Christ? And did not Peter, while recognizing his position as an elder, also recognize his position as “A partaker of the glory that shall be revealed?” If Christ come short, I shall come short, but not before. If he has reached his new kingdom, and if the persecution that came upon him on account of his testimony could not stop him, if he be there, we shall be there also.
Then the third and last step in this separation was his death. Daniel 9. “The Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself.” Not for himself, “He was wounded for our transgressions.” How sweet is that Scripture! We are often quoting it; but who is ever weary of quoting it? Do you think eternity will wear out a word of it? Do you not think that when we are in his presence, that that is one of the ideas and feelings that will be with us to all eternity; that he who now fills this eternal throne was wounded for our transgressions? “He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement essential to our peace was upon him;” if he had not undergone the discipline of the law there would have been no gospel; he underwent the discipline of the law that we might be brought under the discipline of the gospel; so that the chastisement essential to our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way.” That is our character. How did the Lord deal, with us? Suppose if I may speak for a moment after the manner of men, suppose the Lord was enquiring, where are these people? What are they? They have all gone astray, Lord; they have turned everyone to his own way, they have trampled your holy law under foot, every iota of it; they despise the God that made them they hate everything belonging to you, Lord; they are all deadly enemies. Well then, says the Lord, if that is their state, I will tell you what I will do with them. I will take all their iniquities, numerous as they are, bad as they are, deep dyed as they are, murderous as they are, in the face of it all, I will step in, I will take all their iniquities from them, and I will lay them upon my dear Son; for the words follow next, you must take notice of this, “we have turned everyone to his own way;” the next words are, “and the Lord has laid on him the iniquities of us all.” Here is no room between the two sentences to squeeze in a bit of free will; not an inch of ground for a duty-faith man to work on; “we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquities of us all.” Oh, but, say some, how did be bear it? I will tell you; for we are still taking this third step from the old kingdom to the new. Oh, what love was this, friends, such a step as this could not stop him. What was the love of God the Father? what was the love of the Savior? And how did men treat him? Why, “he was oppressed;” that does not mean of God, but of man; while the Lord was laying on Christ the iniquities of us all, men, stirred up by the adversary, instead of helping the Savior, hindered him all they could; “he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth.” He was taken from prison, and from judgment; “and who shall declare his generation; for he was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of my people was he stricken.” Here is the third step, mark the connection. This is a dark, a gloomy, an awful path, yet it could not stop him; these waters could not quench his love, these floods could not drown it. Now, it is said, to show the inseparable connection between his death and his glory, that “he shall see his seed.” And so, he did. When he died, he saw them complete by what he had done; “He shall prolong his day;” and so he has; he dies no more; “And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.” “Fear not, little flock; it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” So, he does. “He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied.” So, my hearers, if we are in the way to the kingdom of God, Jesus Christ in what he has done will be our way. Now when the Savior arrived then at this point, the perfection of his suffering, he said, “It is finished.” There the ceremonial, law died; it is dead; virtually dead; Christ is gone out of it. Judah may now come to nothing; the ceremonial law has done its work; it is wanted no more; Christ has gone, left it, and gone forever, There was an ancient mode of speaking among the Jews relative to a stone, thus, when the stone was in the quarry, they reckoned it a living stone; but when that stone was hewn out and severed from the quarry, between, the time it was hewn out and united to the building for which it was intended, it was reckoned a dead stone. So, Jesus Christ; he lived; presently he died; there he is in the grave. He was the one Living Stone wanted in that kingdom; he kept it alive; all the revolutions and calamities it suffered could not destroy it, because this Living Stone was there. But as soon as this Living Stone was gone, that kingdom's life is gone. Christ when dead is a kind of symbol of its death. He lies dead, Ah but, say; you, he rose again. Yes, but the Jewish dispensation will not; that is wanted no more forever. Then the resurrection is the transfer to the other kingdom. He rose from the dead; never weeps after; never sorrows after.
Thus then, friends, the way into the kingdom of God is by the suretyship of the Lord Jesus Christ, by the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if I am spared till next Sunday morning, you shall see another mountain, as described in the latter part of the 35th verse of this same chapter; “The stone became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.” I must close this morning by just glancing briefly at the four-fold contrast implied in the words, “Cut out without hands.” I shall avail myself of the marginal reading here, “Not in hand” The idea intended is this; that Christ was not at man's disposal. There was a seeming exception to this rule when he was delivered into the hands of men; but at the very time when men where disposing of him as they thought, he himself had them in his hands, they had him in their hands only seemingly; and they could do subserviently only what God determined should be done. In reality they all the time were in Christ's hands; and therefore, the first idea is that Christ was not at man's disposal. As Owen well observes, “To preach Christ is one thing; to offer him is another;” a mighty distinction. The Gospel everywhere preaches him; but nowhere offers him. He is not at man's disposal. You know what the Savior says on this subject; “The kingdom is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared.” And, therefore. “without hands,” then will mean that Christ was not at man's disposal. Nor are we; we are at the Lord's disposal he will do as he thinks fit with us. You did not once know that he would do with you as he has done; and when you look back at the time when you were blind to this wondrous gospel, whereas now you see; perhaps yon are ready to say, as the old woman said when someone said to her, Why, what in the world makes you in such a hurry this morning? Why, says she; I'm going to chapel. Well, what of that? Why, my heart has been there for an hour and a half, and I want to be there too. If our hearts be in heaven already, we shall walk after our hearts pretty fast, depend upon it; and when we get to heaven, we shall say, Now I am where my heart has long been, where my hope has long been, where my Forerunner has long been, where my God has ever been, where my glory shall ever be.
Secondly. It means a contrast to the doings of man, “The stone which the builders rejected.” Oh, what foolish builders; what wretched builders. Well, say some, they couldn't help it; they did not know him, poor things. Then they had no business to build; they didn't know how to build. What would you think of me, if an advertisement was sent out for someone to erect a splendid mansion, and I had the presumption to offer myself, to see to the erection of it; and try and persuade people that I was a very clever man, and perfectly able to do it? Ought I not to be treated as a deceiver? I am not blaming men for not knowing better, but for occupying a position which they have no experimental or scriptural right to occupy. Now this stone, I say, contrasts with the works of men: men rejected it; “the same is become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing:” it is without human hands; human hands could not do it and would not do it; and if they could, God took care they should not do it; because they could not have done it so well as the Lord; his works are perfect. “It is the Lord's doing, and wondrous in our eyes.” The head of the corner: the corner in the east is the place of honor; and kings and great men assemble their subjects, perhaps in some splendid building; the king occupies a position in the corner, an elevated position, where he has all the people immediately under his eye. That seems to be the allusion; that place is the place of honor. And so, Jesus Christ occupies a position in which he has all his people before him; he is the Head of the Corner; and they all rejoice in his occupying that position.
Third, it is a contrast to human ignorance, “Without hands.” Men did not know anything whatever about it. What is that Jesus of Nazareth about? Your mother and your brethren are waiting for you; they think you are beside yourself. Why, whatever is he about: and calling people to come to him from their fishing boats, and from their work; why, there is that publican; he has actually called him now; what in the world is he about? He has not a house to call his own, nor a halfpenny to call his own; what is he about? Just so in the gospel. Oh! that election people; I don't know what they're about. No, that is true enough; and as to that predestination, I don't know what it is about. No, that is true enough. These high doctrine people, I don't know what they are about; I think they do a great deal of harm. No doubt you think so. Therefore, “Without hands,” will mean that men were blind, ignorant. And with what solemnity would the words apply, when the Savior was lying in the grave, if someone had turned around and said to the multitude, What have you done? See that person lying there; do you know what you have done? They did not know; they were ignorant, they knew him not.
And then, lastly, it means, that which is eternal, in contrast to that which is temporal. “Without hands,” is an idiomatic form of speech, denoting that which is eternal, in contrast to that which is temporal. Hence, the tabernacle in the wilderness was made with hands, human hands, though under divine direction; and therefore, the apostle contrasts the eternal with the temporal; and observes, that Christ is entered not into the holy place made with hands, but into the holy place made without hands, into heaven itself. And then again, “When this earthly house of our tabernacle is dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
Thus then, friends, was this living stone severed from, from the old kingdom, has taken possession of the new kingdom; and in this way, old things pass eternally away, all things become eternally new. Here is the new and living way; a new kingdom, new relationships to God; and will remain new, and new, and new forever.