Ezekiel 20:41 I will accept you with your sweet smell, when I bring you out from the people… God does not cease to observe the sins of His people. Nay, if there be sins which are worse in God's estimation than others, they are the sins of His own elect. But, notwithstanding this severe strictness, and although God must have a much clearer view of the evil of sin than any of us can ever obtain, He freely pardons those whom He reserves. He afflicts, but He does not afflict from the heart; and when He turns in a way of grace to His people, then He seems to be flying on the wings of the wind, for He comes with all His soul, most heartily and richly to display His favour and His love toward the objects of His choice. I. THE LORD ACCEPTS THE PERSONS OF HIS PEOPLE THROUGH THE SWEET SAVOUR OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. Whether we speak of the active or passive righteousness of Christ, there is alike an overpowering flagrance. Such was the merit of His active life by which He honoured the law of God, and exemplified every precept like a precious jewel in the pure setting of His own humanity. Such, too, the merit of His passive obedience, when He endured with unmurmuring submission hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness, and, with the ever-deepening stream of sorrow, at length yielded to that agony unknown when He sweat great drops of blood in Gethsemane, when He gave His back to the smiters, and His cheeks to them that plucked out the hair, stretched His hands to the nails, and was fastened to the cruel wood that He might suffer the wrath of God in our behalf. These two things are sweet before the Most High, and for the sake of His doing and His dying the Lord God of infinite justice accepts us with the sweet savour of Christ. Whenever the great God contemplates His own dear Son, He feels an intense delight in surveying His character, and in beholding His sufferings. You and I, so far as we have been taught of God, must find infinite and unspeakable delight in the person and work of Christ; but, alas! we are like common people who look upon a fine picture without a cultivated understanding in the art of painting, we cannot perceive the whole beauty, we do not know the richness of its colouring, and the wondrous skill of all its touches. Who but Jehovah understands holiness? Adhering to the metaphor of the text, the Lord our God is so holy and just and true that the coarser virtues of mankind, the best of all that we can bring, might disgust Him; but when He looks upon His dear Son, there is such a rarity of sweetness in the sacred confection of His blessed character that He takes delight in it, and the savour thereof is sweet unto Him. if I look at Peter, I admire his courage; ii I look at Paul, I wonder at his industry and devotedness to the cause of God; if I look at John, I see the loveliness and gentleness of his bearing; but when I look to the Saviour, I am not so much attracted by any one particular virtue as by the singular combination of the whole. There are all the spices — the stacte, and the onycha, and the galbanum, and the pure frankincense; the varied perfumes combine to make up one perfect confection. Still more remarkable is the perfect balance of the Saviour's character, as typified to us in the exact proportions of these spices. He is a man — a thorough man throughout — a God-like man — gentle as a woman, but yet stern as a warrior in the midst of the day of battle. The character is balanced; as much of one virtue as of another. As in Deity every attribute is full orbed; justice never eclipses mercy, nor mercy justice, nor justice faithfulness; so in the character of Christ you have all the excellent things, "whatsoever things are lovely," etc., you have them all; but not one of them casts a shadow on another; they shine each and all with undimmed splendour. Turning to the incense again, notice that all the ingredients of this incense were of the very finest kind: pure frankincense. And then again in the thirty-fifth verse, "pure and holy." And then the thirty-sixth verse "most holy." So all the virtues of Christ were the best forms of virtue. You will not fail also to observe that there is no stint as to quantity. The anointing oil had five hundred shekels' worth of one principal spice, and two hundred and fifty shekels' worth of another; but this is to be made without limit, as if to indicate that the merits of Jesus Christ know no bound whatsoever. Oh, when that sacred box of precious ointment was broke on the cross, who knows how far the merit of it extended? I would observe, that all through this incense is spoken of as being peculiarly holy, most holy unto God. The entire dedication of Christ's life and death to God is most remarkable. You can never see a divided aim about the Saviour's action. This incense, although little is said of it, was of course compounded when the ingredients were all brought together. It had to be compounded with great care, according to the art of the confectioner. Now, there certainly is great art, wondrous skill, in the composition of the Saviour's life. Why, there is wondrous skill about the record of it. What is not there in the record is as wonderful as what is there; the whole life is a compound of the confectioner. But it seems that when compounded it had to be all bruised and broken. "Thou shalt beat some of it small," says our version. Look at that "some of it"; how did it get there? "Thou shalt beat of it"; not "some of it," but "all of it." "Thou shalt beat of it small, very fine." Now, certainly the whole life of the Saviour was a process of bruising Him very fine. He begins with grief; He concludes with agony. Now for two or three practical words before I pass on. Do you feel your need of this sweet savour? How can you hope to be accepted before God in yourselves? Well, then, when you feel this, will you, in the next place, prize that sweet savour; speak of it in the highest and most eulogistic terms? II. It is certain from the connection that the text means that THE LORD WILL ACCEPT THE OFFERINGS OF HIS PEOPLE WHEN HE HAS ACCEPTED THEIR PERSONS. He will not only receive them into His love; all that they do for Him He will likewise receive. Many persons serve God sincerely, but from want of serving Him according to His ordained method their services cannot be accepted. God has given us a Statute Book, let us follow it. Let us not bring before God works of superstition or works of supererogation, but let us bring such as are commanded; for to obey is better than sacrifice, to hearken than the fat of rams. Let our lives be lives of obedience, not lives of fancy, superstition, and inventions of our own. Prayer, praise, consecration, almsgivings, holy living, these are all ordained. Let us be diligent in the mixing up of these sweet Savours. We must bring before God, if we would be accepted in our works, something of all virtues. It must not be all galbanum nor all stacte; not all intrepid courage without any subdued reverence, nor all the simplicity of affection without any of the sublimity of faith; it must not be all self-denial, though there must be some of it; gravity itself must be tempered with cheerfulness; there must be something of every form of virtue to make up the blessed compound. We must, above all, pay great attention to small things. If we would bring a holy life to Christ, we must mind our fireside duties as wall as the duties of the sanctuary. We must take care that this sweet incense of ours is not made for man nor used by man. May it be yours and mine to have a life which, both in its prayer and praise, its giving and its ordinary living, shall be redolent with the fulness of the Spirit of God — a perfume that may make our life like walking through garden, a fragrance that may make us like the king's storehouse, wherein all manner of precious fruits are laid up, and all manner of sweet frankincense stored away! You will say, "But there will be so much imperfection notwithstanding." Ah! that there will. "There may be much defilement when we have done our best." Ah! so it is. The best of men are still men at the best. But the word comes very sweetly — "I will accept you with your sweet savour." ( C. H. Spurgeon.) Parallel Verses KJV: I will accept you with your sweet savour, when I bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you before the heathen. |
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