Let us turn to God's Word in
that portion of Holy Scripture we read in the 19th chapter of
the Gospel according to John. And I'll read verses 34 and 35. These two verses form our text. John 19. verses 34 and 35. But one of the soldiers with
a spear pierced his sight, and forthwith came there out blood
and water. And he that saw it bare record,
and his record is true, and he knoweth that he saith true, that
ye might believe. In remarking on the words that
we have here, in verse 34, Dr. Gill says, concerning the water
and the blood, that they signify the blessings of sanctification
and justification. And those are the truths that
I want us to consider from these words. The water, signifying
sanctification, and the blood signifying justification. Struck
me this morning when we were considering words back in Zechariah
chapter 14. Remember, we took for our text
verses six and seven, but we read that chapter and the previous
chapter, and there in chapter 13, of course, at the beginning,
we're reminded of that fountain, that is open to the house of
David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness,
that fountain of the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. But then also in chapter 14 and
verse 8 we read, in that day, that is the gospel day, it shall
be that in that day living waters shall go out from Jerusalem and
those living waters remind us of that water also not just the
blood the fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins,
but also those waters that flow out from Jerusalem. And it's
the same truth really that we have here in this 34th verse. One of the soldiers with a spear
pierced his side and forthwith, carrying there out blood and
water. The one deals with the guilt
of sin, and that of course is the matter of the blood, the
shedding of the blood, the truth of justification. The other deals
with the power of sin, that is the water, and that is the great
truth of sanctification. And so, to consider these two
cardinal doctrines of the gospel, I know we've spoken on these
themes in times past, but we come to them of course time and
again. It's things new and old from
the Word of God. And so, first of all to say something
with regards to justification, briefly, and then secondly to
say something with regards to sanctification. Now, we know
that justification is really a judicial term. It concerns the matter of law. It concerns the law court. It involves the judge passing
his sentence. And we see that quite clearly
when we go back to the 25th chapter in the book of Deuteronomy. where
Moses writes there at the beginning of the chapter, if there be a
controversy between men and they come unto judgment, that the
judges may judge them, then they shall justify the righteous and
condemn the wicked. The innocent is the person who
is to be declared a justified person, and the wicked person
is the one who is to be condemned. But it clearly concerns the business
of the judge to make that pronouncement. And so when we think of justification
we should always bear in mind the law court. We should think
in those judicial terms. And when we think of the justification
of sinners, of course, we have to think in terms of that work
that the Lord Jesus Christ came to do. He came not to justify
the righteous. The amazing thing is that in
Christ we see the justification of the sinner. Instead of that
sinner having the sentence of condemnation passed upon him,
Rather, because of the work of Christ, He is declared to be
righteous. And so when the Lord comes, we
know the words of Holy Scripture, when the fullness of the time
was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under
the law. Those two things. He comes as
that One who is the fulfillment of the promise, The first gospel
promised back in Genesis chapter 3 how the seed of the woman would
come and bruise the serpent's head. He is the seed of the woman,
made of a woman. He has no human father. He is conceived by the Holy Ghost
in the womb of the Virgin Mary, but not only made of a woman,
but there in Galatians 4 quite clearly it states He is made
under the law. He is therefore subject to the
law of God. And we read again in Scripture
Philippians 2, being found in fashion as a man, He humbled
himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. all the obedience of the Lord
Jesus. He is subject to the Lord of
God, he must be about his Father's business, he must fulfill all
that work that the Father has given him to do, that's his business,
to do the will of Him that has sent him, and to finish his work. It is a life of obedience, but
it is an obedience also onto death. And so there are two aspects
to the obedience. Obedience in living, but also
obedience in dying. What the theologians call the
active obedience and the passive obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, think of those two aspects
of his obedience. But first of all to consider
them, or considering them in reverse as it were, to speak
of the obedience that we see in His dying upon the cross.
He is obedient unto death, it says. Even the death of the cross. And this is what we have here
in the chapter that we read. John 19, we have the record,
John's account, of the crucifixion. And he says in verse 35e, that
Saul repair record, and his record is true, and he knoweth that
he saith true, that ye might believe. Why are these things
recorded for us? Why are these things set down
on the page of Holy Scripture? In order that we might believe
these things. And here we see what Christ's
obedience unto death entails. When the soldier with the spear
pierced his side and forthwith came there out blood. This obedience in the shedding
of his blood oh how this is so necessary in order to the covering
of all the sins of his people how necessary that they might
know the pardon of their many transgressions without the shedding
of blood without the shedding of blood there is no remission
of sin we read in Holy Scripture we know what The wages of sin
is, because we're told so plainly, the wages of sin is death. The
soul that sinneth, he shall die. This is the law of God. God cannot
wink at sin. God cannot turn a blind eye to
sin. God is a holy God, a righteous
God, a just God. He must punish the transgressor.
The payment must be paid. the law must be satisfied because
that law that law which is holy, that commandment which is holy
and just and good it's a revelation of God, it tells us something
of the character of God and it must be satisfied all without
the shedding of blood and the life is in the blood there is
no remission of sins And here we have the flowing forth of
that precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has died and he has died just
for the unjust to bring sinners back to God. And so Paul tells
us where remission of these is there is no more offering for
sin. or where there is that forgiveness through the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the shedding of His precious blood, there's no
other offering for sin. This man has offered one sacrifice
for sins forever. That is the truth of the Gospel.
And that, of course, is a direct contradiction of the blasphemous
teachings of the apostate Church of Rome with his doctrine of
transubstantiation, sacrifice of the mass, God's Word stands out against
such blasphemous teaching and practice. No, this man has offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, never to be repeated, how he
poured out his soul onto death. He made His soul an offering
for sin. The life is in the blood. And
there we see the Lord Jesus experiencing the real death, the separation
of body and soul. And there we see Him dying as
that One who is the Great Substitute. Christ also has once suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust, as we said just now. God hath
made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him. There's the justification,
you see. He was made sin, He died in the
sinner's place, in order that His people might be made righteous
in Him. And so that brings us to that
other aspect of his life. He's not only obedient in dying,
he is one who is also obedient to the Lord of God in living. It's the great truth, you see,
of justification. And it involves the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ
to the law of God. And He satisfies that law in
terms of all its dreadful penalties when He dies. But He also honors
and magnifies that same law in respect to every one of its precepts,
commandments, statutes in the life that He lives. The Lord is well pleased, it
says. The Lord is well pleased for
His righteousness sake. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable and so we have the records throughout the fourfold
gospel I know each of the evangelist in these gospels go into great
detail concerning the dying of the Lord Jesus each of them give
their records of how he came to die at the end of his short
life and as I say here we have John's account as he says in
this 36th verse, for these things were done. Or rather verse 35, he that saw
it bare record, and his record is true, and he knoweth that
he saith true, that ye might believe. That's John. But the same is true of Matthew,
of Mark, of Luke, They all bear their records concerning the
death of the Lord Jesus, but more than that, they speak also
of the life. And then after his dying, they
speak of his resurrection from the dead. And when we read through
the Gospels, we see that there's much detail concerning the manner
in which he lived his life. and the ministry that he exercised. We see him as that one who is
the greatest of the prophets. That one who is the fulfillment
of the prophetic office, that teacher sent from God. One who
spoke as no man ever spoke before, it says. And how he goes about
doing good. how he is so different from the
scribes and the Pharisees they would say but they do not but
all that he said he did why he was in his life holy he was harmless
he was undefiled he was separate from sinners and made higher
than the heavens and all this life that he lived and all this
that is recorded in the gospel is such that we witness him here
very much as a public person. As he died in the sinner's room
instead, so he also lives. And he lives as one who is a
substitute for his people. He is living the life that they
should live. And that life that he lives is
that one wherein he accomplishes all righteousness. You see, it's
not enough when we think of the Lord of God. It's not enough
to be cleared from all the guilt of sin. It's not enough for Christ
to die and bear the punishment that
the Holy Lord of God demands, the death of the sinner. No,
the law requires something more than that. Look at what Moses
says again. The law was given by Moses. What
does he say there in Deuteronomy 6.25? It shall be our righteousness
if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord
our God as he has commanded us. Not enough to have the guilt
taken away by Christ's obedience in dying there must be an active
obedience as we have it there, there must be an observing to
do all these commandments and this is what the Lord Jesus Christ
has done in the life that he lived no necessary because we
have no righteousness of our own all of sins and come short of
the glory of God. You know the multitudes of scriptures
that we could quote. We go back to the Old Testament
there in the language of the preacher, the book of Ecclesiastes.
There is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth
not, says Solomon. In the New Testament, the language
of James, whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend
in one point is guilty of all. What does the law require? Why
that obedience to its commandments must be complete, perfect, not
one single transgression, one sinful thought. and the law is broken. And whosoever
shall keep the whole law, you keep all the rest of it and you
commit one sinful thought and you're a transgressor. Those
are the demands of the holy law of God. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
the only one who has come and honoured God's law in that fashion
well the sinner stands in need of the work of the Lord Jesus
we make much of the of the person I feel in some ways over recent
weeks and months I seem only to ever speak of the person that
great mystery of godliness God manifest in the flesh it's a
wonderful truth to contemplate how the eternal Son of God became
the Son of Man But it's not just the person, it's the work. And
now we need the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what a work
it is. It is blind. It's His righteousness. It's that righteousness that
was wrought by the obedience of His life. It's that obedience
that we witness when He makes that great oblation, that great
sacrifice. and pours out his soul unto death
and the blood flows as we have it here the soldier piercing
his side with the spear and forthwith there came out blood all blood
that cleanses from all the guilt of sin think of this great truth
of justification this work that the Lord Jesus
Christ has accomplished Now, it needs of course to be brought
home to the sinner, it's got to be imputed, it's got to be
made a reality. Now in a sense we can say that
there are some three aspects to this justification. Because
salvation is of the Lord and salvation therefore involves
all the persons in the Godhead. It is right that we say that
justification is eternal in the purpose of God. Eternal in the
purpose of God the Father. We go back before ever time existed,
when God purposed the justification of sinners. But then that justification
was accomplished in time. Accomplished historically by
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, when He was made of a woman and
made under the law. when he fulfilled all righteousness
by the life that he lived and the death that he died but then thirdly that justification
must be experienced in the soul of the sinner and how is that? it comes by faith it's experienced
by faith you know we have that verse back in Romans chapter
5. Therefore, it says, being justified
by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, one doesn't like to be critical
of our English version, our authorised version, but the The comma, I
would contend, is in the wrong place. We know that the comma
was introduced, or the punctuation was introduced in the translation
by the translators back in 1611. The comma comes after faith,
but I contend that the comma should appear sooner than that.
It should appear after the word justified. Therefore being justified,
comma, We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
How do we have peace with God? When we come into the experience
of it. And that's by faith. It is eternal
in the purpose of God, God the Father. It was accomplished in
time by the Son of God and then it is applied in the soul of
the sinner by the Holy Spirit of God. All that's justification. The application of that precious
blood. How much more shall the blood
of Christ purge your conscience from dead works to serve the
Living God? There must be an application,
friends. It must become a reality in our souls. We must know the
doctrine. Not just because it's before
us on the page of Holy Scripture, but know it in our souls' experience. We must be those who are receiving,
receiving the atonement. I love that verse in Romans chapter 5 and verse
11. Not only so, says Paul, but we
also join God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have
now received the atonement. Or have we received the atonement?
Have we received the reconciliation? Have we received the doctrine
of justification? Christ, who is the end of the
law for righteousness, it says, to every one that believeth.
There's the righteousness of justification. Christ, the end of the law for
righteousness. And how do we know it? How do
we experience it? By faith. By faith. Being justified. By faith we
have peace with God. Through our Lord Jesus Christ. And we have it here in his death.
One of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side and forthwith
there came out blood and water. and water. Well, let us turn
to that second aspect of the salvation that is being
spoken of in our text tonight. The great truth of sanctification. That's what water represents.
That's what Dr. Gill's comment declares, and
I believe he's right in saying that. Water represents the sanctification,
just as the blood represents the justification. But what of
sanctification? What of sanctification? Well
you know, the basic meaning of the word to sanctify is really
to set apart. A thing is sanctified in scripture
when it is set apart. It's set apart from the normal
everyday use, it's set apart to the service of God. This is
what happened with all the vessels and so forth that they were to
use in the worship of God in the tabernacle. All those vessels,
as we see in Exodus, were to be consecrated, sanctified, separated
to God and the service of God. But here we're not thinking of
vessels, we're thinking of sinners. sinful men and women like you
and me. How is the sinner sanctified? I've spoken of the sinner's justification
it's a judicial term it all has to do with the great work of
the Lord Jesus when he's made not only of a woman but also
made under the law and how he has accomplished all that the
law requires both in his life and in his death. He has satisfied
the law in terms of its precepts, its commandments by obeying it
in life. He has satisfied also its terrible
penalties and punishments by honoring it and magnifying it
in the death that he has died. And all of that work imputed
to the sinner, reckoned to the sinner's account, experienced
by faith. But what of sanctification? What
of sanctification? Well again, it's part of salvation. And as I said, salvation is of
the Lord. That means salvation is of God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Yes, it is God the Son who comes
as the Saviour. But let us recognize that there
is also in every part of salvation the work of the Father and of
the Holy Spirit. I said it just now with regards
to justification, the eternal purpose of the Father, eternally justified in the purpose
of the Father. And then that's justification
accomplished by Christ when he comes and by his life and death
honors and magnifies the law. and then justification by the
blessed ministry of the Spirit when it's brought by faith into
the soul of the sinner. Well, so too with sanctification.
So too with sanctification. Sinners are sanctified eternally. How are they sanctified? They
are set apart. They are set apart by God the
Father in election. Look at the language that we
have there in the opening verse of Jude's epistle. It says, sanctified
by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called. How are they sanctified by God
the Father? That's election. That's election. Dr. Henry Cole says, election
is the highest form of sanctification. When the Father has set apart
a people to save them, they're sanctified by the Father
in eternity. But then, historically, in time,
there is the coming of Christ. And by the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ again, we see how these sinners are sanctified. Hebrews 10.10, by the which will,
the Apostle is speaking of the sovereign will of God, it's God's
goodwill and pleasure, by the which will we are sanctified,
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. All what the Father had purposed,
when he set his people apart in eternity, it must be accomplished
in time. How is it accomplished? By the
work of the Lord Jesus. Jesus also, that he might sanctify
the people through his blood, suffered without the gates. He suffers outside the walls
of Jerusalem, suffers without the gates. Why? That he might
sanctify the people. That he might sanctify the people. And then again, how we find the Apostle Paul at times
dealing with very practical matters. And yet, when he's dealing with
these practicalities, he roots and grounds them in
great doctrine. You remember how in Ephesians
chapter 5, he speaks of the relative duties in life, fathers and children, and masters
and servants, and husbands and wives, You're familiar with that
passage there at the end of Ephesians chapter 5. And when he speaks
of the duty of the husband, what does he say? Husbands, love your
wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for
it. Oh, what a pattern this is! The
husband's love for his wife is to be like unto that love that
the Lord Jesus Christ had for his bride, for the church, he
gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it
with the washing of water by the Word. The church, that church that
is made up of sinners, saved by the grace of God, Or the Lord
Jesus died for that church that He might sanctify it, that He
might cleanse it by the washing of water by the Word. Or the Lord Jesus is that One
who is the very sanctification of His people. They are set apart
in Him. They are set apart by Him, by that work that He has
accomplished. Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us. sanctification, amongst other
things. Oh yes, there's sanctification
by the Father in the great doctrine of eternal election, sanctified
by God the Father, preserved in Jesus Christ, called as Jude
says. But then, in time, in history,
we see the Lord Jesus coming to accomplish that great work,
And then, again, the Holy Spirit. Our sinners are effectually set
apart by the Holy Spirit when He comes and works in their souls. They have an experience of these
things. Look at what God says in Promise
when He speaks of the New Covenant. There in the 36th chapter of the book of Ezekiel verse 25 then will I sprinkle
clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness
and from all your idols will I cleanse you a new heart also
will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will
take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give
you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and
cause you to walk in my statutes and you shall keep my judgments
and do them." Because sanctification isn't just a setting apart. No, there's this sprinkling of
clean water. There's this cleansing from all
filthiness, from all idols. There's this work of the spirit
within a man causing that man to walk in all God's statutes
and judgments, to walk in holy obedience to all those gospel
precepts. Oh, it is the Holy Spirit who
comes and He applies the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. How
are we saved? How are we saved if we are saved? He saved us by the washing of Regeneration, it says. What is
the washing of regeneration? He saved us. This is the language
of scripture. Titus 3, 5. He saved us by the
washing of regeneration. That's the new birth. The washing
of regeneration, he goes on, and the renewing of the Holy
Ghost. And those are one and the same thing. The washing of
regeneration is equivalent to the renewing of the Holy Ghost. This is how the Spirit works.
He comes into the soul of a man. And what does he do? The sin
is born again. And being born again, he has
received now a new nature. That that he is born of the flesh
is flesh. Says the Lord Jesus there in
John 3.6. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. This
is the new birth. The renewing of the of the Holy
Ghost. And what happens, the believer
now is a partaker of the Divine Nature, he has a new nature.
And that new nature, you know, can never sin. That new nature
can never sin. It's not that the old nature
is changed. The old nature is the old nature
still, that's what the Lord says. That he's born of the flesh,
his flesh. Ah, but that that he's born of
the Spirit. You see, as Peter says, these believers are partakers
of the divine nature. Whosoever is born of God cannot
sin, because his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because
he is born of God. All that seed, that's the new
nature. That's the blessed work of the Spirit of God. But how
there is then this constant warfare, this conflict between that new
nature and the old nature, the flesh, how it lost against the
Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, and Paul says, you
cannot do the thing that you want. the believer would be holy, and
yet his conflict is with himself all the time, this awful conflict
with old self, sinful self, proud self. Now the apostle cries out, O
wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this
death? That's his whole nature. He's burdened with it. Wherever
he goes, he takes it with him. He was going to deliver him. Oh, I thank God, he says. I thank
God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. It is only Christ who can
deliver. It is that Spirit of Christ that
we need to be working within us constantly. If ye through
the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body you shall live. That's
what the believer desires to see, the death of that old nature.
You see, we need not only to be justified, accounted righteous,
we need also to be sanctified, set apart, washed, made clean. That's why we sang that opening
hymn, that old familiar hymn of Toplater,
and he speaks there, does he not, of that blessed double cure. You observe the words as we sing
them. Be of sin the double cure, he says. Cleanse me from its
guilt and power. All justification deals with
the matter of the guilt. We stand before the judge and
we are guilty sinners. We are transgressors. But here
is the great truth of justification. God is pleased to justify the
ungodly because of the work of Christ. To declare that man who
is guilty in himself to be innocent and righteous. because all the
work of Christ is reckoned to his account. Cleanse me from
its guilt and power. And it is this blessed doctrine
of sanctification that deals with the power of it. All the
sinner has been set apart. Set apart in the eternal purpose
of the Father, But the Lord Jesus Christ has come and done all
that is necessary for the sanctifying of these people. He shed His
precious blood. He has poured out His soul unto
death. And there's not only justification
in Christ, there's sanctification in Christ. He is our sanctification. And now the Blessed Spirit comes,
you see, and makes application. Makes application of the blood,
make application also of the water. and so we have it here
in our text one of the soldiers with a spear
pierced his side and forthwith came there out blood and water and he that saw it bare record
and his record is true and he knoweth that he saith true that
ye might And you know the force of that last clause is literally
in order that you might believe. That's why these things are written.
That's why these things are recorded. That we might be brought to faith,
that saving faith, that justifying faith, that sanctifying faith.
that faith of God's elect, that faith that centers in the person
and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ how we must be those who
are ever always looking or looking away from every other object
and looking and looking only onto Jesus the author and finisher
of our faith and for the joy that was said before him endured
the cross despising the shame and he sat down at the right
hand of the throne of God. Oh God help us then, that we
might enter into these things and know these things, know them
in our soul's experience, know them for our eternal good. That we might see them not only
here on the page of Holy Scripture, but be brought to feel them by
the ministry of the Spirit in our very souls. The Lord grant
any blessing upon his word. Amen.