A SERMON
Preached on Sunday Morning November 26th 1865
By Mister JAMES WELLS
At the New Surrey Tabernacle, Wansey Street
Volume 7 Number 367
LAST Lord's day morning we dwelt chiefly upon the wondrous theme of Christ's atonement, as that atonement is in itself, closing with some remarks upon the effect which that atonement had upon fallen angels, upon unfallen angels, upon fallen men, and upon Christians. I think we may this morning make some few more remarks upon the same subject, without going over the ground we have occupied before. And in so doing I will notice, first, the new creature-ship which is evidenced by receiving this atonement. Secondly, the bond of the covenant into which a reception of this atonement brings us. Thirdly, the ultimate victory it is sure to give. And, fourthly, if time should permit, the intensity of devotion to God that is sure to be the consequence of a right reception of the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ.
First, then, the new creature-ship which is evidenced by receiving this atonement. We shall therefore have to deal with the matter this morning specially in the experience thereof. Now it is said of the Savior in connection with our text, that when we were without strength, in due time he died for the ungodly. Now where the Lord is the teacher, one lesson which he teaches is that we have no strength, holiness, goodness, or righteousness, by which to meet the law; in a word, that we are by nature without strength to stand against our sins, or against death, judgment, or eternity; and yet we have all these before us; we have all these to meet. We are thus without strength, because the Lord by our sins is entirely against us. If he give us a little prosperity, it is only to hasten our destruction as sinners; if he subjects us to adversity, it is to hasten our destruction as sinners; if he leaves us to the follies that thousands are left to, in order to shorten our lives, it is to hasten our destruction. Such is our state, and such our condition and position by nature. Therefore, if we prosper in the world, and at the same time are ungodly, little do we think what a curse there is in that very prosperity. “You did set them,” said one, “in slippery places and when he went into the sanctuary, there he saw into this secret. So that there is no strength in this life, and in that which lies before us, except the Lord God be our strength. Now then Jesus Christ has atoned for our sins, and answered very beautifully in his atonement to what is said in the 1st chapter of Leviticus, when he that came before the Lord with an offering was to bring a sacrifice without blemish; and so Jesus Christ, the Lamb without spot; and he was to offer it of his own voluntary will;
“How willing was Jesus to die!”
And it was to be at the door of the tabernacle; because Jesus Christ by his atonement becomes the door; “I am the door: by me if any man enters in, he shall be saved.” And that this same offerer was to lay to lay his hand upon the sacrifice, and confess his transgressions there, to denote the transfer of all our sins to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now then, if we thus see our need of his atonement, our need of what he has done, then, by believing in it understandingly, by receiving it, hereby God becomes our strength, God is on our side in all his perfections, and in the intensity and eternity of his love, in all the riches of his mercy, in all the fullness of his grace; so that now we are not without strength; that if we have foes to fear, he will enable us to conquer them; if we have adversities to endure, he will help us over them; if we have to live, why, he will live with us, and if we have to die he will make our bed in sickness, and strengthen us upon the bed of languishing; and if we have eternity to face, then Jesus has faced that for us. He did what the Publican was afraid to do, Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven but the Publican would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven; he saw there nothing but a sin avenging God, he saw there nothing but the solemn charges against his as a sinner. But Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.” And so by Jesus Christ we may lift up our eyes to heaven, and know that the Lord will hear, and that he will answer the cry of “God, be merciful to me a sinner,” provided that cry be the prayer of faith, by faith in the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, Thus, then, simply by being brought to know our need of strength to meet sin, and death, and judgment, and eternity, and by being brought to see that Jesus Christ has thus put away sin, and that by him we are reconciled to the blessed God, here the Lord becomes our strength; so that, weak as we are in ourselves, it matters not. Hence stands the language, “Trust you in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.” Now, a knowledge of the Lord being thus on your side by what Christ has done will wonderfully strengthen your heart, and when things suddenly occur, you will be calm. Why, messenger after messenger, until it came even to the destruction of the family of Job; and yet so calm and steady, the Lord being his strength, Job being perfect in Christ, Job fearing God, and knowing that the evil was got rid of by the atonement of Christ, and Job being upright in the faith, he could say, amidst this tremendous sweep of mysterious adversity, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away, and blessed be the name of the Lord;” “and in all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly;” because by that Redeemer that Job knew the Lord was his strength, and strengthened his heart. Indeed, we know not how far the Lord will thus strengthen us, and inspirit us, and encourage us, and make us of good courage to go on in living decision for his dear name and blessed truth. This, then, will be one effect of receiving this atonement, it will bring us into this reconciliation wherein God will be, in his love, mercy, and grace, unto us all the strength we need. The second consequence of receiving this atonement is that of being godly, “In due time Christ died for the ungodly.” Now that is what we all are by nature; and it is a great mercy to know this, to see that there is nothing whatever can constitute us anything else before God that we can do but ungodly. There is no way of being godly, or acceptable to the Lord, I mean, not in salvation matters, but by faith in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hence, when Abraham believed God, and received the testimony of Christ, he thus became the friend of God. And you recollect in the 32nd Psalm, where David describes the blessedness of receiving this atonement, the blessedness of the man who receives this reconciliation, the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord imputes not iniquity, to whom he imputes righteousness without works, he says, “For this shall every one that is godly pray unto you.” So that if you are godly, that is, if you are born of God, of that holy and incorruptible seed, you will be sure to seek a realization of that peace that is by the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, he died for the ungodly to make us godly, and so by his atonement we transit from our state of enmity, which is a state of ungodliness; our state of ignorance, which is a state of ungodliness; and our state of everlasting downward tendency, which is a state of ungodliness, and enter into that reconciliation to God that we become godly, we become believers in the Son of God, we become children of God. “Beloved, behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.” Thus, then, here is going out of an ungodly state, for Jesus Christ turns away ungodliness from Jacob, into a godly state. How sweet the thought! I cannot find language to set forth the sweetness of this department, for by receiving Jesus Christ you have a completeness of godliness; in receiving him in his perfection, that perfection is your complete godliness; that that mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh, becomes your portion, and the ungodliness which we have in our nature will presently die out when the body dies, and nothing will then be left but God and godliness; so it is that our God shall be all and in all. The third effect of receiving this atonement is that it makes us very intimately acquainted with the love of God. “For God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Oh, we shall say, the freeness of that love who can describe? the greatness of that love who can describe? the eternity of that love who can comprehend? the intensity, the constancy of that love, the impossibility of many waters quenching or floods drowning that love; that he rests in his love, rejoices in his love, and that his love is everlasting: “He commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners;”
“Ah, what was there in me to merit esteem,
Or give the Creator delight?
Thus, Even so, Father, we ever must sing,
For so it seemed good in your sight.”
And it will bring us to rest in his love, and you will think within yourself, If God so loved me as to commend his love to me in the gift of his dear Son to die for me while I was a sinner, will he love me less now, will he be careless about me now, will he neglect me now? No; if he loved me then, how much more now? if he cared for me then, how much more now that I am brought to receive this reconciliation? And it will endear him, and you will think, Well, if that affliction occur, he loves me too much to hurt me, that means my good; if that loss occur, he loves me too much to hurt me, that means my good; and if people hate me, then I find a scripture, “He turned: their heart to hate his people,” that means my good; I may not see at present the hand of love in it, but ere long I shall. And if he turns people's hearts towards me, as he did Pharaoh towards Joseph, and Ahasuerus towards Mordecai, Nebuchadnezzar towards Daniel, and Belshazzar and Darius towards Daniel, if the Lord do thus, why, he means my good. Oh, it is a nice thing thus to be made familiar with his love; as said John, “Not that we loved him, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Then the fourth effect that a reception of this atonement will have will be to clear our prospects for eternity. “Being,” said the apostle, “justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” How weak, how transitory, how ephemeral, how feeble, would be the hatred of the whole world concentrated upon your person in comparison of the wrath of Almighty God. So then, “Fear not man, which after he has killed the body there is no more that he can do; but fear him” let your soul revere him, and pray and look to him, “that is able to cast both body and soul into hell.” But he will take care neither your body nor soul shall be cast into hell, if you are brought to feel your need of a Mediator's precious blood, to fly to him for refuge from the wrath to come; “even Jesus, which has delivered us from the wrath to come.” “Much more” then, said the apostle, if the Lord did these things for us in the face of our weakness, ungodliness, and sinner-ship “much more now, being justified” that is, exempted by his blood, “from the curse of the law, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” Ah, we may well endure, then, and the Lord give us grace to endure it as Christians, where he has said, “You shall be hated of all men for my name's sake; but he that shall endure” this hatred, “to the end,” and shall not give way, shall not compromise, shall not send a message of peace, and say, “Gentlemen, I am very sorry I have offended you,” and so seek to compromise; why, if we do that, we dishonor our God. We have received the atonement of Jesus Christ as that which has swallowed up the curse, compassed all the wrath due to our sins, and now there is no wrath. So that here our prospects are brightened up for eternity by the wondrous atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. The fifth and last, I notice upon this part is, that it will enable us to live in a scriptural spirit. And what is it to live in a scriptural or gospel spirit? Why, to live with this feeling, that eternal life is better than mortal life, and to feel within us a willingness to sacrifice everything rather than give up the words of eternal life. Mark the language, “If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son;” if his atonement overcame our enmity, which it has, the Christian has in his nature, old fallen nature, as much deadly enmity against Christ and against the truth; you that are born of God have as much deadly enmity in your nature now against God and his truth as you had while in a state of nature; but, but, mark the fulfilment in your happy experience of God's own word, that “the elder shall serve the younger” you have, in opposition to your native enmity, a principle of life, of love, of faith, of hope, of decision for God, so that, I was going to say, if you tried with all your might you could not despise the Savior now; the evil in your nature cannot get you to do it. No; you may quarrel with many of his dealings with you, but after all, I believe that the greater part of your time you can look up with unpresumptuous eye, with a good conscience, and with a heart pure and sincere, and say, “You know all things: you know that I love you.” Thus, then, if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, thanks, eternal thanks, to his dear name, that this is the sense in which the Christian sins not; this is the sense in which he that is born of God cannot sin, because the incorruptible seed of faith in Christ, of hope in his mercy, of love to him, and decision for him, remains in him. He that sins this sin of setting aside the sacrifice of Christ, and there is no other sacrifice than that when that is set aside, he that sins that sin, whether he does so by a direct denial of the atonement, or by a perversion of it in its efficacy, such are the children of the devil, and those that love that sacrifice are the children of God. In this is manifest the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. Thus, then, “if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” The Lord preserve us from forgetting this, that we are saved not only by the death of Christ but also by his life; not only did he die to save but he lives to save. He has not begun the work on earth, and gone to heaven quite happy himself, and left the people to do what they can with what he has done; no, he still makes intercession. One of our hymns says,
“Well he remembers Calvary."
Yes, he does, and he lives to carry into eternal effect the sufferings of Calvary; he lives to carry into eternal effect that which he accomplished at Calvary's glorious cross. Hence the Old Testament prophets saw the two together; “They spoke of the sufferings of Christ” but they did not stop there “and the glory that should follow;” and that glory the Old Testament prophets described; “The redeemed” there is the glory, “shall return and shall come to Zion; everlasting joy shall be unto them, sorrow and sighing shall” forever, “flee away.” Thus, then, he lives to save, and we live to be saved; he is seeking our welfare, and it is for us to seek it; and thus, we are seeking what the Lord is seeking, and thus we shall be saved. As I sometimes say of Noah, the Lord's object was to complete the ark; Noah's object was to complete the ark; so that Noah was a worker together with God, and God was a worker together with Noah, and they both worked well all the time, and never had one fall out. I do not believe Noah ever said, “Well, Lord, I should like to propose something else; let us have four stories instead of three, and two doors instead of one, and let the window be at the side instead of at the top.” No; Noah always worked together with God, and God always worked together with Noah: they talked together, they walked together, until the Lord shut him in, and he was saved. So it is now; by faith in Christ we work out our own preservation, by holding fast this blessed testimony of what Christ has done, we hereby work out our preservation from sin, and stand fast in the liberty of the gospel, and shall do, until the Lord shall shut us into that eternal glory into which all must come for whom the Savior died.
Now the next thing that I must notice is the bond of the covenant into which the reception of this atonement brings us; that is, the covenant to which this atonement belongs; and you know we have the Savior's authority for saying that this atonement belongs to the new covenant: “This is my blood in the new testament.” And this bond of the covenant seems beautifully typified in the 8th and 9th of Genesis. Noah offered burnt offerings unto the Lord, “and the Lord smelled a sweet savor;” or, as the margin reads it, and both readings will stand good, “the Lord smelled a savor of rest.” And so, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, what a pure offering that was, of sweet savor, to divine holiness and to divine justice, and to all the perfections of God, which I am not fond of calling “moral” perfections. Everlastingly talking nowadays about the “moral” perfections of God. That is a phrase nowhere used in the Bible, and I very much question whether the word “moral” is lofty enough for his perfections; and I even question whether the word “moral” is lofty enough for God's law. His law is never called a moral law; it is called a spiritual law: “the law is spiritual, holy, just, and good.” But men think they can improve it by calling it “moral.” And so, they speak of the “moral” perfections of God. I question whether that term is lofty enough. The perfections of God are like himself. What is he? A Spirit, and his perfections are spiritual; his perfections are infinite and eternal; it is by his perfections that he is sovereign. What is the sovereignty of God founded upon? Upon what he is. Take from him his incorruptibility, his omnipotence, his infinite prescience, omniscience, and holiness, and other perfections, then he ceases to be sovereign. Therefore, he is sovereign over all by virtue of what he is. And he has been pleased by this atonement to come into such close familiarity with such poor creatures as we are, and to bring us into such close familiarity with him, that the dear Savior says, “When you pray, say, Our Father.” What a mighty grasp of faith, to call the everlasting God your Father, in the close and adoptive sense of the word! Now “the Lord smelled a sweet savor,” then, it is said, in Noah's burnt offerings, because they typified Christ, who is in sweet harmony with whatever God is, “a savor of rest.” And so, when Jesus finished the work, he rested; God rested, and we get rest. And that is a wonderful scripture, “Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” I have given rest to millions, and I will give rest to millions more. “Him that comes unto me I will in nowise cast out.” Now when the Lord smelled this savor, and entered into this rest, then comes the covenant: “I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake;” “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” This covenant, then, is sure to be fulfilled down to the end of time. There have been partial famine's, but never universal famine, and there will not be down to the end of time. Then in the next chapter you find the Lord set a rainbow as a token of assurance, a token of the covenant. Now the rainbow is independent of man; that is a self-evident truth that it is where it is when it appears by the hand of God, and by the hand of God alone, entirely so. And this rainbow is a beautiful type of Jesus Christ. When we say anything is a type of Christ, we do not always mean it is a type of his person in the abstract, but a type of him in some relation that he bears to us. The rainbow, therefore, was the token of the covenant, the token of peace, and likewise the assurance that seedtime and harvest should continue; that is what the rainbow was; and that is what Jesus Christ is. Is there anything in the whole range of nature more tranquil than the rainbow? “I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature.” Now you must Christianize this, and take the living creatures there to mean believers; and God looks upon Christ, and remembers the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature. So that when the Lord has a blessing for you, he does not look to you to see whether you deserve it or not, because he knows you do not; but he looks upon his dear Son. That is the way he blesses you; there is no blessing that he withholds there; no; “of his fulness have we received, grace for grace.” Now, then, the reception of this atonement brings us into the assurance of eternal supply, of eternal peace and rest. “As I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I sworn,” now, mind, this oath is by the sacrifice, by the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ; pray do not for a moment allow the thought to get into your wicked mind that this oath is in your favor on the ground of any good in you, on the ground of any merit in you; no, you are nothing but that described in connection with our text; and therefore this oath is by that which is infallible as itself. And you must take notice of that also, that the great God never swears by that which is fallible; never. He did not swear by the ceremonial law, because that was fallible; he did not swear by the first Adam, because he was fallible; but he did swear by the second Adam. He has not sworn by angels, because they are fallible. Whenever he has sworn to do anything on behalf of his people, it is always done by something that is infallible. Is it his right hand? Then that is infallible. Is it the arm of his strength? is it his dear Son, Christ Jesus, of whom he said, “The Lord has sworn, You are a priest forever?” there is something infallible. Is it by his holiness? that is infallible. And, lastly, to sum up the whole, wonder, O heavens, and be astonished, O earth; but where this reconciliation is received into the soul, you are brought into the bond of that wondrous covenant in which, as he could swear by no greater, he therefore swore by himself. The great God must cease to exist before you can come short of one promise, one mercy, or one blessing. “He swore by himself,” and surely himself is infallible, “that in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply you.” “So, have I sworn that I would not be wrath with you.” He is sometimes wrath with us in appearance, but not in reality; no, no. You may frown upon your child sometimes, and the little thing will begin to cry, and think you are angry with it; but if any one attempt to meddle with it just at that moment, to injure it, you would step in between your child and harm in a moment; your love is the same, your affection is the same. So here. “In a little wrath I hid my face from you,” only in appearance, not in reality, “but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy upon you, says the Lord your Redeemer. For the mountains shall depart,” and if the mountains mean the kingdoms of this world, then the kingdoms of this world do depart, “and the hills,” if they mean the lesser kingdoms, “be removed” as they are; “but my kindness shall not depart from you, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, says the Lord.” a clause, why, it is a whole volume, “saith the Lord,” in this sworn covenant, “that has mercy on you.” There was a time when my blind and benighted heart and soul did not understand that; but now I see I can live only by sworn mercy. “I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.” Here, then, the reception of this reconciliation brings us into the bond of this covenant, where we have the very being of God, as it were, pledged on our behalf, and with him is no variableness neither shadow of turning. Thus, then, it shows our new creature-ship, and brings us into the bond of the covenant.
Thirdly, the ultimate victory it is sure to give. 12th of Revelation: Satan came into the gospel dispensation, and brought his pious ministers with him; and they began to say, “You must keep the moral law, the moral law, the moral law; and this Stephen, we heard him say words against this holy place and the law” the old cry; “and,” said the devil, “I will have some law work; that gospel shall not have all the glory, there shall be some law work; I will be respectable, and respected.” And so the devil fought, that is, spiritually; he is a wicked spirit, and his angels, and Michael, that is, Christ, and his angels, that is, his ministers; and presently this accuser of our brethren, that accused them before God day and night, was cast out into the earth. Well now, let us see if we can understand that scripture that we are upon now; I feel very anxious that you should understand it; there are some of you little ones, the majority of you can understand it; so you must be quiet while I have just a word with the little ones that may not clearly understand that scripture. What is meant by Satan being cast into the earth, and that there was no more place found for him in heaven? It does not refer to the fall of angels; it does not refer to his original fall from heaven; but it means that Satan had been in heaven, that he had spoiled that heaven, and now comes another heaven, a new earth and a new heaven, and Satan thought he could spoil this new heaven. But in this new heaven there is something out of his reach. In the old heavens there was nothing out of his reach; he could get at the land of Canaan, but he cannot get at our land, our inheritance that is on high. He could get at the city of Jerusalem, but he cannot get at our city, the new Jerusalem. He could get at the literal temple, but he cannot get at the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. He could delude the Jews, but he cannot delude the saints of God. If it were possible, the very elect themselves should be deceived, but deceive them he cannot; for mighty as he is in his deceptions, the Holy Ghost is mightier, as the Spirit of truth. Now, says Satan, I spoiled one land, cannot I spoil another? I spoiled one city; cannot I spoil another? I burned one house; cannot I burn another? I took possession of the Jewish nation; cannot I take possession of this nation? Hearken, you wicked spirit, and hear your own defeat. The people you cannot fatally delude are a chosen generation, chosen in the deeps of eternity for eternity; they are a royal priesthood, one with the reigning power of sacrificial perfection; they are a holy nation, a peculiar, a purchased people, redeemed from all iniquity, that they should show forth the praises of him that has called them out of darkness into marvelous light; and this is marvelous light that reveals the deep counsels and eternal glories of the blessed God. Thus, then, you see he spoiled the Jewish heavens and the Jewish earth, and he has most dreadfully corrupted the New Testament dispensation; but then he cannot get at the essentials of the new covenant. He was cast out into the earth, and how did they cast him out? “By the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony.” So, they saw he was cast out. I cannot destroy the woman; I cannot touch her, as she stands arrayed in the sun, walking in the moonlight of the gospel, and prophetic testimonies culminating upon her head. There she stands, and I cannot touch her. But as she is in herself, and in the world, I will give her no peace. So, when he saw he was thus cast down, he persecuted the woman that brought forth the man-child who was to rule all nations, And that church that brings forth most of Christ will be persecuted the most. You may depend upon it there is a satanic pride in human nature that likes to hear old human nature religiously praised; but when the creature is put in his proper place, and Christ brought forward as all and in all, that is the woman Satan will persecute. “And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle,” to fly away from all erroneous systems into the wilderness; not to some great Babylonian town, not to some great Edom fortress, and say, “Do pray help us; pray help us; pray all unite together; no, not a word about it, No, she loves her husband too much for that; she leans upon no arm but the arm of her husband. “Who is this that comes out of the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?” He is there; his arm is her support; they commune by the way; he strengthens her heart, and helps her to tread Satan down under her feet. “And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood that is, bodies of people, persecutors, and death presently swallows them up, that helps the woman; reproaches and adversities, and false doctrines; and the earth shall swallow all those up; for safe the woman shall be found at last at the dear Savior's right hand; she certainly shall. “And he went to make war with the remnant of her seed," And what is it all for? Why, he is mad because he is overcome by the blood of the Lamb, because he is overcome by a means divinely appointed. And when Satan sees such a poor creature as you, a poor lame thing like you, hardly step over a straw, lay hold by precious faith of the warfare accomplished by the Savior, defy your mightiest foes, your shoes made as iron and brass, go on from strength to strength, why, says the devil! that man has not the strength of a straw, and yet he has conquered. How has he done it? By faith in the blood of the Lamb; that gives us the ultimate victory over the adversary, over adversity, and over death itself, and makes us happy for ever.
Now I had intended, but your time is nearly gone, very good thing, for I should not be able, perhaps, to describe what I wanted to describe, the intensity of devotion to God that is sure to be the consequence of a right reception of the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. Ah, my hearer, believe me if you can, the Old Testament saints did not serve God coldly; they were intensely devoted to him. “Jesus, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.” The 11th of Hebrews will say all I want to say here. See what men they were. Modern logical writers tell us that some of those heroes mentioned in the 11th of Hebrews were only natural believers, Rahab, Gideon, this is what carnal logic tells us. But mark the word of God; “Seeing,” said the divinely-inspired apostle, “we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,” let us imitate them, namely, “let us lay aside every weight,” pride, formality, “and the sin,” of unbelief, legality in contrast to the excellency of faith, “which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” So then, according to divine inspiration, Jesus Christ was the author and the finisher of their faith, Rahab, and all the rest, they all looked unto Jesus. But modern carnal logic says No; the word of God says Yes: “and what is the chaff to the wheat? said the Lord. So, the apostles, how intense was their devotion .to God! So, the martyrs; it was all by the blood of the Lamb they were so intensely devoted to God. And I believe that to be the secret of the existence of this chapel; I believe that to be the secret of that love we feel to God, and that decision for him, and our desire to have more grace, and to know him more and more, to go on to serve him with increasing ardor and delight.. Amen and Amen.