Methinks I see the great Shepherd now, and there are all his sheep. They have been wandering. They have got into a dark glen in the mountains and a snow-storm is coming on, and he goes to seek them. There they are. The grim spirit of the tempest, the Prince of the power of the air meets him, and says, “Back, shepherd! What dost thou here?” “I have come to reclaim my own.” “They are not thine now,” saith he, “they have strayed into my grounds and they are mine, not thine.” “Nay, fiend,” saith he, “they are mine; they have my blood-mark on them; they were given me of my Divine Father, and I am bound by solemn obligations to keep ever one of hem safely.” “Thou shalt not have them,” saith the fiend. “I must, I will,” saith he. They fought and the good Shepherd he overcame. He dashed down the enemy and trod him underfoot, and crushed him—crushed the serpent. Then the serpent with wily craft replied, “They are thine—thine, I confess, and I will give thee some of hem—the fattest of them.” “Nay,” saith he, “Nay, fiend, I have bought them all, and I will have them all.” And there they come, a goodly company; but he keeps back a few. “They are not all here,” says the Shepherd, “and I will have all.” “But,” saith the fiend, “there are some of them that are speckled sheep, and some that are black and diseased; dost thou want them? Let me have a few at least.” “No,” saith he, “No; I must have the black ones, the speckled ones, the diseased ones: let them all come. Fiend, stand back, let them come I tell thee, or my right arm shall fell thee to he ground again.” And now they all come but one, and Satan says, “Nay, but this is such a little one; this is so weak. Thou wouldst not have such a shrivelled, scabby one as this in thy bright flock, thou fair Shepherd of God.” “Ay,” saith he, “but sooner than lose one of hem I will die again, and shed my blood once more to buy it back. Avaunt! All that my Father gave me I will have.” And now methinks I see him in the last tremendous day when the sheep pass again under the hand of him that telleth them. He cries, “Of all thou hast given me, I have lost none. They have none of them perished. The lion has not devoured them, nor has the cold destroyed them. I have brought them all safely here, “not a hoof is left behind.”
III. The third point was to be this—Jesus Christ will not only have all of a man, and all the men he bought, but he will have ALL THAT EVER BELONGED TO ALL THESE MEN. That is to say, all that Adam lost, Christ will win back; all that we fell from in Adam, Christ will restore us to, and that without the diminution of a single jot or tittle. Not an inch of Paradise shall be given up, nor even a handful of its dust resigned. Christ will have all, or else he will have none—”Not a hoof shall be left behind.” Very briefly let me run through a short list of all those precious things which we lost in Adam. And first, with reference to God. Christ’s blood-bought own image, in our own likeness,” saith God. Alas! that likeness has been defiled and debased. Like the king’s superscription on the coinage, which has been worn for many a year, you cannot tell whose image and superscription it now is. Ay, but we shall have that back again. God will re-stamp his precious things; re-engrave his name upon his gems, and we shall wear the likeness of God as Adam did, when he came fresh from his Maker’s hand. We have lost, too, as we know to our cost, by nature the divine favour; God loved Adam, he showed that love to him, but when Adam sinned, though God was merciful, he could not show love to one who had become a rebel; I mean—not the love of complacency—though the love of benevolence never ceased for a moment. Ay, but God delighteth in his people now in Christ. Christ hath gotten back for us the full light of God’s favour. The sun shone on Adam full-orbed, and it will not shine on us with less brithness. God loved Adam very tenderly, but he loves us just as much. We have gotten back the two divine privileges of heavenly likeness and heavenly favour. But you will remember, also, Adam had the celestial boon of divine fellowship: “The Lord God walked with Adam in the garden in the cool of the day.” And some of you know what it is to have that back again, for he has walked with us, and God has talked to his people till our eyes have shone, and our hearts have been ready to break for very joy. Our poor weak body was not able to contain its overflowing bliss. Christ will get back for his people all the likeness of God, all the favour of God, and all the fellowship with God, of which Satan robbed them. Not a particle less shall they have, but I think I may venture to say even more, for God loved Adam for Adam’s sake; he loves you and me for Christ’s sake, and that is a better motive; a higher, a deeper, and grander consideration, than even loving a man for his own sake. Because of his only begotten and well beloved Son, he loves all his people with an infinite, unfailing affection. This is the first part of the inheritance which we lost, and which Christ will get us back.
Then again, Adam lost happiness, and we have lost it too, and we have become the heirs of sorrow, and like our Master we are acquainted with grief. Ay, but he will get us back our happiness; we have had some portion of it already. That well of living water, into which Satan cast a great stone so that it could not spring up, Christ has rolled away the stone, and now we drink the water, whereof, if a man drink, he shall never thirst, and shall never need to go to earthly fountains to draw. Oh! Courage, courage, Christian, in all thy sorrows, Christ will win thee back that glorious happiness which Adam lost for thee. Besides, you all know that in Adam we lost the right to live. “In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.” Man became a dying soul, and not a living soul any more. But Christ has brought life and immortality to light by the gospel, and because he lives, we shall live also.
And yet again, Adam of old was king. Wherever he went there was a dignity about him, that made the lordly lion crouch and lick his feet; the birds of the air did him homage; he bade the fish of the sea leap in their waters, and they did it for he was king—God’s crowned cherub who walked in the garden of Eden like a king in his palaces. But now, what are ? The servants of servants; toiling creatures that wipe the sweat from our face, and strain our nerves, and empty out our veins with labour. Ay, but that dignity is restored already to the people of God, for he hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus our Lord. And visibly shall that dignity come back to us, when the leopard shall lie down with the kid; when the lion shall eat straw, like the ox, and man on earth shall be lord of the creation just as he was of old. Master of the sea—leviathan, shall do his bidding, and Behemoth shall stay him in his course to hasten to the voice of puny, but redeemed man. We shall have back I believe everything that Adam had, and much more. “Not a hoof shall be left behind.”
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
