Ezekiel 20:41

I will accept you with your sweet savour.

Acceptance with God

I. What is implied in our being accepted with God.

1. It supposes a drawing near to Him on our part. Acceptance on one part implies application on the other. Our whole life should be a continual coming unto God by Christ. Duties should closely follow one another, like the successive products of the field, and even our ordinary concerns in life should be so conducted as to bring us nearer and still nearer the Lord.

2. It implies approbation and delight on God’s part. “Him that cometh unto Me,” etc.

3. When God accepts, He not only approves, but grants some visible token of His favour. “I will accept you with your sweet savour,” and you shall know it; yea, and the world shall know it.

4. Our persons must be accepted before our services can be so, and the latter are accepted for the sake of the former.

II. What must accompany our being accepted of God: “I will accept you with your sweet savour.”

1. Our approaches to God must be accompanied with spiritual and holy dispositions, or they cannot be acceptable to Him. Duties without grace in exercise are like dead caresses, not fit to be presented before the Lord.

2. Though the exercise of grace in holy duties is pleasing to God, yet they are accepted only through the sacrifice of Christ.

(1) How dreadful, then, is the state of the unregenerate!

(2) How happy for the people of God to find grace in His sight, and what encouragement to abound in holy duties!

(3) Let acceptance with God be the great object aimed at in all our religious duties, and let us rest in nothing short of it. (B. Beddome, M. A.)

Sweet savour

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; 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.)

Acceptance with God

I. The meaning of acceptance with God. It doubtless expresses that God is well pleased with us, and our obedience. That He neither rejects nor overlooks us; but observes us, and that with an approving and gracious smile.

II. The way of acceptance.

1. None of the guilty, unworthy children of men, nor any of their works, can be accepted before a holy God, and honoured with His approval and good pleasure, except for the sake of Christ.

2. None are accepted through Christ but believers. Now, by this rule are excluded

(1) Hypocrites and their works.

(2) Formalists and their works.

(3) Pharisees and their works.

3. Believers only perform such services, and are made by grace such persons, as God can approve.

III. The blessedness of acceptance and of a hope, a sense of acceptance in the soul.

IV. The crown and finish of acceptance.

V. The use of acceptance with God. To put the life of hope into our obedience; to stimulate and cheer us amidst every duty, every struggle. (Essex Remembrancer.)

Divine acceptance

I. Some remarks upon the blessing promised. Acceptance stands opposed to condemnation, and is enjoyed through faith in Christ.

1. This blessing is the grand discovery of the Gospel. It is the design and end of all God’s communications with men “God in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.”

2. It is always the result of an experience of the work of grace upon the soul. It puts the life of hope into obedience. Our persons must be accepted before our works.

3. It secures the true and right enjoyment of all temporal blessings. To a man who has no sense of God’s friendship, the best earthly enjoyments lose their charm; and to a man who has hope of pardon through Christ, all outward trims lose their sting.

4. It is essential to a victory over death and a joyful eternity.

II. Some directions for the attainment and enjoyment of this blessing.

1. Look carefully to the fact of your own acceptance of Christ, and to the sincerity of your hearts in their covenant closure with Christ. See that you take Him, with the happiness He has promised, for your All.

2. Cherish habitual and confiding thought of the freeness and riches of God’s grace through a Redeemer. This will greatly kindle that love which brings its own evidence of its truth. This will make God appear more amiable in your eyes, and then you will love Him more abundantly; and as your conscious love to Him increases your doubts and apprehensions will give way. So much love, so much comfort.

3. Every day renew your apprehensions of the truth and value of the promised felicity. Consider the end of your faith, in order to see the vain and delusive character of things below. Let not heaven lose with you its attractive force through your forgetfulness or unbelief.

4. Guard against those snares and temptations which you know to be most hurtful to the life of religion in the soul.

5. Gather up and improve your own past experience of God’s mercy towards you and others. What a wrong it is to God in your next trial to forget His last deliverance! Have not mercies come so unexpectedly, and in such a wonderful manner, that you have (as it were) the name of God written on them? (Judges 13:23). (S. Thodey.)