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Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit
Volume 12 Spurgeon Gems - Sermons of Charles Spurgeon & Other Treasures of God's Truth 1
1
SWEET SAVOR
NO. 688
DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, APRIL 29, 1866,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
“I will accept you with your sweet savor.”
Ezekiel 20:41.
GOD does not cease to observe the sins of His people. As the eyes of Moses never waxed dim, so the eyes of God do
not grow dim with regard to the sins of His chosen. We may learn this from the recapitulation of those offenses which we
find in the chapter before us and in many other places in Scripture. He looks down from Heaven and beholds their
wanderings, the hardness of their hearts, the stubbornness of their will, their daily and continual violations of His
statutes and commands. Mercy has some other source than that of laxness in the memory of God. He knows the sins of
man and He hates the sins of His people just as much as the sins of other men. No, if there are 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 ever can, He freely pardons those whom He reserves. He casts their sins behind His back and remembers not
their iniquity. He blots out their transgression like a cloud, and their iniquities like a thick cloud. He has a time to
chasten but He has also a set time to bless. He afflicts, but He does not afflict from the heart. And when He turns in a way
of Grace to His people, He then seems to be flying on the wings of the wind for He comes with all His soul most heartily
and richly to display His favor and His love toward the objects of His choice.
One would have thought that the persons described in this chapter never would have been acceptable to God. They
had so thoroughly defiled themselves, and after so many trials had been so desperately incorrigible, that one would have
supposed the chapter would have concluded with thunderbolts of vengeance and a terrible voice condemning them to be
driven forever from the face of the Most High. Instead of this it concludes with mercy! The trumpet ceases its loud swell,
and the melodious tone of the harp is heard in gentle notes of melody. The thunder and the lightning are over, the storm
is past, and the still small voice, in refreshing calm, proclaims the infinite pardon that proceeds from a tender Father’s
heart.
Our text seems to me very full of fatness. Its savor will be doubtless passing sweet to those who have grace to
appreciate it. We shall contemplate it in two lights. First we have a promise that the persons of His people shall be
accepted as a sweet savor. Sinners are accepted through the merits of Christ: “I will accept you with your sweet savor.” I
cannot accept you otherwise, but I will accept you thus. Then, secondly (which is more consistent with the context), we
are assured that our offerings shall be accepted—“I will accept you with your sweet savor.” I will not only love and
receive you, but I will also receive your worship and your service.
Your sweet savor, those same things which once you offered to idols, you shall from now on bring as an offering to
Me and when I have accepted you and you are reconciled to Me, then I will accept your good works and your prayers, and
your praises, too.
I. First of all, as being the fundamental evidence of Divine Grace, THE LORD ACCEPTS THE PERSONS OF HIS
PEOPLE THROUGH THE SWEET SAVOR OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. The merits of our great Redeemer are
sweet savor in the nostrils of the Most High. Whether we speak of the active or passive righteousness of Christ there is
alike an overpowering fragrance. Such was the merit of His active life by which He honored 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 as He endured with unmurmuring submission, hunger and thirst, cold
and nakedness—and with the ever-deepening stream of sorrow—and at length yielded to that unknown agony when He
sweat great drops of blood in Gethsemane. And then when He gave His back to the smiters and His cheeks to them that
plucked out His hair. He stretched His hands to the nails and was fastened to the cruel wood that He might suffer the Sweet Savor Sermon #688
Spurgeon Gems - Sermons of Charles Spurgeon & Other Treasures of God's Truth Volume 12
2
2
wrath of God on our behalf. These two things are sweet before the Most High, and for the sake of His doing and His
dying, His substitutionary sufferings and His vicarious obedience, the Lord God of infinite Justice accepts us with the
sweet savor of Christ.
Volume 12 Spurgeon Gems - Sermons of Charles Spurgeon & Other Treasures of God's Truth 1
1
SWEET SAVOR
NO. 688
DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, APRIL 29, 1866,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
“I will accept you with your sweet savor.”
Ezekiel 20:41.
GOD does not cease to observe the sins of His people. As the eyes of Moses never waxed dim, so the eyes of God do
not grow dim with regard to the sins of His chosen. We may learn this from the recapitulation of those offenses which we
find in the chapter before us and in many other places in Scripture. He looks down from Heaven and beholds their
wanderings, the hardness of their hearts, the stubbornness of their will, their daily and continual violations of His
statutes and commands. Mercy has some other source than that of laxness in the memory of God. He knows the sins of
man and He hates the sins of His people just as much as the sins of other men. No, if there are 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 ever can, He freely pardons those whom He reserves. He casts their sins behind His back and remembers not
their iniquity. He blots out their transgression like a cloud, and their iniquities like a thick cloud. He has a time to
chasten but He has also a set time to bless. He afflicts, but He does not afflict from the heart. And when He turns in a way
of Grace to His people, He then seems to be flying on the wings of the wind for He comes with all His soul most heartily
and richly to display His favor and His love toward the objects of His choice.
One would have thought that the persons described in this chapter never would have been acceptable to God. They
had so thoroughly defiled themselves, and after so many trials had been so desperately incorrigible, that one would have
supposed the chapter would have concluded with thunderbolts of vengeance and a terrible voice condemning them to be
driven forever from the face of the Most High. Instead of this it concludes with mercy! The trumpet ceases its loud swell,
and the melodious tone of the harp is heard in gentle notes of melody. The thunder and the lightning are over, the storm
is past, and the still small voice, in refreshing calm, proclaims the infinite pardon that proceeds from a tender Father’s
heart.
Our text seems to me very full of fatness. Its savor will be doubtless passing sweet to those who have grace to
appreciate it. We shall contemplate it in two lights. First we have a promise that the persons of His people shall be
accepted as a sweet savor. Sinners are accepted through the merits of Christ: “I will accept you with your sweet savor.” I
cannot accept you otherwise, but I will accept you thus. Then, secondly (which is more consistent with the context), we
are assured that our offerings shall be accepted—“I will accept you with your sweet savor.” I will not only love and
receive you, but I will also receive your worship and your service.
Your sweet savor, those same things which once you offered to idols, you shall from now on bring as an offering to
Me and when I have accepted you and you are reconciled to Me, then I will accept your good works and your prayers, and
your praises, too.
I. First of all, as being the fundamental evidence of Divine Grace, THE LORD ACCEPTS THE PERSONS OF HIS
PEOPLE THROUGH THE SWEET SAVOR OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. The merits of our great Redeemer are
sweet savor in the nostrils of the Most High. Whether we speak of the active or passive righteousness of Christ there is
alike an overpowering fragrance. Such was the merit of His active life by which He honored 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 as He endured with unmurmuring submission, hunger and thirst, cold
and nakedness—and with the ever-deepening stream of sorrow—and at length yielded to that unknown agony when He
sweat great drops of blood in Gethsemane. And then when He gave His back to the smiters and His cheeks to them that
plucked out His hair. He stretched His hands to the nails and was fastened to the cruel wood that He might suffer the Sweet Savor Sermon #688
Spurgeon Gems - Sermons of Charles Spurgeon & Other Treasures of God's Truth Volume 12
2
2
wrath of God on our behalf. These two things are sweet before the Most High, and for the sake of His doing and His
dying, His substitutionary sufferings and His vicarious obedience, the Lord God of infinite Justice accepts us with the
sweet savor of Christ.