Surrender. This is the meaning of obedience, in the passage. It must not be confounded with the holy and loving obedience of the child of God walking in his Father’s footsteps, for it is rather the surrender of the once rebellious heart when it receives Christ as its Saviour and King. It is the obedience described in Acts, vi. 7, where it is said that ‘a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.’ It was the faith to which they were obedient: not the law. They received the message of life, and yielded themselves unto the Lord. It is the obedience of Saul of Tarsus, when, having hated, opposed, and persecuted, he gave up in complete surrender, and said, ‘Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?’ And here lies the great difficulty with a great number. If there be the true separation unto God, there must be surrender, for it is a sanctification unto obedience; and there is no denying that the heart oftentimes recoils from it. Oh, how near have some come,—how beautifully near! almost like the young man whom Jesus loved. But that young man went back after all. He went away very sorrowful; but still he went. I hope you may not do the same! But I stand in doubt of some of you, for though almost, you are not yet altogether: though near, you are not within; though earnest, not yet safe. And why? There is no submission: you cannot give up. There are old prejudices, old thoughts, old likes and dislikes, old confidences; and you cannot make up your mind to give all up, and to surrender your whole soul into the hands of your Lord and Saviour. Yet think what a blessing there is connected with such surrender: nothing less than ‘the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.’ That sprinkling is the personal application of the great atonement to the individual soul. The shedding of the blood was a public act, which might or might not be effectual to individuals; but the sprinkling of it is altogether a personal matter. It is the application to the individual of the great atonement made for every man. So that those who are thus sanctified, or set apart unto God, are set apart unto the sacred privilege of having their sins blotted out for ever; and those who have been brought by the Holy Ghost to the obedience of the faith, are in their own souls sprinkled with the blood of Christ. Not only do they know that there is a fountain open for sin and for uncleanness, but they themselves are cleansed by it, and walk before God in the sacred peace of full forgiveness and perfect love.