at the text which gave such peace to this seeking one. It begins with this
question, "Despisest thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and
longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to
repentance?" [Footnote: Rom. ii. 4.]
We little know that all the time we are working and toiling we are really
despising, turning away from the riches of His goodness. The word "riches"
shows how abundant His goodness is; therefore we are "without excuse."
God's forbearance in delaying punishment, and His longsuffering in
patiently waiting, show that His purpose in thus dealing with us is to
lead us to repentance, which is not merely grief for sin, but a thorough
inward change.
So we now know what we did not know before, that it is "the goodness of
God that leads us to repentance."
Yes, we find now that instead of working our way, back to God, He is there
close to us, with open arms to receive us, stretching out His loving Hand
to save us. We find that instead of trying to gain God's favour by our
prayers and good works, God's Righteousness is there for us all ready and
provided for us. We find that we are accepted in His dear Son not for any
good thing we have done, but simply by faith in Jesus. All this is shown
to us by the Holy Spirit, and without Him we could not have seen it.
We were speaking just now about repentance. Have you ever noticed that
when our Lord began preaching the Gospel, the first word He said was
"Repent." [Footnote: St. Matt. iv. 17.] Why did He call to the crowds so
earnestly to repent? Again and again that word keeps ringing out. He
wanted to make them see that He condemned the way they were living and
their religious professions. It was a call to stop and think, as if He
said to them, "You have lost your way, you are on the wrong road, stop and
turn round."
First He points to the right road. He proclaims that the Kingdom of God is
come. Then He says to them, But before you can enter in you must repent.
The people recognised the meaning of the call; they knew that if they
obeyed the whole course of their lives would have to be changed, because
having lost the true centre of life, they were simply _drifting_. The man
who is living without God is like a ship drifting on the wide ocean
without a pilot or chart or compass. For three years He pleaded with them
tenderly and lovingly, and at last they gave their final answer to His
message. They said, "We will not submit to the Divine government, we will
not have this Man to reign over us," [Footnote: St. Luke xix. 14.] _and so
they crucified Him_.
When we have been led by the Holy Spirit to repentance we see sin, and we
see ourselves in a new light. As soon as we really know God we cannot help
being sorry for our sin. We begin to long for a Saviour, a Mediator, and
it is then that the Holy Spirit points us to Jesus. Repentance, or change
of mind, is the first step, and then follows conversion--a change of heart
and life. The word conversion means "turning round." Jesus says,
"Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter
into the Kingdom of Heaven." [Footnote: St. Matt. xviii. 3.]
Think of God's two great gifts; first, the Gift of His only begotten Son,
then the Gift of the Holy Spirit. Have you received them? Perhaps you ask,
"How can I know?" If you have received the Holy Spirit there will be joy
and peace in your heart, and the fruits of the Spirit will be seen in your
daily life.
"Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye
may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost." [Footnote: Rom.
xv. 13.]
"And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost."
[Footnote: Acts xiii. 52.] They were filled again and again, more and more
filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
You, too, may have a Spirit-filled life. God says to you now, and He is
saying it every day and every hour, "_Be filled with the Spirit._"
[Footnote: Eph. v. 18.]
Remember there are different degrees in the Christian life. First, there
is Everlasting Life for all who seek it. Only ask Me, Jesus said to the
woman of Samaria, and I will give you _living_ water. Then he leads her on
a step further. "It shall be in you a well of water." It will be an
abundant life, a joyous, satisfying life. Afterwards He tells us that it
will be a life "overflowing for others." [Footnote: St. John vii. 38, 39.]
This is to be the experience of all believers now through the Holy Spirit.
Lastly, the crowning of it all is still to come and we shall drink of "the
pure river of the Water of Life." [Footnote: Rev. xxi. 1.]
That will be the fulness of life through all Eternity.
ADDRESS V
THE VOICE OF GOD
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE--Genesis xxviii. 10-22.
Jacob is leaving home for the first time, to take a long journey of 450
miles. He is quite alone and he feels very lonely when he lies down the
first night in a barren place, with a stone for his pillow. Jacob was like
some of us, he had heard about God ever since he was a child, but God was
not real to him because he had never had any personal dealings with Him.
That night he had a wonderful dream, and it made a great difference to his
whole life. The ladder which he saw in his dream was to show him that
there was a gulf between him and God: and the gulf was caused by his sins.
It also showed the necessity for some means of communication to be
provided for him. Right down to his deep need the ladder came, right up to
God Himself the ladder reached. It was set up on earth and it reached to
heaven to make him understand that the gulf had been bridged over, so that
now, constant, free communication was possible between his soul and God.
The ladder which Jacob saw in his dream is mentioned again in St. John's
Gospel. Jesus said to Nathaniel, "Because I said unto thee I saw thee
under the fig tree, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than
these. And He saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye
shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon
the Son of man." [Footnote: St. John i. 50, 51.]
The Lord Jesus had been revealing Himself to Nathaniel and this
conversation took place near Bethel, so that the reference to Jacob's
ladder was very forcible and the wonderful type was made clear.
When Jesus said that heaven would be opened, He meant not only opened just
once, but _remaining open_; so that ever since Christ ascended into heaven
we have lived and are still living under an "open heaven," which means
free intercourse between God and man, because Christ Himself is the
Ladder. It also means He is the one and only means of communication
between the sinner and God. It is "through Him we have access by one
Spirit unto the Father." [Footnote: Eph. ii. 18.] All that we know of God
comes to us through Him, and all the grace we receive from God comes
through Him. So Jacob's ladder is as real to us now as it was to him then,
for it connects the seen with the unseen. It is possible for us now to
have Christ's Presence with us always and everywhere, for He says Lo, I am
with you alway. [Footnote: Matt. xxviii. 20.]
But there was something more wonderful for Jacob to see even than the
ladder. "The LORD stood above the ladder." It was the first time in his
life he had realised the Presence of God. He had lived over forty years
without realising that God was close to him. When he awoke from his dream
he said, "Surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not." He never
forgot it, just as we never forget the time and place where we are
converted. One hundred years after that night, when he was a very old man,
he mentioned it to his son. He said to Joseph, "God Almighty appeared unto
me at Luz and blessed me." [Footnote: Gen. xlviii. 3.]
But what impressed him deeply was that _there_ in that lonely place, many
miles away from any human being, he heard the Voice of God speaking to
him. It was then that a new life began in his soul, for God told him that
from that moment He would be with him _everywhere_, blessing him and
protecting him from all danger, and it was then Jacob began to trust God
as his _God_.
So we see how God's glory and God's grace were shining down from the top
of the ladder into poor Jacob's heart. Jacob was face to face with God for
the first time, and he began to tremble with fear. If only you could
realise that God is now, at this very moment, straight in front of you,
you would fall down on your face before Him, and you would cry to Him as
Job did, "I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye
seeth Thee; wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes."
[Footnote: Job xlii. 5, 6.]
It is at this moment that we realise for the first time our need of a
substitute, just as Job did, for he said, "He is not a man as I am that I
should answer Him, neither is there any daysman betwixt us that can lay
His hand upon us both." [Footnote: Job ix. 33.] How Job would have
rejoiced in the glorious revelation which Christ has brought to us. "There
is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,
Who gave Himself a ransom for all." [Footnote: 1 Tim. ii. 5, 6.] He is not
only the Mediator laying His hand upon us both, but He _gave Himself_,
that is, He gave His life as a _ransom_. The ransom price was His own
precious blood, for the life is in the blood. It is the Blood of God's own
dear Son which makes an atonement for the soul.
The sentence passed on you and me and on every sinner is the sentence of
death, for death is the penalty for sin. We are all under the sentence of
death, but the glorious message is sent God has found a Substitute.
"He bore on the tree the sentence for me,
And now both the Surety and sinner are free."
You and I now have what Job longed for so earnestly. The Daysman is the
Son of God Himself, "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation," that
is an atoning sacrifice, "through faith in His Blood." [Footnote: Rom.
iii. 25.]
At first Jacob trembled with fear, but after he had heard the loving words
which God spoke to him from the top of that wonderful ladder, then he
began to realise that he was no longer alone in that lonely place. He
said, "This is the house of God, this is the gate of heaven." Earth had
faded from his sight and he was surrounded by heavenly realities. And so
it is now, the veil is very thin which separates earth from heaven, the
temporal from the Eternal.
It was _God's Voice_ which woke him up spiritually. God revealed Himself
as the personal God to Jacob. We can recognise a friend by his voice even
if we do not see him. So it is the Voice more than anything else which
makes the presence of any one real to us. We have an illustration of this
in the pictures of the gramophone in which we see a dog listening for the
master's voice. The sheep knows the shepherd's voice; the child is quick
in recognizing its mother's voice; why do we turn a deaf ear to God's
Voice? How tenderly He pleads with us, saying, "But My people would not
hearken to My Voice." [Footnote: Ps. lxxxxi. 11.]
God wants to be very real and very personal to each one of us, so He says,
"Unto you, O men, I call, and My Voice is to the sons of man." [Footnote:
Prov. viii. 4.]
God has been calling us from the very beginning. Far back in the 3rd
chapter of Genesis, when Adam was hiding among the trees of the garden, it
was God's Voice which called him out with the searching question, Where
art thou? It was as if He said, "Adam, I want you." He is the seeking God
still. It was God's Voice that reminded Adam of the holy, happy friendship
now broken by sin. Before sin came into the world Adam never listened to
any other voice, and now when God is yearning to bring us to Himself, He
says, "Listen." That word Listen, or Hearken, comes again and again in the
Bible. We find it very often in Isaiah and Jeremiah. When God is pleading
with the sinner, that is the word He uses more than any other. In Psalm
lxxxi., where God tells us how grieved He is by our waywardness, He says,
"Oh that My people had listened or hearkened unto Me." And in Deuteronomy
xxviii. 45, He tells them that their troubles have been sent because they
would not hearken to the Voice of the Lord their God.
I think God has chosen this special way of calling us by His Voice,
because it is what we can all understand--it is so simple and so homely.
When a boy is disobedient the father calls him, then he talks to him and
pleads with him. The father's voice touches the boy's heart. How wonderful
it is that God's Voice can reach us, however far off we may be. You have
sometimes been to an Open-Air Service, and you have heard the speaker's
voice a good way off, but now it has been discovered that any one's voice
can travel through the air and be heard above 300 miles away by means of a
new apparatus called the wireless telephone.
Some time ago a gentleman living in England put a special receiver to his
ear and he actually heard a man speaking in France, more than 300 miles
away.
A year or two ago when the _Titanic_ went down among the icebergs, you
remember how the wireless telegraph sent messages to other ships calling
for help. This was done by special letters, flashed across the ocean, such
as C.Q.D. (come quick, danger) or when the ship was sinking S.O.S. (save
our souls).
But wonderful as this is, how much more wonderful it is to discover a way
by which any one's voice can be heard miles and miles away. Very likely as
time goes on and the wireless telephone is more used, you will be able to
speak to your father or son far away in Australia or Canada, so that they
will not only hear your voice distinctly, but they will answer back, and
you will hear their voices just as if you were sitting together again at
home. What a wonderful thing it will be to have this close link with them!
It is the same as the link which Jacob felt when he heard God's voice
speaking; it seemed to bring God quite close to him and to make God so
real, that he started again on his journey cheered and encouraged; for we
read in the first verse of the next chapter, "Then Jacob went on his
journey," and in the margin it says he lifted up his feet, showing his
heart was lightened of its burden: when the heart is heavy, our feet drag.
But he made a fresh start: and if only God's Voice reaches your heart now,
you will go on your way rejoicing; it will be like making a fresh start.
Again and again we read of God talking to those who were willing to hear
His Voice. For example, "The LORD talked with Moses face to face as a man
speaketh unto his friend," [Footnote: Exod. xxxiii. 9, 11.] and at Mount
Sinai "Moses spake and God answered him by a Voice."
Not only is the link of communication perfect between God and man, but the
way in which we can use it and be put in touch with God is so simple: it
is by faith--that is all.
We have another illustration of this when we think of the wireless
messages. The world's greatest wireless station is in a little village
called Nassau, in Germany. A short time ago a message was sent to a place
far, far away over the ocean, 6,500 miles away. How was it started? Only
by touching a key in the machine. That touch releases the lightning which
carries a message for thousands of miles over vast continents and across
the boundless sea.
Only a touch--is it not like the touch of faith? But we must not forget
that when the message has reached its destination, when these waves of
sound talk across the world, the ear at the other end must be prepared to
hear the call.
There is the hearing of faith, as well as the touch of faith. The hearing
means not only listening, but being willing to obey the voice. I have been
told that when a message is to be sent by wireless telephone, the other
waves of sound must be quite still before the person receiving the message
can hear it. The speaker has to wait till the vibrations settle down,
there must be perfect stillness, and then the voice is heard. How
important it is to shut out all other sounds so that our hearts may be
still enough to hear God speak. We must listen with an obedient heart. Do
you remember how one Sunday was set apart not long ago to make collections
for the blind. At midnight on Saturday, a royal message was sent forth
which encircled the whole world. It was King George's "God speed" to the
appeal for the blind. It was flashed from the wireless station on a lonely
cliff in Cornwall to another station in America, and it went over the
seven oceans of the world. It was received by forty-five ships in the
Atlantic. They were all warned it was coming and they were expecting it.
The White Star liner _Baltic_, 810 miles away, heard it, and it travelled
on to India, and it was caught up there 1,500 miles away.
This reminds me of another royal message from the King of kings which is
also encircling the world and telling the good news wherever man is
willing to hear it. "He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit
saith unto the Churches." [Footnote: Rev. ii. 7.] How the solemn call
rings out, and rings on: To-day, To-day! How it sounds in our ears with
startling urgency, and it is the Holy Ghost who says it, "To-day, if you
will hear His Voice, harden not your heart." [Footnote: Heb. iii. 7.]
When we are careless and indifferent to what God's Voice is saying to us
then we are hardening our hearts.
Perhaps in days gone by you once listened to God's Voice. Why did you give
up listening? "Ah!" you reply, "other voices came and drowned that still
small Voice, and the voice of the Evil One poisoned my mind."
Let me ask you one more question, Has God's Voice ever stopped calling?
No, God is still calling. Oh, that now at this very moment you may be able
to say, "The Voice of God has reached my heart." If any of you turn a deaf
ear to God's Voice, remember the time is coming when "all who are in the
graves shall hear His Voice and shall come forth"; [Footnote: St. John. v.
25.] and to you it will be a coming forth to judgment and condemnation.
How does God speak to us now? We can hear the Voice of God speaking in His
Word. When any portion of Scripture is specially impressed on our minds it
shows that God is speaking to us. A young man who had been seeking God
very earnestly said one day, "While reading the Word, I felt certain that
God had really spoken to my soul, that He had actually said to me, Live!"
Yes, that young man was right, for that is just what God has said to us,
but it makes all the difference whether we each one receive it as if God
is really saying it to us personally. Luther felt this, for he used to
say, "When I open the Bible it talks to me."
Why is the Bible like no other book? Because it is the revelation of God
Himself. The glory of God shines in its pages. In life and in death the
only source of comfort is a Personal God. Our great need is to have
God personally near, _near and dear_. Never rest till you can look up into
His Face with confidence and say, "Thou art near, O Lord." [Footnote: Ps.
cxix. 151.]
He is saying to you now, "Seek ye my Face." [Footnote: Ps. xxvii. 8.]
What answer will you give? Will you say to God now, "Thy Face, Lord, will
I seek." When we seek His Face, then we see "the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ." [Footnote: 2 Cor. iv. 6.] How grand it all is, and yet
how simple!
Let me say one word of loving appeal to any who have never really sought
the Lord. How is it that you say your prayers and yet you do not expect to
get an answer direct from God? Because, like Jacob, you have never
believed there is a God. You have not got hold of the first truth which
the Bible teaches us, _God is_; "He that cometh to God must believe that
HE IS." [Footnote: Heb. xi. 6.] When you pray, He must be as real to you
as if you saw Him standing by hearing and answering you. Until our eyes
are opened to see that death and judgment, heaven and hell, are great
realities we do not really cry to God, and when we do we find out that we
have never realised there is a God. Think of what God offers to you.
Forgiveness, life and glory. Would you neglect getting these priceless
gifts if you believed they were the real offers of a real Person? "What
meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God." [Footnote: Jonah i.
6.]
ADDRESS VI
THE HANDS OF GOD
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE--St. John xx. 19-31.
Why has this Gospel been written? The last verse of this chapter tells us.
"It has been written that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son
of God, and that believing we may have life through His Name."
In the Old Testament when "The Name" is mentioned it meant the unveiling
of the grace and glory and power of God. So we read men called upon "The
Name"--and in the New Testament when the Divine glory of Christ is
described we find the same expression, "His Name." It means His nature and
His character.
In the verse which we have just read, the wonderful truth shines out that
it is through His Name, through all that He is, and all He has done, that
we have _life_. So Christ Himself declares, "My sheep hear My Voice and I
know them and they follow Me, and I give unto them Eternal life, and they
shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My Hand. My
Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all, and no man is able to
pluck them out of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one."
[Footnote: St. John x. 27-30.]
Christ first speaks of His own hand and then of His Father's hand, so
there are two hands which hold us fast and keep us safe, now and for ever.
Let us look at what is said about the Hands of God in the Bible.
Think of God's Hands in creation. The Psalmist says, "Of old hast Thou
laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of Thy
hands." [Footnote: Psa. cii. 25.] "The sea is His and He made it: and His
hands formed the dry land." [Footnote: Ps. xcv. 5.]
Think of His strong Hands in Providence, as Moses said, "Thy right hand, O
LORD, is become glorious in power." [Footnote: Exod. xv. 6.]
Nehemiah speaks again and again of "the good hand of my God upon me,"
[Footnote: Neh. ii. 8.] when he tells us of all God's loving help and
guidance in the difficult work he had undertaken.
Think again of God's loving Hands in grace, healing the broken in heart
and binding up their wounds. How safe David felt when he said, "Thy right
hand upholdeth me." [Footnote: Ps. lxiii. 8.] He shows his confidence in
God when he prays, "Hold Thou me up and I shall be safe." [Footnote: Ps.
cxix. 117.] When your child wants you to hold him up he slips his little
hand in yours, doesn't he? Have you ever put your weak hand into God's
strong loving Hand so as to let Him do the holding up?
The saints in olden times felt God's Hand in everything, over-ruling,
planning, guiding, and Jesus assures us of the perfect safety and
everlasting security of the believer, for He says, "No one, either man or
devil, can pluck them out of My hand, nor shall any man be able to pluck
them out of My Father's hand;" [Footnote: St. John x. 28, 29.] so there
are two Divine Hands holding us fast.
Think once more of the hands of God: not only strong hands to help and to
heal, but _redeeming_ hands, mighty to save; hands that have been in the
fire to pluck us out of the burning; hands that have laid hold of the
enemy and have overcome him; hands that have unlocked the gates of a new
life that we may enter in.
Not long ago a little girl was caressing her dear old nurse, and when she
caught sight of the deep scars in her hands she asked, "How did you get
these scars?" The nurse looked at her very tenderly and then she said,
"When you were a baby, a fire broke out one night when you were asleep in
your cot. I plunged my hands into the flames and lifted you out." The
child's eyes were full of tears as she looked at the dear scarred hands,
the hands that had been wounded to save her.