viii. 14. _And He shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone
of stumbling, &c._
In God "we live, and move, and have our being." We cannot be
independent of, or indifferent to, Him, as we can in regard to some
of our fellow-men. There can be no neutrality between Him and us. We
must be obedient or disobedient to Him, and therefore we must find in
Him our refuge or our ruin--our helper or our destroyer. That this
vast truth may be received in our minds, let us take it somewhat in
detail.
+I. We have to do with God in Nature.+ It is His world we live in;
and all its substances and forces are things which He hath made, and
intends to be used according to His plans. Nay, He acts in them,[1]
in them He is willing to be our ally, but not our slave. We cannot
use Him to carry into effect our whims and fancies, as the old
magicians were said to use the genii supposed to be under their
control. God is of one mind, He changeth not; what is called "the
uniformity of the laws of nature" is one manifestation of His
unchangeableness; and that unchangeableness is most merciful
(H. E. I. 3156, 3157, 3173-3177). If we fall in with His laws of
nature, all nature is on our side; wind and tide then combine to bear
us into our desired haven; but if we will not do so, the very stones
of the field will be in league against us (Job v. 23; H. E. I. 3172,
4612).[2] _E.g.,_ gravitation. If a builder comply with the demands
of this great law, it will give stability to his structure; but if
not, from the very moment they are departed from, it will begin to
pull down the hut or the palace he has builded. So with all the other
substances and forces by which we are surrounded; they are for us or
against us: there is no neutrality possible.
+II. We have to do with God in Providence.+ Not only are we in this
world, but whether we like or not, we are under His government. He
has laid down laws for our guidance, as communities and as
individuals. These laws are vast and comprehensive; they cover every
realm of activity and relationship of life; it is impossible for us
to find ourselves in any place or circumstances in which some of them
are not in force. If we obey them, they will be our helpers; if we
disobey them, they will be our destroyers: obey one, and all others
stand ready to befriend us; disobey one, and more manifestly all
others become hostile to us. Illustrate--1. _Communities._ The law of
frugality. The law of freedom of exchange. The supreme law for every
nation is, that God shall be acknowledged as the supreme ruler, _His_
will done, His protection sought and trusted in. It was this law that
Ahaz and his people were setting at defiance (chap. vii.), and God
forewarned them that He would not stand idly by and see it broken
(chap. vii. 17-20). If any nation commit itself to a godless policy,
it may achieve a transient triumph thereby (ver. 6), but disaster is
inevitable (ver. 7). It may be delayed, but it is only that it may
come in more awful form. United States of America: their maintenance
of slavery when England abolished it, and their civil war.
2. _Individuals._ The comprehensive law (Matt. vii. 12): if a man
obey it, the very constitution of society fights for him; if he
disobey it, that same constitution fights against him. From God, as
the God of Providence, we cannot escape; we must have to do with Him
as friend or foe. Those men who deliberately put Him out of their
thoughts and plans find it so: just when they seem to themselves to
be triumphing in their godless courses, they stumble against Him
unawares. They are snared and taken in the great retributive laws of
His universe.
+III. We have to do with God in Redemption.+ In Christ, God is
revealed, and therefore we are not to be surprised when we see this
great Old Testament truth conspicuously illustrated in Him. In the
New Testament we are distinctly taught that neutrality in regard to
Christ is impossible (Matt. xii. 30; 2 Cor. ii. 16; Matt.
xxii. 37-44). Not to accept His salvation, is to reject it; not to
submit to His authority, is to rebel against it. We cannot choose
whether we will have to do with Christ or not! All that we can decide
is the nature of the relationship that shall subsist between us. We
can make Him our sanctuary, and then all blessing is ours; or we can
refuse to do this, and then He becomes to us a stumbling-block and a
snare. Not as the result of any vindictive action on His part, but as
the inevitable result of the working of our own nature and of the
constitution of the universe. 1. The phrase, "Gospel-hardened,"
represents a terrible reality (H. E. I. 2439-2442). 2. By our
rejection of Christ, and consequent rebellion against His authority,
we put ourselves on the side of those powers of evil which He is
pledged to destroy, and then His very Almightiness, which would have
insured our salvation, becomes our ruin, just as the very same force
of wind and wave, which would carry a vessel rightly steered into the
desired haven, hurls it when wrongly steered as a miserable wreck on
the rocks outside.
Thus, in all the realms of life, we must have God with us or against
us; and if God be against us, we have cause to lament that He is
God--a being whom we cannot resist, from whom we cannot escape.
Therefore, 1. _Let us recognise what the realities of our position
are._ Let us not go on to eternal ruin through ignorance or
heedlessness. 2. _Let us make God our "sanctuary."_ We may do this.
He invites us to do it. Having done it, everything in Him that
otherwise would terrify us will be to us a cause of joy (Rom. v. 11).