GOD’S WAYS
Paul A Gray
Ezekiel 1: 19-21
John 12: 32
Ephesians 2: 3-7
1 Thessalonians 4: 15-18
There is concern in the world at the present time about the health of nations because of a virus that is spreading, and it is right that there should be concern, and that attention is paid to what the authorities advise and instruct; but what I have read about is intended to encourage and strengthen us in the fact that God’s ways are in no way constrained by what is proceeding on the earth. Man is constrained by what proceeds here, but God knows “the end from the beginning” (Isa 46: 10), and He is not obliged to act in a particular way on account of conditions here. The living creatures are referred to in Ezekiel 1, and what I wanted to convey from that scripture is particularly set out in verse 19, “when the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up”; they were not constrained by what was proceeding on the earth. They were in contact with it from time to time as necessary in the ways of God, but there was nothing the earth could do to hold them. “When the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up”, and so it is with God. He knows perfectly what is happening here on earth; He understands it, knowing “the end from the beginning”; but He is neither constrained nor obliged by circumstances. He goes on with His ways. His purposes were set in a past eternity; He "works all things according to the counsel of his own will” (Eph 1: 11); and His ways are intended to draw men to Him.
We read in Acts that He has “determined ordained times and the boundaries of their dwelling, that they may seek God; if indeed they might feel after him and find him, although he is not far from each one of us”, chap 17: 26, 27. It may be that through the conditions that prevail at the moment persons will seek after God and, if they do, they will find Him. He is not hiding Himself. Paul the apostle says in his testimony before king Agrippa, “for this was not done in a corner”, Acts 26: 26. God is very well able to make Himself available to men. We were reminded in the preaching on Lord’s day that Christ has been “set forth a mercy-seat”, Rom 3: 25. Mercy has been put as near to men as God could righteously make it. Think of that! In the past dispensation of law the mercy-seat was concealed behind a curtain and accessible only once a year; now God’s mercy is right there for you to reach out in faith and accept “through faith in his blood”.
These wheels are living and they are able to proceed, and then it says, “When those went, they went; and when those stood, they stood”. There were moments when they stood still. God is entitled to do that too. He is neither constrained to move nor constrained to cease moving by what is proceeding here.
In John we have a great Object for our affections: the Lord is lifted up out of the earth: “I, if I be lifted up out of the earth, will draw all to me”. Not only do we have the assurance that God is not constrained by the earth, but we have an Object that is lifted up out of the earth, and that Object is Christ. His place is unassailable. We read that He “sat down in perpetuity” (Heb 10: 12); we read that He is “priest for ever” (Heb 5: 6); and we should be encouraged by the fact that the One whom God has set at His right hand is in a place that nothing of this creation can assail. How could creation assail it for it was all made by Him in the first place? He is greater than everything, greater even than death. Death is a creature; we are told that, “neither death … nor any other creature …”, Rom 8: 38, 39. We are told that “The last enemy that is annulled is death”, 1 Cor 15: 26. It will be put in its place when it has done its work, but Christ’s place is unassailable. The question is, have you been drawn to Him? Is your life in stability or are you in a state of uncertainty? There is no uncertainty connected with Christ; there is no uncertainty connected with the Lord Jesus. Everything connected with Him is certain and sure. Even when He was here as man He said, “I have completed the work which thou gavest me that I should do it”, John 17: 4. Everything is certain in Christ. God’s purpose is “to head up all things in the Christ” (Eph 1: 10), and that will be seen in display, and then the kingdom will be handed over “to him who is God and Father”, 1 Cor 15: 24. There is certainty, you might say, right until the point where God will be “all in all”, 1 Cor 15: 28. Everything is certain and thus, in all the uncertainty and turmoil of the world, we have the certainty of God’s purpose, the certainty of His counsel, the certainty of His ways and the certainty of a Man at His right hand.
But then there is what we can enjoy. It is not all about looking forward to some future prospect. What came to mind in relation to this scripture in Ephesians 2 is that there was nothing about us after nature that merited the blessing that we have received, and yet God was not hindered by that. “Among whom we also all once had our conversation” - that is our manner of life, our way of being - “in the lusts of our flesh, doing what the flesh and the thoughts willed to do,” - we were self-willed and the scripture tells us that “sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3: 4); so we were lawless just like everyone else - “and were children, by nature, of wrath, even as the rest”. This is the way we were. But the gospel hymn-writer says,
If it’s the hopeless case Thou lov’st to meet,
If it’s a sinner Thou dost run to greet,
Then ‘tis for me to worship at Thy feet -
For me. (Hymn 423)
That is the way we came in. We came in against a background of our case being hopeless and yet it was met by God, in Christ, because of His great love: “but God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love wherewith he loved us”. What love it is! What mercy it is! How rich it is!
I simply desire to convey to you the certainty of God’s mercy and the certainty of His love. It does not change. “We too being dead in offences”: Paul goes back and he says, ‘Remember just how bad your condition was, and yet God was not hindered by that for an instant’. He “has quickened us with the Christ”. That involves life but it involves life in affection, “quickened us with the Christ, (ye are saved by grace,)”. That is not just our salvation at a point in time. Note ‘f’ says, ‘The perfect tense, not the principle on which we are saved, but the actual fact, what has been done and so abides’. That means that the effect of grace continues. It is not just once only; the effect of grace continues. “For of his fulness we all have received, and grace upon grace”, John 1: 16.
But then, what of the earth? I have to make my way through it. Perhaps you are young. Perhaps you need to go to school or to university or college, although even that is constrained at the moment. Perhaps you need to be in employment, and we know that there are great exercises associated with that. Or perhaps you are feeling the effects of being older. How will things be? He “has raised us up together, and has made us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus”. He has taken us in spirit outside the sphere of man’s responsibility and He has given us a place in Christ Jesus. It is in view of display in a day to come, but it is for our present enjoyment and for response to God. That is what is in view, that there might be an answer to the God who has done all this for us, and if Christ’s place is unassailable, so is this place unassailable.
And then we come to 1 Thessalonians: “we, the living, who remain to the coming of the Lord”. Beloved brethren, God grant that we may “remain to the coming of the Lord”. That is more, I think, than just staying alive. It means that we remain committed to what is due to the Lord until His coming. There are those who may be alive at His coming that are spoken of as “them that dwell upon the earth” (Rev 3: 10) so that they are alive in a literal sense, but I think remaining has more than that in mind. It means being in what is pleasing to Him, “remain to the coming of the Lord”. There are “those who have fallen asleep”: it might be said that there is the turmoil in this scene; and God is above all that, but what about death? Well, death had to bow at the time of the Lord’s resurrection. He went into death and He came out of it again. Even death will not prevent the accrual of all the glory that is due to God Himself. “For the Lord himself, with an assembling shout, with archangel’s voice and with trump of God, shall descend from heaven; and the dead in Christ shall rise first”; think of that! We are told elsewhere that the change will be “in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye”, 1 Cor 15: 52. “The dead in Christ shall rise first; then we, the living who remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air”. There is perfect certainty about that. There is nothing the earth will be able to do about it. There is nothing that man’s administration will be able to say to it. There will be a lie made up to explain it, but the true explanation is that the Lord has come for His own. That is what we are waiting for, and nothing can stop it. “And thus we shall be always with the Lord”, and Paul adds, “So encourage one another with these words”.
Well, beloved brethren, that is my desire that we might be encouraged that God’s ways are proceeding; there is a Man at God’s right hand whose place is unassailable; we have a part and place with Him now; and shortly we are going to be with Him forever. “So encourage one another with these words”, for His Name’s sake!
Word in a ministry meeting in Grangemouth
10th March 2020