WORDS OF TRUTH AND SOBERNESS
Paul A Gray
Romans 5: 12
1 Cor. 15: 3-6 to “at once”
Philippians 2: 8-11
1 John 3: 14 to “love the brethren”
John 17: 1-3
In Acts 26 the apostle Paul is giving an account of his conversion; he speaks about the moment when he was on the road to Damascus at noon, and there was a light above the brightness of the sun, and he was brought down there, and given a commission. And his commission was to go to the nations. The Lord says, “to whom I send thee, to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me”, v 17, 18. Shortly after Paul gave that account, one of those present, Festus, one of the persons in authority, said that Paul was mad; Paul responded, “I am not mad, most excellent Festus, but utter words of truth and soberness”, v 24, 25.
These scriptures I have read speak about death, and about life. The gospel is a matter of life and death; it is no less than that. I desire, by the help of the Spirit, to impress upon you that the gospel involves words of truth and soberness. It is not a light matter; it is not something that you can take up and lay down; it is not something you can dismiss. At the end of Deuteronomy, after Moses has spoken to the people and given them a great outline of God’s thoughts for them in relation to the land, he says to them, “choose then life, that thou mayest live”, chap 30: 19. Another thing that I want to say about the gospel is that it is not a matter of choice. He does not say, ‘choose life or death; make up your own mind’. He says, “choose then life, that thou mayest live”. And we sang about the source of life:
Jesus! life-giving sound (Hymn 287).
The Bible tells us that there is no other “name under heaven which is given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4: 12): the name of Jesus. The hymn says
Salvation in the Name
Of Jesus, offered still;
Glad heralds sound His fame:
Ho! Whosoever will (Hymn 432).
That is addressed to you and me, because this first scripture we read in Romans involves words of truth and soberness; surely they are. “For this cause, even as by one man” - and that is referring to Adam - “sin entered into the world, and by sin death”. That is the truth, and it is sober. There is not, I suppose, a more sober matter that we could speak about than death itself. “And thus death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned”: and that includes you and me. Earlier Paul says, “all have sinned,” and then it tells us about our present condition if we are still in our sins, “and come short of the glory of God”, chap 3: 23. But God does not desire you to remain in your sins.
That is why I read the next scripture in 1 Corinthians 15 because it puts it - as scripture always does - briefly and plainly: “Christ died for our sins”. Not only has He died for our sins, but we know from scripture that He met the matter of sin itself. “Him who knew not sin” was “made sin for us, that we might become God’s righteousness in him”, 2 Cor. 5: 21. Your sins have been atoned for, and sin itself, the root cause, has been condemned. All this was done in the work of Jesus. The apostle Paul said this, “For I delivered to you, in the first place, what also I had received”. Where did he receive it? He received it from the glory. The gospel is coming from the glory; it is coming from the right hand of God. It is not man’s thought; it is not man’s idea. Paul says also to King Agrippa, “For this was not done in a corner”, Acts 26: 26. It is not a secret matter only open to a privileged few. We so often quote John 3:16, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal”. I remember a brother reading the line from hymn 417,
Whosoever - glorious message:
and it is a glorious message. It says - indeed I think we read it recently in the Psalms - that God -
… raiseth up the poor from the dust;
from the dung-hill he lifteth up the needy
To set them among nobles. Psalm 113
It is a glorious message, that God has blessing in mind for you, not just for time but for eternity, and He has provided everything in order that that blessing might be yours: “Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures”. What scriptures would these be, because I assume that the apostle Paul in writing here would have been referring to the Old Testament? Well, the Lord knew more than anyone what the scriptures were; it says in Luke 24 “he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself”, v 27. And what scriptures are these? Well, you think for example of the first time when God dealt with sin; and it says as to Adam and Eve who had sinned, He “made Adam and his wife coats of skin” (Gen 3: 21), and He spoke about the Seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent, v 15. In order for these coats of skin to be provided, someone had to die, and in order for your sins to be forgiven Someone had to die. Since you could not do it for yourself, Christ died for our sins.
Then in Genesis 22 the account of Abraham and Isaac is given. Isaac asks where the sacrifice would come from, and Abraham says, “God will provide himself with the sheep for a burnt-offering”, v 8. And so He did: there “was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns”, 13. The thicket did not catch the ram; the ram was caught by its horns. It was the power of the love of Jesus that took Him the way that He went. And He went that way for you and for me: “Christ died for our sins”. Are you included in that? Are you included in these few words? “Christ died for our sins”. He did, but have you taken advantage of it? Have you trusted in Him? Have you put your faith in Him? The hymn writer speaks of “Our full confiding trust”, Hymn 6. That is what you need to have in Jesus; and there is no point in having it in anyone else, because there is no-one else who can save you, according to the scriptures. There are many other scriptures we could speak of. Psalm 22 tells us of the way that Jesus went. You can look for them for yourself; they are worth looking for.
“And that he was buried”: that was the witness to the fact that He had truly died. You do not bury someone who is alive; He was truly dead. And for him death was truly death. We thought this morning about the Lord Jesus, the One in whom life was and is inherent. What does inherent mean? It means He was not given His life. You and I were given our lives; God gave us our lives. But He was not given it; it was His own because He was God. And yet He came in as Man, came into a condition in which He could die, and although He was sinless He died. What a reality of death! I often quote the scripture in Job, “By the breath of God ice is given”, chap 37: 10. The One who had moved in such perfect acquiescence with the will of His God and Father, perfect in conformity to everything that was in the divine mind, was found in the stillness of death. Ice is formed: the coldness and stillness of death, and the darkness of the grave. That was all His portion as He went that way. He bowed His head and delivered up His spirit, John 19: 30. He was buried, so that He Himself, perfect and sinless took upon Himself what offended God and took it away.
“And that he was raised the third day, according to the scriptures”. Now what scriptures can you find in the Old Testament that tell you about His being raised the third day? I can tell you the first one is on the first page of the Bible, when it tells us on the third day the dry land appeared, Gen 1: 9. The sea in that setting speaks of death, and on the third day, the dry land appeared, and life was found in the dry land: the trees sprouted, v 12. It is referred to in 2 Samuel 23,
The ruler among men shall be just,
Ruling in the fear of God;
And he shall be as the light of the morning …
When from the sunshine, after rain,
The green grass springeth from the earth,
verses 3, 4.
That is Christ in resurrection, and the saints with Him in life: “When from the sunshine, after rain”. What rain He experienced at this time of death! What an outpouring of sorrow, the like of which had never been seen before, and yet now it is the time of “the sunshine, after rain”. Because, it says, “he appeared to Cephas” - that is Peter - “then to the twelve. Then he appeared to above five hundred brethren at once”. As there is a witness to the fact that He died, so also there is a witness to his resurrection. And, beloved, the witness to His resurrection is here now, in believers who have put their faith and trust in Him; that is a witness to His resurrection.
This is not the time of God’s wrath. It is the time of “the sunshine, after rain”, and in Joshua it tells us “there was no day like that before it or after it”, when the sun “hasted not to go down about a full day”, chap 10: 13, 14. God is not hastening on to judgment, and yet the time of judgment is coming. For He “has set a day in which he is going to judge the habitable earth in righteousness by the man whom he has appointed, giving the proof of it to all in having raised him from among the dead”, Acts 17: 31.
In Philippians I wanted to mention, “becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross”. There was no death like the death of the cross, with the outward shame and ignominy of it and the suffering, and I am speaking at this moment just in terms of what is physical, the suffering involved in that death. Think of what it says in Psalm 22, the Lord speaking prophetically, “all my bones are out of joint”, v 14. What a death of physical suffering: men intended it to be, and so it was for Him. But the death of the cross was more than that for Christ. For it tells us in Galatians 3 “Christ has redeemed us out of the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, (for it is written, Cursed is every one hanged upon a tree,) that the blessing of Abraham might come to the nations in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith”, v 13, 14. He has redeemed us out of the curse of the law. He took that place of the curse; He accepted the shame that the curse involved. He says to his Father in Gethsemane, “My Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me; but not as I will, but as thou wilt”, Matt 26: 39. The Lord knew what it meant to become the curse. Think of that, that the One who was perfect and sinless should become that which His very soul abhorred. We cannot encompass it, but the psalmist says, “A thing of Belial cleaveth fast unto him”, (Ps 41: 8), a thing that caused Him, we might say, horror of soul, the thought of sin, the very thought of it, was horror to Him. We just read recently in the gospel, when they came to the man who was deaf and could not speak right, that the Lord said, “Ephphatha”, but it tells us that He groaned, Mark 7: 34. He felt in His spirit the depth of what sin meant. And this thing that He abhorred, He was made it, for you and for me, made it in order that God’s rights might be satisfied. “Becoming obedient”: He was obedient to the Father’s will, “even unto death and that the death of the cross”. We speak about the Lord laying down His life, and so He did. He says, “I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it again. I have received this commandment of my Father”, John 10: 18. The death of the cross was real, it was shameful and it cannot be measured. And He went that way for you and for me. “Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and granted him a name, that which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow”. Have you bowed to the name of Jesus? This will happen: heavenly and earthly and infernal beings will bow. How will it happen? I do not know exactly, but I know that it will. And oh, beloved, bow to Jesus now as Saviour, so that you may never see Him as a judge; because when persons do see Him as a judge on the great white throne, it says, “from whose face the earth and the heaven fled”, Rev 20: 11. The face that is beaming towards you with forgiveness, desiring that you might come into His love, that is the face that you want to see. That is the face that, if I may put it simply, is smiling on you now; the glory of God is shining in the face of Jesus Christ. Turn to Him in repentance now: “and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to God the Father’s glory”. Again that will be so for everyone in a day to come, but it ought to be so now. Jesus Christ is Lord. Can you say that? Does He have authority over your life? Have you given your life into His hands, knowing that He can manage it better than you do?
We turn to 1 John. One of the things I wondered about, especially when I was younger, was why the brethren said that they knew things. How can you know something you cannot see? I mean, you can know things if you learn them or you can know things if you can see them, but, “We know that we have passed from death to life”. How can you know that? John writes, among other things, to give us reassurance. We know “because we love the brethren”: because we love the brethren. Now that is a question for you. And you know the answer, and the Lord knows the answer, and that is what matters. Do you love the brethren? If you do, you have passed from death to life. We love the brethren because of the work of God in them. That is why we love them, because we see in them what God has done in them, and we recognise it. I speak only for myself, perhaps I have characteristics that cause irritation, or I do things that others wish I would not do; that would certainly be true of me anyway. But the brethren still love me and I know it. I can remember quite clearly the first time I realised that the brethren loved me. A brother and sister looked after me when my mother was not well. And I realised that it was more than just somebody taking care of me, because I was about six or seven years old, and somebody needed to look after me: they actually loved me. I knew what it was for my parents to love me, and my grandparents, and I understood that, but here I found that here were these other people, too, and they loved me as well. That was a new experience and I can remember it. The love of the brethren is something greatly to be valued. There is not any love like it in the world, because the love that exists among believers is not just for time, and it does not end in time: it goes right on into eternity. So if you love the brethren, then the thing is to find your place amongst them.
I want to speak about the last scripture in John 17. This scripture does not speak about death, but it does speak about life eternal, and it does speak about eternal life. And these are necessary: if there is death there must be an answer to it. Now, “as to all that thou hast given to him” - that is, the Son - “he should give them life eternal”. And if there is a little distinction between life eternal and eternal life, life eternal is something that you have. It says that the Lord gives it to you, and everyone who believes on Him, as we have quoted from John 3:16, shall “have life eternal”. That means that you have soul salvation for all eternity, and death cannot touch you. It does not mean that nobody will die, but it means that death is not the end for the believer, but rather the entrance into the presence of the Lord. Life eternal is theirs, and no one can take it from them. That is another thing: if the Lord gives you something nobody can take it from you, and you cannot lose it either. But then, “this is the eternal life,” He says, “that they should know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent”. So if life eternal is something you have, eternal life also involves what you know. And it involves relationships: “that they should know thee”. It is not just what I know about things in the Bible, although it is good to know that, but it is about your relationships with divine Persons. “That they should know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent”; you think - is that not wonderful that God wants you to know Him?
The enjoyment of these things starts with what is individual but it goes on to what is collective, what we enjoy together. “This is the eternal life, that they” - it does not say that one person should know - but “they should know thee, the only true God”. You see persons coming into eternal life in Romans 8. It says, “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (v 14), but then it says, “the spirit ... whereby we cry, Abba, Father”, v 15. Persons who cry, “Abba, Father” are persons who know God. They know something about Him; they know His affections, and they want to respond to Him. “And Jesus Christ whom thou has sent”: well, was there a gathering this morning to remember the Lord Jesus? Was that not some evidence that we know Him? That we actually know Him? Could you say from what you heard that the persons who were speaking to Him knew Him? They were not just describing something they had seen, but they were talking of a living experience through faith and by the Spirit. They know Him. When we came to the end of the meeting we had an impression of the greatness of God, the fact that He is infinite, immortal and yet He wants us to know Him. And He has made Himself known to us in Christ.
We had in the reading the expression “the life of God”. The life of God is seen in Jesus; that is where it is demonstrated. In the earlier part of Ephesians 4 it says, “until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God”, v 13. And there is another thing. The knowledge of the Son of God is unifying in its effect; it draws us together. That is what we sang again at the beginning of the breaking of bread this morning - Hymn 4:
Thine is the love, Lord, that draws us together.
That does not only mean at the time of the Supper on a Lord’s day morning, although it is a special time then, but that is what the love of the Lord does: it draws us together. So the apostle says, “the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at the full-grown man”. You feel that this is where it begins to get more difficult; I would encourage you that there are steps you can understand. “At the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ”. You get the measure in Romans; that is what the Lord is morally. You get the stature in Colossians; that is what He is personally. And you get the fulness in Ephesians; that is what He is officially, and you find that His assembly is with Him in that: “the fulness of him who fills all in all”, chap 1: 23. I am saying that to encourage you that there is room for progress. There is room to grow, and it is not beyond any of us. You may say that you have just started; well, if you have just started, keep going. But there is always room for progress. If you have already started keep going. I encourage you, and if you have not started now is the time to start. Now is the time to start.
We spoke at the beginning of words of truth and soberness. Another word of truth and soberness is this: “behold, now is the well-accepted time; behold, now the day of salvation”, 2 Cor. 6: 2. That is a word of truth, but it is also a word of soberness, because I cannot tell you about tomorrow. But I can tell you about now, and now is the time to trust in the Lord Jesus as Saviour.
May you do so for His Name’s sake.
Linlithgow
12 January 2020