GOD’S ANSWER FOR MAN
David A Barlow
Jeremiah 30: 12-13
Hebrews 2: 14-15
Galatians 4: 4-7
John 16: 13-14
1 John 4: 8 (“God is love”)
It struck me earlier this week how these two verses in Jeremiah really show the terrible condition man - which includes you and me - finds himself in, as under the power of sin. But the first thing I would like to say to you is this, that despite all that you are, God looks upon you with compassion. God looks upon man with compassion. “Thy bruise is incurable, thy wound is grievous. There is none to plead thy cause, to bind up thy wound; thou hast no healing medicines”. But what is also terrible about the situation is that many people do not even know that this is their condition. Man, as made by God, is an intelligent being. In his own mind, he could point out many things he has accomplished - and so he has; there are many impressive inventions and achievements that man would attribute to himself. But the fundamental point of all that is that, whatever man sets his mind to do, it will always, without fail, be the route that leads him away from God, and thus away from the knowledge of what he is before God - without fail. Even in the religious sphere of things, you see these great buildings men have built - great churches or synagogues or mosques or whatever it is, which make much of the builder, but take him away from God.
Take, for example, man’s reasonings, his deductions in science, theories that would attempt to explain a world without God. I was affected by what a government minister said recently; he said to the country, ‘Trust in the science’. What a word that is: ‘Trust in the science’. How men, even in such a time of extremity as they are in today, would put their trust in their own intelligence, and not trust in God. “Thy bruise is incurable, thy wound is grievous”. The mark of sin, how terrible it is, but do you recognise it as such? Or can you be somewhat blasé about it? How often we are tempted to dabble in things that are for our destruction and pursue the things of this world that are passing. We have a hymn that says;
The world to doom is passing,
And you passing too.
(Hymn 220)
And that can be written across the whole world. Whatever exercise or pursuit man wants to find, that is the banner above it –
The world to doom is passing,
And you are passing too.
Scripture is clear; it says here, “There is none to plead thy cause”; elsewhere the psalmist could say,
For the redemption of their soul is costly,
and must be given up forever
Ps 49: 8.
And another scripture says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and incurable”, Jer 17: 9. There is no hope looking to fellow men, beloved, and there is no way that you could somehow be seen as guiltless, because the mark of sin is upon you, as it is upon me; it is there. It says, “none to plead thy cause” and, “thou hast no healing medicines”. There is no way of redeeming oneself, no way of curing oneself.
But the wonderful truth of the gospel is, that the heart of God is love. And God is a compassionate God; He is not willing the death of the sinner. So, my desire in the gospel is to draw out from these four other scriptures how God, in the fulness of who He is, has moved from His side to present a way of salvation. It is a wonderful truth: God has moved, and He has moved to secure you and me for Himself. We had an impression this morning, as the Lord Himself took us up into the Father’s presence, having our part with the many myriads that can answer to the Father’s heart in Christ, that there was no other way to secure such a response. The Father’s way was perfect. The way He moved, the way the Lord moved, the way the blessed Holy Spirit moves, is absolutely perfect for your blessing and mine, and to secure a wonderful, glorious response for the heart of God.
So let us move on to Hebrews, where it speaks of the movements of the Lord Himself. “Since therefore the children partake of blood and flesh, he also, in like manner, took part in the same”. Think of the wonder of that, beloved. He was the Creator of the universe, and He came into the world which He had created - the wonder of the stoop into manhood. He took part in blood and flesh. Man had fallen from God; you and I have been corrupted in our sin against God; He took part in blood and flesh; He humbled himself. Another scripture that helps open this out is in Philippians: He “did not esteem it an object of rapine to be on an equality with God”, chap 2: 6. Because of who He is, the Lord “did not esteem it an object of rapine”, or robbery, “to be on an equality with God; but emptied Himself, taking a bondman’s form, taking his place in the likeness of men; and having been found in figure as a man, humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross”, v 6-8. What a stoop, beloved, what a stoop into manhood! He “took part in the same, that through death he might annul him who has the might of death, that is, the devil”. The Lord Himself came in, expressing so fully and perfectly the love and compassion of God. There is another hymn that comes to mind in that regard:
The Lord who healed the leper
Is looking on thee now;
And, though thy case discerning,
No frown is on His brow.
(Hymn 363)
Think of the look of the Lord, even now. As we sit here in the gospel preaching, is there someone here who yet still has the mark of sin upon them? Someone who yet still does not know the love of the Saviour, who has not accepted Him despite His appeal again and again? Does He now look upon you with a frown because you have not yet accepted Him? No, not with a frown -
Though thy case discerning,
No frown is on His brow.
What a Lord we have to do with, One that came into this scene, stooped into manhood, and stooped into death. The scripture says, that He “might set free all those who through fear of death through the whole of their life were subject to bondage”. What power death has on the human race - how men fear it; how every effort of man, even today, is to evade it. As the world is in the midst of a pandemic, all men’s efforts are set to preserve and extend the life of man for as long as possible, but still evidence of the power of death can be seen all around; there is a fear of it. Beloved, the Lord came into this scene to break us free from that bondage of death, by going into death itself, by breaking its power. What a deliverance that is. What a deliverance for the believer. I have often been impressed that the Lord has come in to save us from sin in three ways: He has saved us from sin’s penalty, that is, death; He can save us from sin’s power; and, in a coming day, He will save us from sin’s presence entirely. How full that is - sin’s penalty, sin’s power, and sin’s presence. That is the offer of the gospel. Will you accept His as your Saviour?
Well, now I would like to move on to speak about what the Father has done. We have spoken of the Lord coming into manhood. He took up that condition. It says, “Lo, I come (in the roll of the book it is written of me) to do, O God, thy will”, Heb 10: 7. He came and took up a place in a bondman’s form, He took that place Himself, He stooped into manhood. But now I would like to speak of the Father’s love. The Father, beloved, loved you this much, that He sent His Son into the world (John 3: 17): His Son, the One who, as He grew up, entirely delighted the heart of the Father. We have the Father’s testimony as to that several times in the gospels. “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight”, Mark 1: 11. What joy and delight the Father had in His only beloved Son as here upon the earth - the One who fully answered to all that He sought from man. How perfect the Lord was in every way. How the communion between the Lord and the Father was entirely unbroken as He walked here; it is beautiful to contemplate. And yet what does the scripture say? - “When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, come of woman, come under law, that he might redeem those under law” - “might redeem them”: what did that involve? It involved that God, the Father, sent His Son to die, to be a propitiation for our sins. And the scripture goes on to say, “not for ours alone, but also for the whole world”, 1 John 2: 2. The gospel is available to all. We have elsewhere that God does not have pleasure in the death of the wicked, Ezek 33: 11. And, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal”, John 3: 16. What a God we have to do with, who sent His Son into the world, who made His Son an offering for sin. It was because of His love for you that He sent His Son as the sacrifice. And the Lord Himself, “bore our sins in His body on the tree” (1 Pet 2: 24); and a holy and righteous God, “has condemned sin in the flesh”, Rom 8: 3. Who could speak of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus in that moment, beloved? And who could speak of the feelings of God too at that moment, when His Son was made an offering for sin, all so that there would be a way of salvation open to you. What love was displayed by the heart of God. Have you availed yourself of what that love has provided? I would like to be sure that everyone here knows the Lord as their Saviour; but God would give us a fresh impression of the greatness of His love, as we contemplate the way He has moved.
But the gospel does not end there: not only are we to be saved, but Galatians goes on to say, “that we might receive sonship”. That is, that we have another life, on the other side of death, clothed in the worth of Christ, as sons before the Father - think of that. There is no greater love than the love the Father has for His Son, and that same love of the Father is upon you as a believer. He loves you that way. He sees you in His beloved Son, and He would have you in sonship, free in His house, at liberty there. That is why we speak of the full gospel. It is not only to be saved from sins; it is not only a matter of removing everything that was for my condemnation. The Father has more in mind: He desires to have sons before Him in glory. What a difference from the incurable heart; what a difference from the bruise and the wound that we read of in our first scripture. The Father would have you with Him as sons, and not only that: what else has the Father done? It goes on to say, “God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts”. It is not only that He would have us there as sons, but He would have us to be in the conscious knowledge that we are sons too. So He “has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father”. Beloved, the wonderful gift of the precious Holy Spirit, the Father has sent into our hearts so that we can answer to the Father’s heart in the sphere He would have us to be. The wonderful fulness of the gospel; how glorious it is! The heart of God is love. Yea, not only are we sons before God, in Christ, but He has sent forth His Holy Spirit, His magnificent, His wonderful free gift; into our hearts.
Now I would like to say a little about what the Holy Spirit does, which we have here in John’s gospel. “But when he is come, the Spirit of truth, he shall guide you into all the truth”. There are a few scriptures that can be read regarding the service of the Holy Spirit, and the reason I chose this one was because recently I was listening to old recordings of the preaching, and it affected me how one preacher always emphasised the Holy Spirit as being a guide. That is what I would like to draw attention to now: “when he is come”, and we can say now that He has come, “the Spirit of truth, he shall guide you into all the truth”. Not only is it that we can know power of the Holy Spirit, in being in the Father’s presence, and conscious of our place in sonship there, but He is also a guide for us here, One that will guide us into all the truth. Being guided into all the truth is not about an extensive knowledge of the ministry - it is not exactly that we need to know our scriptures: to be guided into “all the truth”, is being dependent on the Holy Spirit. And the wonderful thing about it is, and this is true of all God’s gifts, it is available to every one of the Lord’s own. Think of that, beloved. The same guide to those great servants of God that have gone before, that have contributed to the great wealth of ministry that we have today, that same guide is available to the simplest, youngest believer; to be proved. You can prove His power; He shall guide you into all the truth. It is available to the youngest as much as it is available to the oldest person in this room - “he shall guide you into all the truth”. How do we get that guidance? Ask for His help; ask for it. Do you know the power of the Holy Spirit? He would like to guide you; He would like to show you the things of Jesus Christ. He would like to show you more about the blessed One whose company you are going to enjoy eternally.
And so, the Lord says, “but whatsoever he shall hear, he shall speak; and he will announce to you what is coming”. That is another thing, beloved. The Spirit, sent to indwell us, hears what goes on in heaven and tells us of it. How intimate that is. He hears the speaking of the Lord about you, and He hears the communications in heaven going on about you and He enters into them feelingly. And then, He would speak to you of them. He would draw your attention to Christ in a way that would guide you and help you here. That is the individual service of the Holy Spirit for you; He is a Friend who is here with you, sent to indwell you and to guide you. Maybe you do not understand a scripture, do not understand what it means. Just be simple and ask the Holy Spirit and He will guide you. He will guide you into all the truth. At the end of his gospel John finishes with this; he says, “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which if they were written one by one, I suppose that not even the world itself would contain the books written”, chap 21: 25. The world itself could not contain the books written, but the Holy Spirit can, as a divine Person. I have often thought what John is saying is that the Holy Scriptures, the canon of scripture, the word of God written down in testimony here, is complete. But there is so much more the Holy Spirit has to convey to those who would accept His guidance, to those who would subject themselves to Him. The Holy Spirit Himself would present glories of the Lord Jesus Christ to you, help you to understand the privilege of your place in sonship, and your glorious portion to be with the Lord forever. He is your guide, He is your faithful Friend. And scripture says He shall be with you forever. He is here with you in time; He will be with you eternally. Wonderful privilege, wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit - let us avail ourselves of that power the more.
Just to conclude, this final scripture, I feel, is a banner written over all that we have spoken of: “God is love”. If you can bear with me, we will finish with a story. A number of years ago, there was a very serious coal mine disaster and many of the miners lost their lives. The bishop at that time went to the mine entrance to try to comfort the sorrowing, the wives, and the sisters, and the mothers, of all those men that had died. Almost at a loss of what to say, he opened his Bible and a bookmark fell out, and on the bookmark, written in silk thread were the words we have just read, “God is love”. On the one side the words were clear, and on the other was a tangled mess of silk threads. He felt that he was given his word for those dear sorrowing souls. He said, ‘This disaster, with all its loss and sorrow that is unintelligible to you is like this bookmark,’ and he showed them the back with all its tangled threads; ‘but like everything in this life that we do not understand, it tells us God is love’. And he turned the bookmark over to show those words bold and clear. I just leave that word with you: in everything we know, whatever circumstances we are passing through, and the trials are very real, and in a way unheard of before now, in everything, absolutely everything, “God is love”. That is a principle that governs the entire universe, and over all that has been accumulated for the eternal day, even all that has happened over this past year, God is love. Be sure of that. Accept His wonderful appeal of grace and mercy while you can. Come to know the Lord as your Saviour, go in more for the glory that is on offer, go in more for the wonderful blessings that God would have for you. He is entirely for you, the compassionate God, the One who loves you and has given His only Son for you.
May we all know it the more, for the Lord’s Name sake.
Sunbury
10 January 2021