Part 53
strongest telescope, when he can see beyond death–and see beyond
the Judgment Seat and see right into Heaven and there behold the
Lamb leading His glorified flock to the living fountains of waters,
and the saints, with tearless eyes, forever bowing before the Throne
of God and the Lamb! God is not ashamed to be called the God of
the people who can do this! God is ashamed to be called the God of
you blind people, whose eyes have never been opened. But when
He opens your eyes, then He becomes your God and He is not
ashamed to be so called, for He it is that gives us this blessed
power to see! Until spiritual sight is thus bestowed upon us, we are
blind. But when God has given us sight, then He is not ashamed to
acknowledge us as His children, nor is He ashamed to acknowledge
that He, Himself, is our God!
I appeal to you whom I am now addressing and ask whether you
can see God's promises afar off? There are some who say, "A bird
in the hand is worth two in the bush." Yes, it may be so with the
poor birds that sing here, but, for my part, I am willing to wait till I
can have the one in the bush if it is in the bush that burned with fire
because God was there! You may have the bird in the hand, if you
will. You will soon pluck off its feathers, it will speedily die in your
hand and there will come an end to it. But there are other birds
which, as yet, we cannot reach, but which are really ours, and if we
cannot at present grasp them, we are willing to wait God's time–
because we can see that they will be in our hands in the future, we
can already see them "afar off." Unhappy is the man who sees
nothing but what he calls, "the main chance," or who sees nothing
but that which is within a few feet of him. Wretched, indeed, is he
who lives only to get money, or to gain honor–whose whole life is
spent in the pursuit of personal comfort, but who never had his eyes
opened enough to see the eternal things, and who never was able to
set a value upon anything but what could be paid for with pounds,
shillings and pence. Beloved, have you seen the promises afar off?
Has the Lord opened your eyes to see eternal things? Then it is
written concerning you, also, "Therefore God is not ashamed to be
called their God."
Now pass on to the next sentence, for every word is fruitful with
meaning–"and were persuaded of them, and embraced them." They
were people who rejoiced in things unseen. You will find that, in
the Revised Version, the words,"persuaded of them," are left out,
and very properly so, for there is no doubt whatever that they were
not in the original, but were added by somebody who wished to
explain the meaning to us. The Greek is properly rendered, "but
having seen them afar off, greeted them," but I like, even better, the
translation, "embraced them." It means that as for the things which
are promised to us, if we are Believers, like Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob, we have, from afar, seen those promised things and we have
welcomed them. Or, to use our Authorized Version, we have
"embraced them." We have pressed them to our bosom, we have
hugged them to our heart, we have loved them in our very soul, we
have rejoiced in them! They have filled our spiritual nature full of
music and all the bells of our being are ringing merry peals because
of the blessed promises of our God. Now, when a man is of that
mind, God is not ashamed to be called his God!
Let me ask you then, dear Friend–What is it that you are
embracing? Is it some earthly thing? Does your heart love and cling
to that which you can see, and touch and handle? Is that your chief
delight? Then God is ashamed to be called your God because you
are an idolater! You are worshipping some created thing. But if you
can say of Christ, "He is all my salvation and all my desire," then
God is not ashamed to be called your God. Remember what David
said–"Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the
desires of your heart," for God is able to give to a man his desires
when all his heart is delighting in his God–and God is not ashamed
to be called his God. The Lord's love is not set upon merely
material objects. The infinite heart of God loves truth,
righteousness, purity and everything that is holy and glorious. And
if your heart does the same, God is not ashamed to be called your
God. But if you do not love these things, you have neither part nor
lot in God–you are a stranger to Him and, though I speak this
solemn Truth of God in gentle language, I pray that it may drop
like lye upon your spirit and burn its way into your very soul! What
an awful thing it must be to be without God–to have no part nor lot
in Him–never to be able to say, "My God, my Father," but only to
speak of Him as a God–an unknown God, another man's God, but
no God to you! May it not be so with you, my Friends! If you can
say that you have seen the promises from afar and have, by faith,
embraced them, then God is not ashamed to be called your God.
Pass on to the next sentence–"and confessed that they were
strangers and pilgrims on the earth." They acknowledged that they
were not at home here. Abraham never built a house! Isaac never
lived anywhere but in a tent and, though Jacob tried to dwell in a
settled habitation, he got into trouble through it and he was bound,
still, to be a tentdweller. The reason why they lived in tents was
because they wanted to show to all around them that they did not
belong to that country. There were great cities with walls which, as
men said, reached to Heaven, but they did not go to dwell in those
cities. You remember that Lot did, yet he was glad enough to get
out again–"saved, yet so as by fire." But Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
kept away from other men, for they were commanded to dwell
alone and not to be numbered among the nations. Nor were they–
they kept themselves apart from other people as strangers and
sojourners here below, so, for that very reason, God is not ashamed
to be called their God!
Remember how David said to the Lord, "I am a stranger with
You, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were." That is a very
amazing expression–"a stranger with You"–blessed be God, not "a
stranger to withYou." That is to say, God is a stranger here–it is His
own world and He made it, but when Christ, who is the Son of
God, and the Creator of the world, came into it, "He came unto His
own, and His own received Him not." And they soon made Him
feel that the only treatment which He would receive at their hands
was this–"This is the Heir. Come, let us kill Him, that the
inheritance may be ours." There was no man who ever lived who
was a truer Man than was Christ the Lord. But there was never a
Man who was more unlike the rest of men. He was a homely Man,
a home-loving Man to the last degree, yet He was never at home.
This world was not His rest. He had nowhere to lay His head and
what was true, naturally, was also true spiritually. This world
offered Christ no rest whatever.
Now, dear Friends, how is it with us? Do we belong to this world,
or to the unseen? How do you feel about this matter? Do you feel at
home here? I think that we are often compelled to cry with the
Psalmist, "Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the
tents of Kedar!" We wish to do good to others as far as we can. We
are men of peace, but when we speak, they are for war and we
realize the truth of our Lord's words, "A man's foes shall be they of
his own household." The more a man comes right straight out for
God, the more opposition he is sure to meet with! Be half-asleep
and nobody will say much against you. But wake up and be active
for God and for His Christ and you will soon discover that the seed
of the serpent still has the serpent's venom in it–and it hates the
Seed of the woman as much as it ever did! It must be so and,
therefore, always feel that you are only a stranger here and that
your business is to go through this world as a traveler passes
through a foreign country. He does not speak the language of the
people. He does not follow their customs. He is not one of the
citizens of the land. He is just a temporary dweller here below and
he is on his journey home. If that is the kind of man you are, God is
not ashamed to be called your God.
But He is not the God of the earthworms that only want to burrow
down into the soil. He is not the God of those who build their nests
and say, "Here would we live forever." He is not the God of the
man who can say, "Give me a knife and fork, and plenty to eat and
drink. Give me suitable clothes to wear in the day and a nice soft
bed to sleep on at night. Give me wealth, give me fame–that is all I
need–and I will let Heaven go to anyone who wants it!" Jehovah is
not the God of Esau, who sells his birthright for a mess of pottage,
but He is the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob who have a
heritage that they cannot see, and who count the land in which they
dwell to be a place of strangers and of sojourners–and they think of
themselves as only strangers and sojourners in it.
Now read on a little further. "For they that say such things declare
plainly that they seek a country." The word translated, "country,"
might, I think be better rendered, "fatherland." "They who say that
they are strangers here declare plainly that they seek a fatherland."
The word is sometimes translated, "their own country." "A Prophet
is not without honor, save in his own country." It is the same word
here in the Greek. It signifies that they sought their owncountry–
their fatherland. Therefore God, who is the Father of all His people,
and whose Heaven is their fatherland, is not ashamed to be called
their God. Now, dear Friends, are you seeking a fatherland? I put
the question to every hearer here–Are you looking for a fatherland?
Sir Walter Scott wrote–
"Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself has said,
'This is my own, my native land'?
Whose heart has ne'er within him burned,
As home his footsteps he has turned
From wandering on a foreign strand?"
So said the patriot poet and we have said it, too, for we are
patriots! But yet I venture to say that this is not my home, this is
not my fatherland–"I'm but a stranger here!Heaven is my
home."My fatherland lies out of sight, beyond the everlasting hills,
where God dwells and where Christ sits at the right hand of the
Father. Now, the men who, by Grace, have been brought to say this,
"We are out of our own country, we are seeking a fatherland," these
are the people of whom it is written, "Therefore God is not
ashamed to be called their God."
Paul goes on to say, "And truly, if they had been mindful of that
country from where they came, they might have had opportunity to
have returned." Brothers and Sisters, this is another characteristic
of Believers–we have left the worldas our home, and joy, and
comfort, to seek a better country, but we may go back if we like.
There is no compulsion to keep a man a Christian but the
compulsion of love. He who is enlisted in the army of Christ may
desert if he pleases, but the blessed Grace of God will hold us so
that we shall do no such thing! We have plenty of opportunities to
return. Oh, how many invite us to turn back! I know how they
beckon some of you who have lately come out on the Lord's side.
Sometimes it is a female voice that would charm you and there is a
great fascination about it, and you have to mind what you are doing
lest you become unequally yoked together. Sometimes it is the
voice of the world promising you wealth–offering you a better
situation, perhaps, if you will go back. But, like Moses, you esteem
"the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt."
You have plenty of opportunities to return. There are back
entrances to Satan's Kingdom–he does not require you to come in
at the front door–he lets you sneak in, again, by the back gate. If
you want to go into slavery, again, there are many opportunities of
returning! But if you are made by Christ to be, in this respect, like
God, immutable, so that you say, "I cannot turn. I cannot change. I
must be what Christ has made me. I must stand fast for truth and
for holiness, and stand fast as long as I live, so help me, my God"–
if you are able to talk like that, then God is not ashamed to be
called your God! Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, you can get back to
the old country whenever you like. But they never will go back–the
deep dividing river rolls between them and that land, even as,
today, there rolls between some of us and the world the stream in
which we have been buried with Christ and, by God's Grace, we
shall never cross it again! And, because of that holy determination,
God is not ashamed to be called our God.
I finish up my remarks upon the word, "therefore," which is very
full of matter, by noticing how the Apostle says, "But now they
desire a better country, that is, a heavenly." That is to say, instead of
going back, we are pressing forwardtowards heavenly things. "God
is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit
and in truth." "The Father seeks such to worship Him." That is,
those who are spiritual, who are seeking after heavenly things with
all theirheart. These are they whom God loves, for God is spiritual.
God is heavenly and when He has made us spiritual and made us
pant after heavenly things, then He is not ashamed to be called our
God.
I have put these points before you as briefly as I could, wishing
every moment to be examining myself, and asking you to examine
yourselves. Have you a life within you which makes you pant and
pine after heavenly things? Whatever you have in this world, do
you hold it with a loose hand? Do you feel that it is not your real
riches–it is not your true treasure? You know that Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob were all rich men. God blessed them and gave them a
great increase to all that they had, but, still, they did not live simply
to gather riches! They did not make that their chief delight. If you
had asked them, they would have told you that they were inheritors
of a mysterious Covenant by which God had bound Himself to be
their God, and the God of their seed. And in that Covenant was
included the promise that Christ Himself should come out of their
loins–and for Him they waited–He was the hope of their spirit.
Now, dear Friends, if that is the case with you, also, you can
understand the meaning of my text, "Therefore God is not ashamed
to be called their God."
II. I must give but a few minutes to the second part of the text, yet
it needs a good deal of thought, for it says, "for He has prepared a
city for them." The second pivot word is, "for."
Now go back again to the text in Exodus, "I am the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Yet Paul says,
"These all died," and we know that our Lord said to the Sadducees,
"God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." Is He not
ashamed to be called the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob,
seeing that they all died? No, because they are not dead, though
they died, "for He has prepared for them a city." These men,
though they lived and died,and passed out of the world without
having received the heritage, are not dead! There is the glory of the
matter. When they lay a-dying, the devil might have come and said
to them, "Now, what have you got by your Covenant with God?
You left father, mother and everything that you had, and went and
lived the separated life–and now you are dying out here–what have
you got? Nothing but some little holes in the Cave of Machpelah
into which they will push your bodies! That is all that you have!"
Oh, but the devil does not know! Or if he does, he is a liar, for
they gained everything by that life of faith, for theystill live and
God has prepared a city for them. And now they have entered that
city! Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are at the very head of the celestial
company, for our Lord said, "Many shall come from the east, and
west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob in the
Kingdom of Heaven." And, by-and-by, Machpelah shall yield up
her dead and Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and Jacob shall live, again, in
the fullest sense, for their bodies as well as their souls shall live
again! And Joseph's bones, which he would not allow to lie in
Egypt–for he would not let the Egyptians have a scrap of him–shall
live, and thus, in their flesh, shall they see God and shall rejoice
before Him. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called the God of
these people who all died in faith because they are still living–and
they shall continue to live forever and ever!
Somebody may, perhaps, say that these people did not receive the
promises. Well, they did not literally receive thefulfillment of them.
They did not see Christ. They did not witness the descent of the
Holy Spirit. They did not hear the Gospel preached. They did not
see those wonders that they looked for–so is not God ashamed to
be called the God of people who, after all, did not receive the
promises? No, because "He has prepared for them a city." They
have receivedthe promises now and they shall receive them yet
more and more! God will yet cause the Believer's life to be all
blessing. Do not be afraid of the consequences of trusting in
Christ–you may have the rough side of the road, here, but what we
sang, just now, is quite true–
"Afflictions may press me, they cannot destroy,
One glimpse of His love turns them all into joy!
And the bitterest tears, if He smiles but on them,
Like dew in the sunshine, grow diamond and gem!
Let doubt, then, and danger my progress oppose–
They only make Heaven more sweet at the close.
Come joy or come sorrow, whate'er may befall,
An hour with my God will make up for them all!"
If God gave to His children gall and wormwood to drink here–
yes, if they never had anything but aches and pains from the
moment of their conversion till they died–yet they would have the
best of the bargain, after all, for there is an eternity of bliss in the
Heaven which is prepared for them!
But, further, these people were a sort of gypsies, always moving
about and living in tents, different from everybody else. Yes, they
were strangers among the people where they dwelt. And men often
say of us, now, that we cannot be content to go on as other people
do. Those Patriarchs were strangers, odd folk, peculiar people. Is
not God ashamed to be called their God? No, because they have
now gone where they are all right, for their manners and customs
are exactly suitable to the place. A very dear old woman, whom I
visited when she was dying, said to me, "One thing comforts me,
Sir, I do not think that God will ever send me among the wicked,
for I never could get on in their company. The best times I have
ever had were when I could sit with a few of the Lord's people and
hear them talk about Him. And though I could not always be sure
that I was, myself, a Christian, yet I was very much like them and I
was very happy when I was with them. I think I shall go to my own
company, Sir." Yes, dear Soul, and so she did! And if we are
strangers here, we are going to that company where we shall not be
strangers! They will understand our language when once we get
across the river into the King's own country. "Therefore God is not
ashamed to be called their God" because they speak the language
which He speaks, the language of His own courts–and He is not
ashamed to say, "These are My people, and I acknowledge them
before you all."
Notice, yet again, that these people were seekers and desirers all
their lives. "They seek a country." "They desire abetter country." Is
this a right state of heart for a Christian–to always be seeking and
always desiring? Well, Brothers and Sisters, that is the state in
which I often am and I wish, still, to stay in that condition–always
seeking, always desiring. Whenever God gives me any spiritual
blessing, I always seek more. And if He gives me more, I seek for
still more! And if He gives me my heart's desire, I pray Him to
enlarge my heart that I may desire some greater gift. For, in
spiritual things, we may be as covetous as we like! We may say,
"Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect,
but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am
apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have
apprehended. But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which
are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I
press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus." And God is not ashamed to be called the God of
those who are thus seeking and desiring because He has laid up for
them all that they seek! And He has prepared for them all that they
desire! I would be ashamed to set a poor person desiring if I could
not gratify the desire. I would be ashamed to set a man seeking if I
knew that he could not get what he sought after. But because God
has prepared a city for these seekers and desirers, He is not
ashamed to be called their God!
As I stood, this evening, by the bedside of the dear Brother whom
I mentioned to you a little while ago, I could not help saying, "Here
is a poor soul covered with boils and blisters, but God is not
ashamed to be called his God." And there may be a child of God
who is very poor, indeed, with hardly sufficient garments to cover
him, but God is not ashamed to be called his God, either. Perhaps
his own brother is ashamed to be called his brother. I have even
known cases where men have been so wicked as to be ashamed of
their own parents because they were not so well off as themselves.
But God is never ashamed of His poor people. Yes, and if God's
people are persecuted, and ill-used. If they are covered with mud
from head to foot, or if they are cast into prison, God is not
ashamed to be called their God. In those days when God permitted
His people to be fastened up to the cross, or when others were
taken to the stake and burnt, and everybody hissed at them, and
cast out their name as evil, and said that they were the offscouring
of all things–God was not ashamed to be called their God!
I am almost ashamed to say what I am going to say. I really feel
my very heart blush that I should have to say it. I have known some
professors who have been ashamed to call God their God! Is it not
strange that the glorious God of Heaven and earth should call a
worm His own, and take mean wretches such as we are, and say, "I
am not ashamed to be called their God," and yet that some of these
creatures should be so miserably cowardly that they are ashamed to
be called the people of God? Oh, write His name on your
foreheads! Never be ashamed of it! Ashamed of God? Ashamed of
Jesus? Ashamed of the Truth? Ashamed of righteousness? I do not
wonder that there is such a text as this–"The fearful"–that is the
cowardly–"and unbelieving shall have their part in the lake which
burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."
If you really do love the Lord, come out and show yourself on His
side! And if He is not ashamed of you and if your prayer is, "Lord,
remember me when you come into Your Kingdom," acknowledge
Him as your Lord and Savior now! You who are not members of
any Christian Church–you who have believed in Christ, or think
you have–and yet have never confessed Him. You who are hiding
like rats behind the wall–come out and confess Christ! What are
you doing? How can you be soldiers of the Cross and followers of
the Lamb if you fear to acknowledge His cause and blush to speak
His name? Come out of your hiding places! May God the Holy
Spirit draw or drive you out at once! If anything could do it, surely,
it should be such a blessed fact as this–that you are numbered
among those of whom it is said that "God is not ashamed to be
called their God."
God bless you, dear Friends, for Jesus' sake! Amen. HYMNS
FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"–854, 847, 848.–
Ex 4:22-23; 6:1 • The Great Emancipator
ERMON 1440
The Great Emancipator
"And you shall say unto Pharaoh, thus says the Lord, Israel is My
son, even My firstborn: and I say unto you, Let My son go, that he
may serve Me."
Exodus 4:22, 23
GOD had a people in Egypt. They were His own, the people of
His choice. Although they had been grievously oppressed and had
sunk into ignominious slavery, His interest in their welfare had in
no degree lessened. The Lord's purpose in sending Moses down
into Egypt was that He might fetch out that people from among the
nations to make them a separate people to Himself that He might
give them an inheritance, even the land which flowed with milk
and honey and that they might dwell there as witnesses of His
Covenant and keep His Testimonies. Now precisely what God was
doing towards His people, Israel, in the land of Ham, He is doing
towards His own chosen ones throughout the whole world.
From one point of view the object of the Gospel is to gather out
from among the nations a people whom He did foreknow, whom
He did predestinate, whom He has redeemed unto Himself to be
His peculiar heritage. These are to be fetched out from among
others. They are to be made a separate people to be brought into a
distinct position and to have a distinct experience. "The people
shall dwell alone; they shall not be reckoned among the nations"
and they are ultimately to be brought to a prepared place for which
they are to be especially prepared that they may abide there and
that the Lord may verify the thing that He has predicted of them,
"They shall be Mine in that day when I make up My jewels."
The work of rescuing perishing sinners out of the present evil
world is as worthy of God as the work of delivering Israel out of
Egypt. The same right hand of Jehovah, glorious in power, which
released the sons of Jacob from the thralldom of Pharaoh, is now
stretched out to ransom us from the dominion of Satan! The song
of praise to Jesus Christ our Redeemer shall be more exultant than
that which Miriam and the daughters of Israel lifted up by the Red
Sea when they said, "Come let us sing unto the Lord, for He has
triumphed gloriously." Indeed, we shall sing at the last, the song of
Moses, the servant of God and the song of the Lamb, clearly
indicating that the redemption out of Egypt was always meant to be
a leading type of the redemption of God's people from out of the
midst of the world, for Christ has a people whom He has redeemed
from among men, and there is a Church of which it is written,
"Christ loved His Church and gave Himself for it."
Now, in the process of bringing out these people of God from
among the mass of mankind, God sometimes uses instrumentality
just as He did in the former case. He may employ an instrument
that is apparently as little adapted for the work as Moses felt
himself to be. Yet the work is done and to God belongs the honor of
accomplishing it. As for those of us whom He uses, we are more
than content to yield the honor to Him. We rejoice in His
excellency while we feel that we cannot take to ourselves any
credit whatever–for we are less than nothing in His sight–and even
in our own sight we are weak and worthless, so that unto God,
alone, shall the glory redound when redemption's work is finished
and complete!
I invite you to think, first of all, upon the voice of God. According
to our text, it is, "Thus says the Lord, Israel is My son, even My
firstborn: and I say unto you, Let My son go, that he may serve
Me." When we have dilated a little upon that, we shall need to have
a few words upon the voice of man. This was to be the voice of
man, "You shall say unto Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord." What God
had spoken was to be repeated by His servant, Moses. Then we
shall close by noticing, in the third place, the power which was to
go with this voice of man. "I will be with your mouth and you shall
see what I will do to Pharaoh."
Let us endeavor, then, at the outset, to fix our thoughts upon THE
VOICE OF GOD which was a real power to bring up His people
out of Egypt. That voice was threefold–asserting His proprietorship
in them, demanding their freedom and ordaining their destiny. With
imperial authority He claims the people as His own. "Thus says the
Lord, Israel is My son, even My firstborn." The Lord knows them
that are His and the Lord declared them to be His own with a
jealousy of His inalienable right to their allegiance and an assertion
of His unfailing interest in their welfare. The children of Israel
were, at that time, in a very sordid condition. They were up to their
necks in clay, making bricks. They were a band of slaves,
degraded, brought down to the lowest condition. They were so
spiritless that they submitted to any exaction of the tyrant and when
the day of deliverance dawned on them, they could not think
emancipation possible, or welcome the joyful change in their
prospects.
They had, as a nation, lost the very thought of liberty! It was
trodden out. The people seemed as if they must lose their
nationality or only retain it as a nation of slaves. Yet all begrimed
and beslaved as they came to be, they were still beloved. The Lord
loved them! He said, "Israel is My son, even My firstborn." Surely
Pharaoh might have said in his heart, "This is a fine son! What
must the God be who says of these brick makers, this abject race,
'This is My son'?" Yes, and these ill-conditioned, unkempt serfs–
these debased men and women, He says of them–"Even My
firstborn, My son and heir." A man is naturally proud of his son and
heir, yet here is the mighty God speaking after the language of
mortal men, acknowledging these cheerless, crestfallen, despised
and dispirited people and saying, "Israel is My son, even My
firstborn."
He was acknowledging them, too, in the teeth of proud Pharaoh,
whose firstborn was saluted as a prince of the blood royal when he
rode through the land, before whom every knee bowed and to
whom, as the son of the great king, homage was constantly
rendered. "Israel is My son," says God, "even My firstborn." He is
not ashamed of His people! He acknowledged His great love with
which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sin,
just as He loved His people Israel when they were still in bondage
and in degradation. "He loved my soul out of the Pit," said one of
old. He loved us when we were lying in our blood like an infant
cast out unswaddled and unwashed. When no eye pitied us in the
day of our nativity and we were cast out in the open field, He
passed by and it was a time of love. And He said unto us, "Live."
Oh, wondrous Grace of God, that He acknowledges His son when
that son is still an Egyptian slave!
Moreover, God acknowledged His people when they did not
acknowledge Him, for His name, "Jehovah," was scarcely known
to them. Although Moses presented himself to them with evident
credentials, they were ready enough to reject him. We are informed
in other parts of the Scripture that they had gone aside to false
gods. During their sojourn in Egypt the Israelites fell into the
prevailing superstition of the country and they forsook the Lord.
Some little light still lingered among them. Some traditions were
treasured and transmitted from sire to son in solemn trust.
Doubtless there was a remnant of pious souls, faithful to the God of
Abraham. The bones of Joseph, preserved in Goshen as a memorial
of the oath that he took of their tribes, subsequently were carried
through all their devious wanderings in the wilderness and
ultimately buried in Sechem, as you read in the last chapter of the
book of Joshua and they, I say, vouch for a fidelity we cannot
wantonly forget.
But the bulk of the people had fallen into the snares which
surrounded them and conformed to the fashions of those among
whom their fortunes were cast–whose many gods and lords were
superstitiously served in secret. They were not a people who could
have scraped together so much as a molehill of merit if they had
tried! They were a vain and vicious people, prone to supplant, yet
utterly supplanted. They were especially sinful because their
marked proclivities which might have developed on the side of
virtue were perverted into stains and stigmas on their reputation.
Yet Jehovah says, "Israel is My son, even My firstborn." And does
the Lord acknowledge His people when they know Him not? Ah,
blessed be His name, He does, or else they would never come to
know Him! We love Him, now, because He first loved us and if
there had not been that antecedent knowledge of us–and love
towards us–we had not now been what we now are.
Oh, the freeness and spontaneity of the Grace of God that He
should know His people and call them His own even when, as yet,
they know Him not! He acknowledged this people by affirming His
Covenant. "Israel is My son." He was referring to the Covenant
which He had made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob of old. And the
Lord knows His people and shows favor to them, not because of
anything personal to recommend them, for there is no superiority in
their nature, no brightness in their intellect, no beauty in their
disposition that can be pleasing in His sight! The only title to Grace
in His eyes is that ancient Covenant ordered in all things and sure
which He has made, not with Abraham, but with our Lord Jesus,
who stands as our Covenant Head!
We do not sufficiently reflect upon the Covenant as the great deep
that lies under the fountain of many waters out of which all the
wells of salvation continue to be filled with the living waters of
Grace–
"Never had you felt the guilt of sin,
Or sweets of pardoning love,
Unless your worthless name had been
Enrolled to life above."
If you had not an interest in that Covenant which He made in the
eternal council chamber long before the earth was most assuredly
in hapless, hopeless obscurity, you would have lived and died! This
was the reason why He called Israel His son! An ancient Covenant
had made Israel to be so regarded. How sweet it is that He does not
merely speak about the people as being His people, but He says,
"Israel is My son." There is a love between father and son which
cannot be found elsewhere. Blood is thicker than water.
Relationship has ties that cannot be relaxed.
"Yes, but," says one, "Does God ever call His people, in any
place, His sons before they are regenerate?" Well, there is a text
that says, "Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of
His Son into your hearts, whereby you cry, Abba, Father." It is
because, in the purpose of God, His people are really His sons
before they know anything at all about it, that in due time He sends
the Spirit of His Son to give them the nature of children that they
may enjoy the adoption of children and say, "Abba, Father." O
Beloved, it is delightful to think that the Lord should look upon us
before we are born–before we are born again–with a love that
cannot be measured and cannot be broken! The gist of this
affirming was thus–"Israel is My son. You, Pharaoh, may call him
your slave, but he is My child. He was Mine before he was yours.
Israel is My son. You say, 'No, he is my serf.' I say, though he has
fallen under your yoke, I will maintain My right to him as My
firstborn. He is a prince and to that estate he shall be raised."
The Lord has a claim upon His people–a claim which all the
claims of Law and all the clamors of sin and death and Hell shall
never be able to deny. And though they basely submit to the claims
of the Wicked One and make a covenant with Death and a league
with Hell, yet shall Jehovah's claim upon them stand, for thus says
the Lord, "Your league with Death is broken and your covenant
with Hell is disannulled." The Lord Jesus will not suffer those
whom He has made to be His own people and ransomed by the
bloody purchase upon the Cross to remain the slaves of sin and
Satan! They are His. His Father gave them to Him. They are His!
He bought them. They are His! Their names are written on His
hands and engraved on His side. They are His! He will not suffer so
much as one of them to remain in bondage to the adversary.
By thus acknowledging His people, He puts in a positive claim
which puts all other claims on one side. With the bare assertion of
absolute right He demands their unconditional freedom. "Thus says
the Lord, Israel is My son, even My firstborn: and I say unto you,
let My son go." What a grand verse that is! What an imperial edict
it contains! As in the narrative of the Cosmos, God said, "Light be,
and light was," so in the history of the exodus, short words are
launched with Sovereign force–"Let My son go." Well might the
proud heart of Pharaoh have quailed before the Almighty, whose
lips asserted a right which His arm was instantly able to enforce.
How aptly those tones apply to our deliverance from under the
Law! The Law includes all mankind under its curse–the god of this
world claims the whole human race as his subjects. In due time our
Redeemer appears.
The Lord Jesus comes, identifies Himself with the enslaved
family, bears the curse, fulfils the Law and then on the ground of
simple justice demands for them full and perfect liberty, having
fulfilled for them the precept and for them endured the penalty!
"Let My son go." On what pretext could the Law, unless it were
lawless and unjust, put in a claim which has been discharged, or
urge a right which has already been fulfilled? No, from under the
Law the people of God go free and their joy is that they are not
under the Law but under Grace! And how gloriously do those tones
sound when they come with force and power to rescue us from the
tyranny of sin and Satan! The Prince of the power of the air holds
men in subjection. He prejudices them and so stops their ears
against the Gospel. He seals their eyes against the Eternal Light,
but thus says the Lord, "Let My son go," and immediately the
prejudice vanishes, the ears are opened, Eternal Truth shines into
the heart, scales drop from the eyes and the soul beholds the
Heaven-born Light and begins to rejoice!
Satan will tie a soul down, sometimes, in very heavy bondage. I
have known him fasten a soul down with steel chains and eternal
life. But, "Thus says the Lord, let My son go." The iron bands have
snapped in a moment and the man has risen to hope and liberty, for
the Lord's voice breaks the chains! Fast bound by fearful habits
which seemed impossible to give up–having plunged into one sin
after another–the man has been shut in by one iron gate and then by
another and another and was enclosed in the innermost ward of the
prison. But at midnight he has been struck on the side when he was
asleep in his senseless carelessness.
Around him has shone a great light–the Covenant Angel has come
to him and led him through gate after gate! The iron gates have
opened of their own accord and the man has found himself free and
scarcely knew whether it was true or not! He knew not that it was
true, but thought he saw a vision. The thing has been scarcely done
before he has found himself to be alive and delivered from the
bonds of sin, filled with astonishment at himself and saying, "How
can this be?" His tongue has been filled with singing and his mouth
with laughter and he has said, "The Lord has done great things for
me, of which I am glad."
Well, Beloved, the tones of that august voice which said, "Let My
son go" will continue to echo as long as you and I are here below!
We shall continue to be let go! This glorious liberty shall be made
more manifest to us daily. Are we not as creatures made subject to
vanity and compassed with infirmity? By-and-by we shall be
liberated from the bondage of the flesh! Our bodies shall go down
into the grave and lie there for a while in the prison of the tomb,
but that voice which quickened us into spiritual life will resuscitate
our bodies and cause them to enter into the resurrection-life of
Christ! Through the dark, dismal vaults will sound the loud,
cheerful voice "Let My son go," and there shall not a bone of a
Believer be left.
As it was said of old, "not a hoof shall be left behind," so nothing
that belongs to redeemed man shall be left in the grave. "Of all that
You have given Me I have lost nothing," says Christ, and truly, of
person and of things–of all the people and of all that shall belong to
the people to make up their manhood–there shall nothing be lost–
the Lord shall have His own and His Grace shall triumph! This
voice of God is an acknowledgment of His people and a claim for
their deliverance–but no less is it an ordaining of their destiny. "Let
My son go, that he may serve Me." Oh yes, Beloved, we are no
sooner set free from serving Pharaoh than we begin to serve
Jehovah! "Let My son go, that he may serve Me."
And in what capacity did Israel serve God? It was in the loftiest
capacity possible! Israel became Jehovah's priest. It was in Israel
that the sacrifice was offered. In Israel the incense was burnt. From
Israel went up the sacred Psalm. Israel stood before the Lord in that
high position of sacred privilege. So, likewise, is it that as soon as a
man is brought out of the bondage of sin, he presents unto the Lord
the sacrifice of Christ by faith and afterwards goes on to present
himself a living sacrifice. Thus his thanksgivings and his broken
and contrite heart are perpetual oblations and offerings of a sweet
smelling savor, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Israel became
the servant of God by way of preserving the Testimony. His were
the Oracles. Israel kept the knowledge of the one God. Israel kept
the Revelation of the Most High. While all the world outside was
dark, Israel preserved the Light.
To this end, in like manner, Brothers and Sisters, you and I are
called of God. If He has brought us up out of the Egypt of sin, we
are to present daily sacrifice. We are to bear daily testimony to the
Truth of God. And oh, if we do not–should we begin to stagger
through unbelief, or speak with bated breath of the Truth that has
been surely made known to us. Should the fear of man, or the
fashion of the age so beguile our hearts, becloud our eyes, belie our
good profession and utterly befool our common sense that we shall
blush to bear our testimony–what shame must cover us! What
confusion must take hold upon us! But, blessed be His name, He
will keep His own true to His Word. If it were possible, the free-
thinkers and the false teachers in these days would deceive the very
elect–but that is out of the question–it is beyond the range of
possibility!
All God's children shall be taught of the Lord and they shall hold
His Truth and bear witness to it, even to the world's end! Israel was
to be God's servant to serve Him by walking by faith. What a
wonderful 40 years' walk that was in the wilderness! They did not
live up to it but still, the spirit of that march of mystery was very
wonderful. Without sowing or reaping they were fed! They were
supplied with water without fountain, reservoir, or watercourse.
They were guided without a compass and without one sign of track
way over shifting sand! Yet they were always well-fed, wellhoused
and, what was still more marvelous, their camps were well shaded
by day and well lit by night! They had a choice experience of
having nothing and yet possessing everything! With no fertile fields
or fruitful trees, yet Israel was made to live upon the fat of the
kidneys of wheat and to ride upon the high places of the earth. She
had all things and she abounded. The Lord was her Shepherd and
she did not want!
We are often called upon to serve God and that very
conspicuously, though we may be little conscious of it when we are
required to walk by faith. This is the work of God, the grandest
work a man can do–to believe on Him whom He has sent. The
godlike work, the work of works is this–to walk by faith, living
upon the unseen God! Israel was to be God's servant by continually
dwelling in happy fellowship with God and waiting upon Him with
holy worship. Nowhere else, in all the world, was a Passover or a
feast of tabernacles kept to do Him homage–and nowhere else was
the Sabbath hallowed and observed. With them, alone, Jehovah
dwelt and among them Jehovah shone forth. And so, Beloved, if
you and I have been called out of bondage, it is that we may serve
the Lord!
Are we all alive to our obligation? Are we faithful to our higher
calling? Are we doing our sworn, sacred duty? If anyone here is
rescued this night from the grip of the Destroyer, delivered from
the bondage of this evil world, saved from the damning power of
sin–know that when you leave one corps, you must enlist into
another corps! You come in fresh from the enemy's camp, not to be
treated as a prisoner, but as a recruit! You must enlist to assail the
powers and passions you once defended. God would have you
become His servant that you may serve Him with joy and gladness
all your days. Thus, then, I have opened up the voice of God as far
as my time or strength or knowledge has permitted.
II. Now, secondly, here was THE VOICE OF MAN. What a
comedown it seems to be. "You shall say unto Pharaoh, Thus says
the Lord, Let My son go." Why did not the Lord say it Himself?
Why did He need to pick up a Moses and send him to say it? Well,
dear Friends, had the Lord said it Himself to Pharaoh, it would
have been very startling and Pharaoh must have yielded ultimately
to the Divine fiat–but don't you see the deeper marvel in the milder
proceeding–when Jehovah, as it were, hides His power and cloaks
it in weakness?
Instead of appealing to Pharaoh with that Voice which breaks the
cedars of Lebanon and makes the hinds to calve, He speaks to him
by one who was slow of speech and of a stammering tongue! Now,
if God's voice can vanquish Pharaoh when it masks itself behind
the feebleness of a stuttering, stammering Moses, it will be more
glorious than it would have been if it had used no instrumentality
whatever! Why does not the Lord speak to every sinner directly
and bring him out and save him? Well–He might do so. He might
do it if He would–but when He condescends, instead, to take us
poor mortals who have tasted of His love and says to us, "Now you
go and be My voice: you go and speak for Me," oh, then His Grace
and power are not less conspicuous, but they are far more
admirable! In using such ill-adapted tools for the accomplishment
of His great designs, He shows His own transcendent power!
That famous well-cover at Antwerp, just opposite the cathedral–
one of the finest pieces of worked iron that was ever known–is said
to have been made by Quintyn Matsys with nothing but a hammer
and a file, his fellow workmen having taken away his tools. If it is
so, the more praise is due to his consummate skill. All the works of
God redound to His Glory–but when the tools He uses appear to be
totally inadequate to the results He achieves–our reverence is
excited, while our reason is abashed and we marvel at a power we
cannot understand! This comes home to some of us very closely.
Let us put it to ourselves. Does the Lord take you, my Brother, or
has He taken me–and does He speak words of eternal power
through our poor little tongues–through these unruly members that
are prone to do so much mischief?
If He really wins souls through them, or pulls down the pride of
Pharaoh through them, then shall it ring through eternity that the
Lord has done marvelous things! He has taken the worm and made
him to be a sharp thrashing instrument, having teeth–and made him
to thrash the mountains! He has chosen the weak things of the
world to confuse the things which are mighty! Out of the mouth of
babes and sucklings has He ordained strength because of His
enemies, that He might still the enemy and the avenger. Unto His
name be Glory forever and ever!
The feebleness of the human voice has never appeared more
palpable than when it has attempted to repeat the sentences which
have been uttered by the mouth of the Lord. Moses seems to think
that there must be some mistake! Can it be that God means to bring
Israel out of Egypt by him? Whenever God designs to make His
servants eminently useful, He lets them know their frailty. The
more treasure there is in the vessel, the less will its comeliness be
vaunted. It is mere common ware, an earthen vessel that the
excellency of the power may be of God and not of us! But when
Moses found that he really was employed of God, how fearless he
was of ridicule! He went in unto Pharaoh and delivered his
Master's message.
The interview with Moses and Aaron must have seemed
supremely ridiculous to Pharaoh. It put him into a great rage. These
two Israelites, wretched slaves, coming to tell the great king of
Egypt that he must let Israel go! How absurd! Even to the Israelites
it must have appeared preposterous, for two persons such as these
to go in before the king. Why, with a word he could have said,
"Take off the dogs' heads," and so have ended all the business
directly! Yet they went and bearded him in his royal palace and
delivered what he might think a vain menace, but what they knew
to be a veritable message from God! Insignificant as we, of
ourselves, may be, the very fact that God instructs us to speak
might suffice to quell our fears. We must go and speak the Lord's
message and must not be afraid of being thought infatuated.
When I have sometimes bid a sinner live and believe in Christ, I
have heard a mutter, "What is the good of telling a dead man to
live?" Some wise Brother has said, "You might as well shake a
pocket handkerchief over a grave." Yes, Brother, it is true–quite
true. So might Moses as well have shaken a pocket handkerchief
outside Pharaoh's palace but, when God bid him to go and tell
Pharaoh to let His people go, he went and did it. And when the
Lord bids any of us go to a sinner and say, "Believe," we cannot
make the sinner believe–neither can he make himself believe–but
the preacher sent of God is an echo of God's voice! God speaks
through him! With authority he is commissioned to say to the
sinner, "Turn you, turn you; why will you die? Repent and be
baptized, every one of you."
We are bid to speak peremptorily, as ambassadors of the King–not
because of any prerogative we assume–but as we commend
ourselves to every man's conscience, there is power in our
message. The voice that speaks by stammering Moses is Divine,
notwithstanding the ridicule that may be heaped upon it. Moses,
having such a command to go and speak, must be undeterred by
refusal. "I know not the Lord," said Pharaoh, "neither will I let His
people go." Now, dear Brother, you cannot win souls unless you
are prepared to meet with strong rebuffs. Yes, but some are
heartbroken if any resistance is offered them! You may expect it.
Old human nature does not know the Lord.
You remember how Melancthon thought he was going to convert
any number of people when he began to preach, but when he found
out his mistake, he said, "Old Adam is too strong for young
Melancthon." So he is. You will come across a bit of grit every now
and then which will break your knife. Be not dismayed, the Lord
will sharpen you and make you stronger and stronger yet, for even
that Pharaoh who said, "I will not let the people go," will be down
on his knees presently begging the people to depart! We must be
prepared for opposition and neither flinch nor quail, but brace
ourselves up for the struggle.
So, too, the man whom God sends ought to be assured of success.
I am persuaded that Moses, after he got over his first little
difficulties with the people and recovered from his own diffidence,
parleyed not with doubt, but was strong in faith. There he stood
with the wondrous rod, turning waters into blood and slaying all
their fish; covering the heavens with blackness; turning the dust
into living creatures; bringing hail and grievous murrain and doing
it all as calmly and quietly as he should do who feels that he is the
voice of God! How steadily he kept at his work! With what
diligence he persevered in it, till at last the 10
th plague found Moses unmoved, ready to conduct the people
away to the Red Sea and to
bring them out into the wilderness!
O servants of God, be calm and confident! Go on preaching the
Gospel! Go on teaching in the Sunday school! Go on giving away
tracts! Go on with steady perseverance! Be sure of this–you shall
not labor in vain or spend your strength for nothing! Do you still
stutter? Are you still slow of speech? Nevertheless, go on! Have
you been rebuked and rebuffed? Have you had little else but
defeat? This is the way to success! You shall pave the road with the
rough flints of your failure! Toil on and believe on! Be steadfast in
your confidence, for with an high hand and an outstretched arm the
Lord will fetch out His elect and He will fetch some of them out by
you! Only trust in the Lord and hold on the even tenor of your way!
III. Our last word is upon THE POWER OF GOD. Without the
power of God the voice of man would have been an utter failure.
What effect was produced by the voice of Moses? Went there not
forth with it a power which plagued Pharaoh? It filled the sinful
land of Egypt with plagues! So men that preach God's Gospel with
God's power fill the world with plagues. "I know that," a man says.
"I wish I had never listened to that fellow. I could not sleep last
night." No, the frogs were his bedchamber! The true preacher finds
his hearer sometimes saying, "I will never go again. Wherever I
am, I seem to be haunted and tormented with the Truth of God that
man has spoken so badly and so boldly. The commands he enforces
run counter to the prejudices I cherish! They alarm my conscience
and worry me incessantly."
Yes, he has made a simple sermon bring forth all manner of flies–
thoughts that will sting a man wherever he goes and he cannot
escape from them! He still kicks and strives against the Gospel–
rebels against it, won't have it–gets angry; goes to the theater one
night; joins in a little social revelry another night, but to no
purpose. He does not enjoy anything! He scarcely knows why.
Soon a thick darkness comes over the whole scene of life, as the
darkness came over all the land of Egypt. All that was beautiful and
brilliant is now obscured. All that was pleasant and joyous is now
eclipsed. The man finds that he does not even enjoy the ordinary
comforts of life! He does not know why. He does not intend to
yield to the Gospel, yet his very bread seems sour and the water he
draws from the well is brackish and bitter.
His troubles multiply and follow one another in quick succession.
Now a hail storm that leaves desolation behind! Then a grievous
disease among the cattle. The hand of the Lord is not confined to
the farm. It will visit your home. His terrible judgment reaches
your family, your fondest love, your firstborn son. As of old there
was a cry going up in the land of Egypt so that it was intolerable to
stay there, so God lays bare His arm in the exceedingly great
plagues which His terrible Law brings upon a man! When He
means to fetch him out and bring him to Himself, God's servants
become the harbingers of plagues! Jesus Himself said, "I came not
to send peace on the earth, but a sword."
That sword is unsheathed and families are divided against each
other with the grand intent that Israel should be brought out and
peace established by the Redemption which Jehovah has provided.
What will occur, by-and-by? Why, the oppressor will be glad to
part with his bondmen. It sometimes happens that the ungodly
become very glad to get rid of God's chosen people whom they are
prone to persecute. "Their melancholy ill agrees with our
liveliness," so they say. They did all they could to invite them to
their parties and get them into their frivolities again–they laid traps
for them to keep them away from hearing the Gospel–but now the
Lord has begun to deal with them!
Their old companions say, "Now we must leave him." "I have
tried all I could to get our old comrade back to our old parties,"
says one, "but, really, he said such things that he quite poisoned all
our pleasures. We could not enjoy ourselves! I say, let us get rid of
him. Do not let him be in our company any more." Yes, it is a grand
thing when the preaching of the Gospel makes the ungodly want to
keep the converts away from their cliques–when they say, "Oh, go
off to the Tabernacle! We do not want you here. You have pestered
us enough with your religion, your prayers, your crying, your tears,
your talk about being lost and your needing to find a Savior! You
are bad company and you had better be gone."
A lady who joined this Church some years ago, moving in the
higher circles of society, said to me, "I was quite willing to
continue my acquaintance with my friends, but I found they gave
me the cold shoulder and did not want me." Just so. It is a great
mercy when the Egyptians say, "Get you gone," and when they are
ready to give you jewels of silver and jewels of gold to get rid of
you! The Lord wants His people to come right out and to be
separate! He knows how to, by the simple utterance of the Gospel,
put such a division between His people and those who are not His
people, that even the ungodly shall begin to say, "Get you gone!
We want to have nothing further to do with you!" Glory be to God
when such a thing as that happens!
And the Lord knows how to make all opposition cease, for it is
written that when Israel came out of Egypt, not so much as a dog
moved his tongue against the children of Israel. Before, they were
such slaves that if a cur barked at them they dared not turn against
it, for fear it should be the dog of an Egyptian who would be surely
down upon them for meddling with his dog. How dare a slave do
that? Everybody was against them. But when the Lord brought
them out, there was not a dog that dared bark that night! The
Egyptians were all anxious that they should be gone and willing
that they should go. And Pharaoh, too, must have astonished his
subjects with his sudden zeal to see this strange people gone. Do
you know what that means?
Oh, what fights and battles; what wars and strife there were in my
soul when I was trying to find Christ! My old sins came up against
me! My memory unearthed buried trespasses–faults and failings
gathered in force like a flood and threatened to overwhelm me.
Everything in my constant studies and in my daily experiences
seemed to drive me back from Christ. But on that memorable
Sabbath morning when I heard the word, "Look unto Me, and be
you saved, all the ends of the earth," I did look and lo, against me
not a dog did move his tongue! My sins did not complain! They
were drowned in the Red Sea of Jesus' blood! My old corruptions–I
did not know at the time that I had any–they were so very quiet!
Temptations ceased to trouble me!
For that little while, at any rate, the warrior seemed to sheathe his
sword and the brick maker laid down his clay to go out of Egypt
with jewels of silver and jewels of gold! I could sing unto the Lord,
for He had triumphed gloriously! I have met some of these old
Egyptians since then–a good number of them–and I have had some
hard dealings with them. But, at that time, all was still and quiet,
happy and blessed–
"Happy day, happy day,
When Jesus washed my sins away!"
With the Paschal Lamb in our mouths nobody dares to challenge
us. The blood on the door is an unanswerable answer to every
accuser, caviler, or adversary! Glory be to God, then, who thus can
fetch out His people and deliver them from their sins, their lusts,
their habits, their passions–deliver them from death–deliver them
from going down into the Pit and so deliver them that none shall
lay anything to their charge, since God has justified them and
Christ has absolved them!
May the Lord grant us Grace to be used as His instruments as
Moses was. And may we, each one of us, cry unto the Lord if we
are in bondage, just as Israel did in Egypt! May the Lord in mercy
send forth concerning every poor sinner here just such a message as
He sent concerning His people in the house of bondage–"Thus says
the Lord, Let My son go, that he may serve Me." If He will thus
work among us as in the olden times, to Him shall be the glory now
at this present, yes, and forevermore. Amen!
Ex 6:9 • To the Saddest of the Sad
ERMON 2026
To The Saddest Of The Sad
"And Moses spoke so unto the children of Israel: but they
hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit and for cruel
bondage."
Exodus 6:9
LITTLE words often contain great meanings. It is often the case
with that monosyllable "so." In the present instance we must lay
stress upon it and read the text thus–"Moses spoke so unto the
children of Israel." That is, he said what God told him to say. He
did not invent his message. He did not think out the Gospel that he
had to carry to the people. He was simply a repeater of the Divine
message. As he received it, so he spoke it. "Moses spoke so unto
the children of Israel." If he had not done so, the responsibility
must have rested upon himself, whether the nation was moved by
his words or not. But when he was simply God's ambassador,
saying only what God would have him say, his responsibility was
limited.
If he delivered the Lord's own Word and it failed to win the heart
of Israel, he could not be blamed. Although it was a great sadness
of heart to him that the people did not and even could not receive
the Divine message, yet as far as he was concerned, his conscience
was clear. It is ever so with the preacher of the Gospel–if he
declares the Word of the Lord as he has received it, whether men
will hear or whether they will not, he is clear before God, whatever
his hearers may do or may not do.
I often wonder what those preachers do who feel called to make
up their message as they go on. For if they fail, their failure must
be attributed in great measure to their want of ability to make up a
moving tale. They have to spread their sails to the breeze of the age
and to pick up a Gospel that comes floating down to them on the
stream of time, altering every week in the year. And they must have
an endless task to catch this new idea, or, as they put it, to keep
abreast of the age. Unless, indeed, like chameleons, they have a
natural aptitude to change color, they must have a worrying time of
it and a horrible amount of shifting to get through.
When they have done their best to preach this gospel of their
own, then they are accountable for having made that gospel. For
every bit of its teaching they are accountable because they were the
manufacturers of it and it came forth from their foundry, bearing
their stamp. If they take this yoke upon them and so refuse to learn
of Christ, they will find no rest for their souls. To me the preaching
of the Lord's own Gospel is a joy and a privilege. Concern for your
souls loads me with the burden of the Lord–it is His burden and not
one which I have selected for myself. I often feel on a Sabbath
night when I go home weary–"I know that I have preached what I
believe to be God's Gospel."
I have not said anything–I have not intended to say anything that
was my own. I have not left out, at least I have not intended to
leave out, anything that was in the text, nor anything which I
believe to be the teaching of the Gospel of Christ. And then if you
do not receive it, that is a sorrowful business, but it is no concern of
mine so that I shall have to answer for it at the Last Great Day.
When a man-servant goes to the door with a message from his
master, if you do not like what he tells you, do not be angry with
him. What has he to do with it? Has he said what his master told