THE GOSPEL AS EXPRESSING THE WILL OF GOD
[p. 354] THE GOSPEL AS EXPRESSING THE WILL OF GOD
Genesis 22:10 - 14; Job 37:7 - 10; Luke 19:28 - 36
These scriptures are selected because they speak in figure of persons or things held by the will of God. First, in the book of Genesis, Christ Himself is held, as typified in the ram caught in the thicket by its horns; secondly, in the book of Job, the hand of every man is sealed, and by the breath of God ice is given, so that the breadth of the waters is straitened — figurative of Christ held in death according to the will of God; and, thirdly, the colt is tied up, symbolising young men and young women, who are held under God by their parents until the Lord Jesus demands them. The Lord has rights over each, as I hope to show from the first two scriptures, for He has given Himself a ransom for all, and hence has a right to all. He has a creative right to all, and also a redemptive right.
In the first scripture we have our Lord Jesus prefigured as held by the will of God; that is, the ram was held by its horns, and was offered up instead of Isaac. In the garden of Gethsemane our Lord was held in this way. He had a right in His own Person to return to heaven, even as Man here on earth; but from the point of view before us now, He was held here, and entered into death to accomplish the will of God. He spoke to His Father in the garden; He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible to thee: take away this cup from me; but not what I will, but what thou wilt” (Mark 14:36). Hence He was held by the will of God. Faith sees this. We are told that Abraham “lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold, behind was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt-offering instead of his son”. And hence he “called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh”. So we also may call this place by the same name; it is a place where God provides for the needs of our souls.
We are told in the Scriptures that “the Father has sent the Son as Saviour of the world” (1 John 4:14). Christ was divinely provided as Sacrifice for us, and we read: “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10). The Lord Jesus, the Son, was in perfect accord with the Father in this great work. But in Gethsemane He was facing death immediately, with the forsaking of God which it would involve, and hence He shrank from it rightly; but He said, “not my will, but thine be done” (Luke 22:42). So He went on to the cross; He was nailed to it; He was forsaken there; with a loud voice He cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”. The answer is — our sins. He was bearing them there; it was the will of God. And having borne them, He cried again with a loud voice, and gave up His spirit. The work of atonement, from that point of view, was completed. He was forsaken of God, and He entered into death as the judgment of God. He was “made sin for us, that we might become God’s righteousness in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
But His burial also was necessary, hence it is said: “By the breath of God ice is given”. That verse evidently alludes to the power of death in which Christ was held. In His Person He could not be held by it, but the will of God required that He should be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Believers ought to understand that redemption is not only from our sins, but from sin and the power of death. So the gospel announces that He has annulled death; the annulling of death involved that He lay in it three days and three nights, but He could not be held by its power; God raised Him from the dead, “having loosed the pains of death” (Acts 2:24). Hence our sins are dealt with, and sin in the flesh is dealt with, and death itself is vanquished to the glory of God. As Scripture triumphantly says, He “was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification” (Romans 4:25). The resurrection involved that He had been actually in the tomb. The angel at the grave says to the women: “Come, see the place where the Lord lay” (Matthew 28:6). He lay there three days and three nights, and this is included in His death and His atoning sufferings. But at the end, He was raised again for our justification, and He is now presented in the gospel as “a mercy-seat, through faith in his blood” (Romans 3:25). The work is all the carrying out of the will of God, completed in infinite perfection. Hence “the gospel of God” is “concerning his Son ... Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 1:3). It is said that He “died for our sins, according to the scriptures; and ... was buried; and ... was raised the third day, according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3,4), so that there is nothing for the sinner to do for his salvation; God does it all! What a magnificent platform the gospel is on! The sinner comes into all the benefits of the work of Christ on the principle of faith. As the Lord said of the woman in Simon the Pharisee’s house: “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven” — that was for everybody to hear; but to herself He said: “Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace” (Luke 7:50).
In Job 37:7 we read: “He sealeth up the hand of every man; that all men may know his work”. Thus God would tie up our hands, if we think we can do anything to save ourselves. We have come to it that “salvation is of the Lord”, as Jonah said, who, having been “down to the bottoms of the mountains”, was vomited by the fish on the dry land. If there are any here who are depending on their works — what they have done, or are doing,
[p. 357] or are going to do — for the salvation of their souls, let them give it up for ever! God, in asserting His will, is asserting also His love, for His will has in view that we should be saved. He has Himself provided the sacrifice in the Person of Christ, so that forgiveness of sins is preached now, and “all that believe are justified from all things” (Acts 13:39). Let us take it in definitely into our souls.
Then in verse 8 we are told: “The wild beast goeth into its lair, and they remain in their dens”. Thus it is that God prevents the enemy from hindering us as we seek the benefit of the work of Christ. We all, who are believers, know how Satan has sought to prevent us, and for a time succeeded in preventing us from believing in Christ. But this verse says “the wild beast goeth into its lair, and they remain in their dens”. Thus God limits the power of the enemy. Young believers do well to consider this.
We read in the first chapter of this book that Satan also came when the sons of God came before Jehovah, and the facts stated show that God had been guarding Job. Indeed, as we confess with our mouths Jesus as Lord, and believe in our hearts that God has raised Him from among the dead, we are saved even from the power of the enemy (Romans 10:9). Salvation is not only from the judgment of God, but also from the world and from the devil. As to the world, it is said that our Lord Jesus Christ “gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world” (Galatians 1:4). Then, as to the devil, we are told that Christ has annulled “him who has the might of death, that is, the devil”, and has “set free all those who through fear of death through the whole of their life were subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:14,15). So that, as the believer resists the devil, the devil flees from him; as it were, he goes into his lair and remains there. This is the power available to those who believe.
[p. 358] Then in verse 9 of our chapter we are told, “From the chamber of the south cometh the whirlwind, and cold from the winds of the north”, and in verse 11: “with plentiful moisture he loadeth the thick clouds, his light dispels the cloud”. Then in verse 17 we read of the south wind, “Thy garments become warm when he quieteth the earth by the south wind”. The believer is thus wonderfully provided for according to this chapter. God balances the clouds for him, and moreover his garments become warm when God quieteth the earth by the south wind. In this remarkable book, we see how God acts for the believer, how He acts in view of our salvation through Christ who did His will. We see how He gives us power to resist the devil, having annulled him, and how He acts in our circumstances in His love — balancing our clouds, and making our clothes warm by His south wind. We feel something of the south wind in this meeting today. Thus such a meeting is the best place for one who seeks to believe on the Lord; everything is in his favour; divine love is operating in the hearts of the brethren here; it makes our clothes warm. So that the word to such would be: Why not join in with those who are so blessed? The will of God requires it, and if any refuse to bow to His will now, they will have to bow to it in eternal judgment. Disobedience to the gospel, according to the second epistle to the Thessalonians, is placed as a chief reason for eternal judgment; those who disobey the gospel are punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. Now God is in infinite favour towards men; the apostle Paul said he was an ambassador for Christ, beseeching men to be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:20).
Then the Lord has need of you. In our third scripture we have the colt. “And it came to pass as he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany at the [p. 359] mountain called the mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying, Go into the village over against you, in which ye will find, on entering it, a colt tied up, on which no child of man ever sat at any time: loose it and lead it here”. This colt, as we said at the beginning, represents a young man or a young woman held under the authority of God by some hand; it may be a child of believing parents who exercise their influence over him to keep him from the world and the devil. The colt is held in a wonderful environment; Jerusalem here represents the great thoughts of God — the city of the great king; the King Himself was here too, approaching Jerusalem. Bethany, Bethphage and the mount of Olives also all speak of advantageous environment. These places, villages, towns, do not represent the theatres of this world, the places of amusement, or even the places of recreation; but they represent spiritual thoughts. A young person brought up thus, and held in this position, is now the object of Christ’s solicitation. The Lord is here today, as really as He was then, saying: I have need of him. We are told that the two disciples were sent, and “as they were loosing the colt, its masters said to them, Why loose ye the colt? And they said, Because the Lord has need of it. And they led it to Jesus”.
Let us extend the thought to a father, a mother; they are surely masters of their child; their authority over him, however, is in love, and, if they are believers, they have held him in love until the Lord puts in His claim. Doubtless parents have brought their children here now, and they are ready to let the Lord put in His claim. The masters readily allowed the disciples to loose the colt, when told that the Lord had need of it. And now the Lord is here, putting in His claim; He is saying, The Lord has need of it. Can any young person here resist or refuse the Lord’s claim as it is put to him in this meeting? It says, “They led it to Jesus”. How readily the saints here, specially those of us who are serving, would help any young person, so as to lead him to Jesus. Henceforth the colt was at the Lord’s service: “having cast their own garments on the colt, they put Jesus on it”. The Lord sat on this colt; He was carried by it into Jerusalem, as the prophet Zechariah had foretold.
Now a word to the young believers here who are, as we say, in fellowship. The Lord has need of each. It is not to carry Him in a literal way, but to carry the testimony. We are drawing near to the end of this wonderful dispensation, and the Lord would enlist every young person to carry the testimony triumphantly to the end. The Lord, in this passage, is touchingly presented in testimony: “Blessed the King that comes in the name of the Lord”; and then, “Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest”. May God bless these words to us all!