PREACHING OF THE WORD OF GOD
Peter Buchan (now with Christ)
I was encouraged to read this scripture as we sang that hymn:
'With souls that glow, with hearts that yearn
Thy glory, Lord, to see'
(No 192)
It was just that word - 'souls that glow' - that confirmed me because I had been thinking of this scripture, "a glowing coal", a glowing coal from the altar. I greatly desire that tonight a glowing coal may be used in applying in the power of the Holy Spirit a word that will meet the sinner where he is in his sins. If there is a sinner here, there is a Saviour here, and that Saviour is Jesus. Perhaps you have never thought that you needed Him. It is a remarkable thing that this man - the prophet Isaiah - says, "for mine eyes have seen the king". I would like to raise the question with every person in this room: have you seen the King? That is something to answer. Isaiah says, "Mine eyes have seen the King". Later on in the prophecy he says, "Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty; they shall behold the land that is far off ", chap 33: 17. But here he is as a guilty sinner. He heard a voice in the temple, a voice that shook the foundations of the temple: "And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him that cried". One of the seraphim was speaking: "Holy, holy, holy". Ah! when you are into the presence of God, dear friends, you are made to realise that you are in the presence of One who is supreme and must be listened to. But there is a beautiful touch at the altar: the touch of the seraphim. Isaiah said, "I am undone". He had to say it for himself. He says, "Woe unto me! for I am undone; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips". He had nothing to say for himself! I often wonder at people who talk about somebody else, but they have never come to this: "Woe unto me!" It is a searching matter: it searches me too. "Woe unto me!" he says. When he had said that, immediately it says, "And one of the seraphim flew" - a witness to the activities of divine love and grace, the swiftness of such activities! It says that he flew with "a glowing coal which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar". It has rightly been said that there were no tongs in the sufferings of Jesus; they were absolutely direct. I am speaking with the utmost reverence and feeling of the sufferings of Christ. The holiness of God and the rights and the claims of His throne were met by the offering of One for whom there was no mitigation of wrath. No mitigation! But here the seraph uses the tongs and he touches the lips of this sinner. He says, "thine iniquity is taken away". And who bore the iniquity? My friend, it was Jesus, it was He who bore the curse. At a reading recently we were speaking of the wrath, the curse and the altar. If you take away the altar and leave only the curse, where are you or I going to be?
There is nothing but wrath and distance from God left for me - no hope for the sinner because the curse is on him. But there was One who bore the curse. That is why we get the altar - wonderful divine provision! These are things that should touch our hearts. So here there is provision immediately in the mercy of God, yet His holiness, His justice and righteousness were maintained. Every attribute of God is upheld and maintained by the cross of Christ, beloved; it remains and stands.
I would like to tell you about this glowing coal. The very fact that it is glowing shows the current application, at any time, of the cross of Christ and the blood of Jesus. It can never pass into history. The things of this world, things that you see at any time, pass into history: “the world is passing, and its lust, but he that does the will of God abides for eternity", 1 John 2: 17. The cross of Christ stands; there is a hymn which says that: 'The cross still stands unchanged' (No 349). It does not mean that you could go to Calvary today and see it there. No, that has gone. But the word of the cross remains, it is “to them that perish foolishness, but to us that are saved it is God's power" (1 Cor 1: 18), and it is the wisdom of God. The cross of Christ stands, it remains unchanged and unchangeable, and the blood of Jesus remains unchanged. It cannot be otherwise and it will be so throughout eternity because Christ has won, on your account and on mine, an eternal redemption that is based upon His finished work and His present position in glory. That is the truth of the glad tidings. I trust that what I have to say will touch the lips of some person in this room.
The important thing is that the lips are to be touched. That is to say that you are free. What are you set free for? It is to magnify the One who is your Saviour. One of the hymns that I often think about is:
'Unloose our stamm'ring tongues to tell
Thy love, immense, unsearchable!' (No 289)
Those who have been touched with a glowing coal will do that, they will not fail to be responsive. That is the great thought in being rescued as a guilty sinner, not simply to clear your guilt, but to make fallen creatures - that is you and me - vessels of His praise. You say, it is matchless. That is the fact. He uses the very fact of the fall to turn the whole thing round in matchless grace and infinite love, to make the very creature that fell the vessel of His praise. That will take place and will be displayed eternally, when He will "display in the coming ages the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus", Eph 2: 7. O friend, I urge you to get a touch of the glowing coal. Saul of Tarsus had it on the way to Damascus. There he was! Think of those lips "breathing out threatenings and slaughter" - with the authority of the high priest, to bind men and women who were of the way and bring them to prison and to death. That was the attitude of the man. And on the way he heard a voice. It was a glowing coal to set aglow. It never consumed him though. It could have done so. He says, "appointing to ministry him who before was a blasphemer and persecutor, and an insolent overbearing man", 1 Tim 1: 14. That is what he was, but mercy was shewn him. Then he adds "But the grace of our Lord surpassingly over-abounded with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus" - towards a person like that! He was touched by a glowing coal, beloved, and he became a fervent lover of Jesus. That is what a glowing coal does to a person, it will make you a fervent lover of Christ. Friend, I am asking you again: are you a lover of Jesus? The gospel is to make you a lover of Christ. I urge that everyone here might get a touch of a glowing coal.
In the sixteenth chapter of the Acts there are two men in a prison. What are they doing there? Their feet are in the stocks. The jailor is there, of course, and he received a remarkable charge, "such a charge", it says: "having received such a charge, cast them into the inner prison, and secured their feet to the stocks". The inner prison: make them absolutely safe! But there was one thing that the jailor could never stop and that was the touch of the glowing coal. I earnestly urge that you get a touch of the glowing coal tonight. What are they doing in the prison? They are praising God with singing and it says ''the prisoners listened to them". I have often wondered how many of those prisoners were converted. I was speaking last week about the man who pierced the side of the Lord with a spear. When He was on that cross soldiers came and broke the legs of the other two but they did not break the legs of Jesus. It says, "but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water", John 19: 34. It was flowing for that soldier; I wonder if it affected him. I have often wondered whether he will be in glory. The narrative does not say that it affected him but the very fact that it flowed immediately meant that it was for him; and it is for you, dear friend. So these prisoners heard. The testimony of grace is going on and will go on until the Lord Jesus comes. Then it will be finished, but it is burning brightly tonight. I trust it is burning brightly in my soul to reach anyone here that they might be converted.
So we get a man converted. You say, Who was converted? Ah! At midnight there was an earthquake and the foundations of the prison shook, and it also shook that jailor. It was intended to shake the jailer. I wonder if it is shaking anyone in this room. The doors were all locked. The prisoners - what happened to them? Not one of them escaped. It was a fine chance to go but not one of them moved. What held them? It was the glowing coal. It was the sufferings of Christ, beloved, exemplified in two suffering believers, but they were shining as a glowing coal. It is very touching. It reached this man; he looked around for a sword to kill himself. He knew what would have happened: if all the prisoners go, what is going to happen? He calls for a light. Paul says, "Do thyself no harm, for we are all here", and the jailor says, "Sirs, what must I do that I may be saved?" The answer is immediate - just like the flying seraph in Isaiah 6 - "Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house". That is the highway to salvation and he accepted it. Gladly did he accept that word. What did he do next? In the same hour of the night, converted, he washed those men's stripes, the stripes that he had inflicted. He was the one who washed them and, as another has said, not a nurse would have done it more tenderly. Do you know why? It was the touch of divine love and grace, beloved, it was the glowing coal. He brought a glowing coal from off the altar with the tongs. No tongs for Jesus! There was no mitigation for Him. But, beloved, there is a touch in the power of the Holy Spirit of the sufferings of Christ. I remember a brother, the last time he preached, who appealed to us to come to the cross. That is what I am saying tonight: Come to the cross. You had better start there. When you start at the cross you will start where the glowing coal was taken from; and that is how you will proceed. So here you get a converted man brought into fellowship; he spread a table for them. Beautiful what grace can do in one night! I trust it will be effective in this room tonight.
7 February 1993
BELIEVING CHILDREN
The letter from Paul to Titus in Crete, mentions the children there. Paul was concerned that they should not be guilty of being unruly, since it would dim for them the light of the Glad Tidings. As regards younger children, Jesus Himself spoke of the "little ones who believe in me". None were too young to be blessed, and even infants were brought to Him for His blessing.
Like Timothy, many children who read this have had the favour of knowing the "sacred letters" as they grew up. With him it was the Old Testament but we can tell that he had come to know the Lord Jesus because he is called a disciple when we first hear of him. The children we hear about in the Gospels knew the Lord in humble form, whereas He was known to Timothy and is known to us as glorified in heaven. The conversion of Timothy may not have been as vivid as that of the apostle Paul, but the effect of it was clearly known from his life. It is always right and good to accept the word of God as truth. Do not, however, be satisfied just to say 'yes' to it, but seek a personal word from the Lord Himself such as made Timothy and others His personal followers, living and working for Him. Do you do this?
J.C.Evershed