THE DAY OF YOUR VISITATION
The glad tidings are a message to you from the blessed God Himself. He would like to pay you a visit! You perhaps did not even think of your coming to the preaching of the word of God today in that way, but I can tell you, in faith, that God has had something to do with you being here. This may be the day of your visitation (Luke 19:44). What is in mind is relief, and deliverance and liberty.
For nearly half of my adult life, I was enslaved, chasing after this thing and that thing, abusing myself and amusing myself. I was enslaved to self; self was my object. I had no desire for God and many of us who have come this way had no desire for God. But the day of our visitation came, unexpectedly. God’s hand is over His own movements, and the largeness of His heart is towards men; His goodness leads us to repentance. We would understand something of God’s goodness even in creation, so that “the goodness of God leads thee to repentance”, Rom.2:4. What a matter that is. It is simple and yet it is profound. It means that, in my soul, I finally recognise that I am only a creature and no one has a right to a will but God Himself. There is something stirring therefore in my mind and in my heart about knowing God and knowing what He is like. So I begin to want to turn to God; I feel these stirrings in me, and I want to turn to God. That is what repentance is; turning to God from yourself and your enslavement to sin which is self will, and from enslavement to the world and the god and prince of it. The devil himself has control over fallen man, and we are all part of that fallen race. As we age, the weariness of our bodies tells us that we are part of that fallen race.
So before we had any hope, any peace, this verse in Ephesians is wonderful, “and, coming, he has preached the glad tidings of peace to you who were afar off, and the glad tidings of peace to those who were nigh” (chap.2:17). There are children of the saints in the audience, those who are near, but many of us were as far off as we could get. Someone has said that if the Lord had not laid His hand upon me, the world itself could not have stood me. Another has said that he was “an insolent overbearing man” 1 Tim.1:13. You come to a judgment of yourself, taking God’s side against yourself in a fallen condition, guilty with no hope, without God in this world. But God does not desire us to stay in such a condition. He desires our relief.. He desires our deliverance and our liberty. He desires our blessing. He desires us to be in sonship in relation to Himself. There is nothing like the glad tidings. They are God’s. The gospel is God reaching out. He is reaching out to those who are lost and in a condition that is helpless and hopeless. There is nothing that you can do, nothing that I can do. Only the blood of Jesus brings relief.
Now in Hebrews 9 verses 27 and 28, there are a couple of things that we have to face up to. How are you going to grapple with death? How are you going to deal with knowing that you must come into judgment one day for what you are and what you have done? You have to face it. I can say from experience that if God lays His hand upon you today, what we sang about in our hymn, the wonder of this moment, can be yours. You can close in on God’s offer of mercy. He has extended the day of salvation to this afternoon so that it can be your day of visitation. We do not know how long it will last, because “one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day”, 2 Pet.3:8. God knows everything. He knows your heart. He knows the detail of your path of sin, and my path of sin. But He has dealt with this. “And forasmuch as it is the portion of men once to die, and after this judgment”, and “the wages of sin is death”, Rom 6:23. That has to be grappled with by someone, and I cannot do it. Yet you and I must answer for our guilt. That is why relief is so wonderful in the glad tidings. Relief! Relief from the burden of sins. I know that there are things to deflect us. The world’s system has been built up around man, and man has been made the centre of it, and so much has been brought in that is spurious, the spirit of apostasy which would turn men away from the pleadings of God in the glad tidings to listen to something else. But it says here “thus the Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many”; can you include yourself in the “many”? It does not say ‘all’, it says “many”. We need to understand as creatures of God that in His mercy He is visiting us. He is extending this day of grace to you; it is your day of visitation. It is available for you because the condition of sin, which is self will, has led to each one of us being guilty. You have to be responsible for your guilt and I have to be responsible for mine, before the God who alone deserves to have a will. You and I do not deserve one, but because of the fall of man, we have a will that is against God. Oh, that we might accept that there is a supreme Being, but more than that, there is a Person; the Christ. It is the most magnificent thing to contemplate. God has been seen here in manhood. One Who was Himself God took a place in manhood, to deal with what lay upon the human race.
He was a holy Man, the Christ. Jesus Christ was another kind of Man. He was here to express everything in God’s heart for men. He was here to expose us as He has done, for there is no exposing like the cross. He came in as a holy Man, and has remained in manhood. Can you fathom that? If there is going to be any hope, any peace, any relief, any deliverance, any liberty, someone must take up my cause, must take up your cause. Believe me, the God who is righteous has done that in His heart of love towards us. He has taken that up so that in answering for your condition, it is not a question of judgment, it is not a question of your guilt, because the Lord Jesus, a holy Man, was made sin for us. He came into that condition of flesh and blood in order that sin, what I am in a fallen condition, could be attached to Him; He was made sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor.5:21). He has declared God’s righteousness. Do you know anyone else who would or could do that for you? God Himself has done that for you in the person of the Son. Jesus not only declared God’s righteousness at Calvary, but in resurrection He declared that what brought pleasure to God was to continue for others too, and that is sonship. As an only begotten with the Father, as being in the affections of the Father, He declared that relationship to people like you and me, to His brethren. So He died for you. Everyone should understand that. He died for all, so that the sinful condition that man is in has been removed from before the eye of a holy God, by a holy Man who was made sin, and He bore the sins of many. If you cannot say ‘He bore my sins in His own body on the cross’, then “after this judgment”; you will have to grapple with that part of the verse as well as with death being the portion of all men.
Now, beloved, I may be speaking forcefully, but this is a very tender and important matter because God does not desire you to go on in your sins. He has given His beloved Son, the One who offered Himself to God for me, to bear the sins of many, and to vindicate God’s majesty in relation to everything that had come upon the human race. If Jesus were not alive today, any preaching about these holy matters would be in vain. But death could not hold such a One as Jesus. He went into death to meet its power for you, and He dealt with it! During the three hours of darkness, God poured out His wrath and judgment upon a holy Man who was made sin, and He died. But God would not suffer His Holy One to see corruption (Ps.16:10). Jesus was in the grave, in the heart of the earth three days and three nights, and then He was raised from the dead. Do you know anyone who has been raised from the dead? There may be all kinds of claims, but there are many in this room who can say that they know one Man who has been raised from the dead. And because He has been raised from the dead, I am justified. I am cleared from everything that was associated with me because He has been raised! He is the propitiation for our sins, those of us who believe, “but not for ours alone, but also for the whole world”, 1 John 2:2. That is the scope of what has been done, and so God is complacent; God is not asking anything from anyone else. Man was on probation for four thousand years or so before this, but that order of man has been finished.
The question is, Am I going to turn from all that I am and all I have done, all I could ever do? The efficacy of Christ’s work is so great to God that He is waiting for you; He waited for me, and He is waiting for you! Do you not want to come into blessing? It is a question of closing in with God’s offer of mercy, and becoming a lover of God for what He is, for how He has been made known, for what He is like, what He has provided. The Lord Jesus, this divine Person who came into manhood, is coming again for those of us who look for Him. When He comes again the second time, He is not going to have anything to say about sin. There are mockers who continue to say ‘All this time has passed, and He has not come’, but what about the day of your visitation? It is God Himself visiting you because He is not willing for you to go on in this condition of sin. He desires that you should be relieved of this condition, that of the first Adam who fell and brought sin upon the whole race. God desires that we should be associated with another kind of Man, because He has set Christ at His right hand in glory. The resurrection was a bodily resurrection. Jesus laid down one condition, and He took on another condition, then He was seen for forty days and forty nights; there were persons who observed Him. Then He was received up in heaven; the second Man who made Himself of no reputation (Phil.2:7 AV). What a contrast to the first man. What a contrast to the history of man, and the way man has built up his world with himself as the hero, as the centre without God.
God did not want man to be without Him, so He took the initiative. He has done this great work and it is all according to His own mind. The question is, How are you going to answer God? I would appeal to you to do that in this day of visitation, which is today. Turn to God and acknowledge that His judgment against you was just, that Another has come in to pay your debt which you could not have paid. So Jesus is our peace; our peace is in another Man, it is in relation to another world. Our peace is in relation to what is proceeding under the hand of another divine Person, the Holy Spirit of promise who is unseen by the world which cannot know Him. How blessed it is to have the earnest of the Holy Spirit of promise. You may be fifteen, or you may be thirty; you do not know what tomorrow brings, nor do you know the length of your days, for that is in the hand of an all powerful God. Your day of visitation is because of His goodness. He has provided for you as He has for His lovers, who have had to come the same way and humble themselves. We see that the wrath and judgment of God was poured out on a Man who was holy, but who was made what I am. Christ bore my guilt; I can say that because God has given me faith. You can get it too; faith comes “by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”, Rom.10.17 (AV).
The Holy Spirit of promise is available to those who have received Jesus. The Spirit came from heaven of His own volition, when Christ was here in flesh and blood conditions, and the Spirit marked out that Man as pleasurable to God. That Man was without sin: He did no sin, He could not sin. He was a holy Man, and there will never be one like that again in flesh and blood condition. Because He has been raised from the dead, I am cleared! He is in heaven and that is the end of the journey. I accept His death for me, so that death does not have to be the penalty for me, although it is the just judgment of God. My outlook now is in relation to the One who is our peace. He is our peace, He is our hope, He is everything, beloved. I speak to everyone here; I speak to my own heart about this. Is there any greater message that this? It comes from God’s heart; the largeness of His heart is towards you and me today. As receiving the Holy Spirit of promise, we come into something that we knew nothing about before, and all under the hand of a divine Person here. You might say, I make many mistakes and have all these wrong thoughts, but the Holy Spirit of promise has been given to us to help us to enter into the enjoyment of relationships which have been secured by God Himself for us. That power draws nothing from the flesh in me; it is the Holy Spirit of promise who is the power for life. I urge you to consider the goodness of God and the largeness of His heart. The Man Christ Jesus will be a Man eternally; we cannot limit Him because He is God as well, but He will never give up His manhood because He has set forth another kind of Man, and this appeals to me. He attracts us to Himself through redemption. He has been here to redeem us.
Can we ignore this message? We cannot ignore it! The pleadings of God’s heart are behind it; it is not for you to stay in an unrighteous state, because not to be relieved from it and to have to face judgment is a terrible prospect. The One who came in lowliness and meekness set out what life is to be in manhood; Jesus humbled Himself unto “death, and that the death of the cross”, Phil.2:8. How awful that was, but it has been done and the precious blood of Jesus has been shed. All that needed to be done from the judicial side, from God’s side, has been done! The Holy Spirit being received will help us in relation to God’s great thoughts and the church here; the assembly of God “which He has purchased with the blood of his own”, Acts 20:28. The Holy Spirit will help us to come into it morally. So that there is cleansing in a practical way along with others who we would like to be with, because the Holy Spirit would not have us in isolation, but enjoying it with others. Being in isolation is not God’s will, but the Holy Spirit knows God’s will.
So these are the elements of the preaching. This gospel meeting is the most important meeting of all for you. This meeting is for you. Oh, do not be without hope and without God any longer, without peace, without relief or deliverance or liberty. God’s heart is in this message; it is for you and for me. Our simple prayer, and there have been many of them, is that persons here would close in on this offer of mercy, because God has a basis on which to offer mercy. You and I can get to know God in a blessed relationship that has been established by a blessed Man for ever.
May God bless the word.
Gospel preaching at Buckie
4 May 2014
D. M. Welch