THE NECESSITIES OF LIFE
THE NECESSITIES OF LIFE
Jeremiah 12:5; Luke 23:39-43; Acts 3:14-16;
It would be right to say, beloved hearers, that the background to the glad tidings being preached is God’s feelings for humanity. That would be the background to it. His feelings for humanity are the great basis on which He keeps the door, the gospel door, open for men, for He is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance”, 2 Pet.3:9.
God could have considered for the affections of His beloved Son and closed the dispensation by now. He could have said, ‘My Son has waited long enough for His millennial glory. He has waited long enough for what is rightly His, but in my consideration for humanity I will keep the gospel door open’. And so there is another preaching tonight, beloved hearers. It must grieve the heart of God when He sees humanity, the human race, in such straits morally and materially. What anomalies there are in the whole present system of things – a world abounding with plenty of resources of every kind, yet men and women and children often lack the necessities of life, and in some cases do not have the money to pay for them even if they were available. Side by side you have that enormous wealth, all the resources of the sea and the land and the air, and yet humanity is in dire straits.
What I wanted to speak about tonight, beloved hearers, are the necessities of life. I am not speaking of the necessities of life as men speak of them, things that could be purchased if you had sufficient money to buy them. No. The necessities of life as we would unfold them in the glad tidings are what in God’s mind are needed by every man, woman and child so that they can live life to the full in the enjoyment of God’s love.
Now the first necessity that men have is their need for a Saviour. I think that stands out above everything else in this poor world. What men and women need is a Saviour. That is a necessity. It is a great need of every human heart tonight – the need for a Saviour. Have we all got Him? Have we all got Him? Oh, how good it is if we have felt in our lifetimes that need for a Saviour, when we were touched in our consciences by the word of God and we felt we needed a Saviour. Have you known Him? Have you all proved the love of Jesus as a Saviour for you? You need Him in your life, and you will need Him at the end of your life. That was why I read this passage in Jeremiah; “how wilt thou then do in the swelling of the Jordan?”. Beloved hearers, can you face death without a Saviour? Could you? How will you do in the swelling of the Jordan? You know, when you reach your deathbed, your paramount need will be for a Saviour. Your paramount need will be assurance that your soul is safe in the hands of Jesus.
I am often struck with this verse and I have quoted it often. I used to quote it ‘what shall you do in the swelling of the Jordan’? But it does not say that. It says “how wilt thou then do in the swelling of the Jordan?”. You might say, ‘I will fight it. I will fight death’. Older persons amongst us who have done a little evangelical work in their lifetimes have visited sickbeds, the sickbeds of sinners with eternity in front of them, and found them battling, battling the swelling of the Jordan without a Saviour – without a Saviour. “How wilt thou then do in the swelling of the Jordan?”. Your peace, your safely, your eternal rest can be safe in the hands of Jesus. His precious blood has met every claim and if you have Him as your Saviour, you can pass through death in the blessed assurance that you will be with Him, that blessed Saviour. Oh, you need a Saviour! Let me impress that upon you. In the swelling of the Jordan, you need this Saviour because there is no one else who can meet your need at that time. Even the stoutest infidel, even the most confirmed agnostic, has had to confess, when they feel the waters of Jordan lapping about their feet, that they need a Saviour. They do need a Saviour, and so do we all.
So in Luke 23 you find the swelling of the Jordan. Let me speak of my Saviour. The Jordan, which represents the power of death, could not submerge Him, beloved hearers. When the Lord Jesus entered into the Jordan, He came out a Victor, a glorious Victor, a Victor over death. That is what He did. Here He is in the swelling of the Jordan, and there were two men beside Him in the swelling of the Jordan. One malefactor cast reproaches on Jesus. That is what he was doing in the swelling of the Jordan. But what does the other malefactor say to him? “Dost thou too not fear God, thou that art under the same judgment? and we indeed justly, for we receive the just recompense of what we have done”. It is as if he was saying to that man, ‘Are you not afraid of the Jordan when it reaches you?’. He was really saying to this thief, ‘How shall ye then do in the swelling of the Jordan?’. Then he said to Jesus, “Remember me, Lord, when thou comest in thy kingdom”. Oh, he knew what to do in the swelling of Jordan, did he not? That man had some sense of who the blessed Saviour was when he said “Remember me, Lord, when thou comest in thy kingdom”: he knew that he was by the side of the Victor. That is what he knew by a touch of faith in his soul. I do not know how, but this malefactor knew that the Person who was there on the cross, hanging there, was the Victor. Outwardly there was no sign of it, no evidence of who Jesus was, but some light streamed into that man’s soul at that dark moment when the Jordan was swelling, and he said “Remember me, Lord, when thou comest in thy kingdom”.
So, beloved hearers, what this passage brings out is the need, the need, for a personal transaction with Jesus – the absolute need of it. This man might have missed the opportunity if that light had not shone in his soul. In other gospels, it appears that the two malefactors were lost, but it is in keeping with Luke’s gospel that the light of God would shine in that man’s soul at this critical moment and give him the light of Christ as the Victor. That is what I want to stress. The light of the Victor over death was seen there at that moment as they hung on these crosses together. I think, beloved hearers, that God sometimes puts us through crises in our lives; soul crises and perhaps circumstantial crises. But we can know the one thing that is absolutely needful, and we have to come to it for ourselves, and that is to have a personal link with Jesus. Everything else is of relatively little value. That is the case, you know. We may pass through sorrows and sometimes misunderstanding on the part of those who are near and dear to us, we may go through deep waters, but the strength of your personal link with Jesus is the one thing you need at that critical time.
That was this man here. He did not cry for help from the crowd around him. He said, “Remember me, Lord, when thou comest in thy kingdom”. And the Lord Jesus said, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise”. Now that is a beautiful touch; it is like the Lord saying to the thief, ‘If you need me, I need you’. “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise”. You know, the Lord needs you. You need Him but He needs you. “To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise”. There were bound to be, shall I say, myriads with the Lord in paradise but He wanted this one man there with him to satisfy His need. It was a divine necessity – the Lord’s need. So He said “To-day”. Would it be in the future? a hundred years hence? or a thousand years hence? No, He says as it were, ‘I want you today’. That is the triumph of grace.
The other necessity that I want to speak of from this passage in the Acts of the Apostles is the need for faith in a risen and glorified Christ. That was why we sang that hymn (Hymn 404) referring to ‘In the glory’ and ‘By the glory’. Peter said, “But ye denied the holy and righteous one, and asked that a man that was a murderer should be granted to you; but the originator of life ye slew, whom God raised from among the dead, whereof we are witnesses. And, by faith in his name, his name has made this man strong”. Now what Peter was saying to those he was speaking to was, ‘It was not me’. It was not Peter who made that man strong. It was not the preacher – it is never the preacher! It was in the Name of the One in whom this man had faith, “by faith in his name”. Oh for faith in a glorified risen Man up there in the glory; it is absolutely needful if you want to know something of the blessing that is in the heart of God. Peter said about this man, “by faith in his name, his name has made this man strong whom ye behold and know; and the faith which is by him has given him this complete soundness in the presence of you all”.
May I press upon us all the need for faith in a risen Christ, the need for faith in a glorified Christ, the need for faith in a coming Christ. The need for faith is an absolute necessity if you are to prosper in your spiritual life in any way. If you have not that, you will miss the living experience of your Saviour day by day, a Man you can speak to, a Man you can commune with, a Man you can go to with your sorrows, a Man you can go to with your joys. He is there in heaven to faith. Beloved brethren, can any of you imagine a day when you never thought of Jesus? Could you? Are any of us so cold and so distant that we have let a day pass and we never thought of Jesus, never thought of the Man up there, never thought of our Priest, our Friend, our Advocate. You say ‘I cannot see him’. No, you cannot see Him, but He is there by faith. The power of faith pierces the distance, pierces the clouds that surround human life, and takes account of the Man up there in whom all power is available to the believer.
In this materialistic age, believers need a living link with the Man in the glory, a daily contact, communing with Him, speaking to Him, and ministering to the joy that is in His heart. So remember – it is faith, “faith in his name”, and that power comes into your soul by which you find deliverance from this scene around you. It says of this man that he leaped; he stood and walked and entered with them into the temple, “walking, and leaping, and praising God”. I think that that is normal Christianity. We sometimes speak of this incident as if it was something extraordinary. But the real effect of apprehending the Man in glory and the power of His name is that you are filled with holy joy and satisfaction, more than anything else that this world can give.
Now I could not possibly speak of the necessities of life without referring to the Spirit. The Spirit is the necessity for a believer and of course when that thought comes into your mind, you automatically turn to this scripture in Romans 8. It has been so often said that thirteen times in this chapter there is a reference to the Holy Spirit, as if God is saying, ‘He is absolutely necessary for you’. The Holy Spirit is the prime necessity in your spiritual life. If you do not have the Holy Spirit, you will lack something. If you are not giving place to the Spirit, you will lack something. If you do not know the power of the Spirit, you will lack something. The apostle makes reference thirteen times to various aspects of the Holy Spirit’s service, as if to say, ‘Here is a Person, a glorious Person, who can fill every need of your heart’. Paul says here, “So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to flesh …”. We are not in debt to the flesh. Why should we be? Then he says, “for if ye live according to flesh, ye are about to die; but if, by the Spirit, ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live”. If you are going to live, then live this life to the full. Men and women today regard certain things as necessary. A neighbour said to us recently that two sunshine holidays a year are absolutely necessary. Why two sunshine holidays a year? You can live in the sunshine all the time, beloved hearers! That is what Christianity is; you are in the sunshine all the time because by the Spirit of God you are not a debtor. You are not in debt, you are not in need. You have ample resource in all things and so Paul says “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”.
I had been thinking about this meeting, about the necessities of life, and there was a reference in thanksgiving this morning to ‘heaven’s choicest store’ (Hymn 135). That is more than the necessities of life. You need a Saviour, you need faith, you need the Lord, you need the Spirit – yes. But God in His wondrous grace has wonderful thoughts for us. When David took Mephibosheth up to Jerusalem, he did not say to Mephibosheth, ‘If you come up to Jerusalem, I will see you get enough bread, I will see you get enough water’. Ah, that was not David. David says ‘I am not just going to give you the necessities of life’, he said “thou shalt eat bread at my table continually”, 2 Sam.9:7. That is heaven’s choicest store! When Mephibosheth sat down at David’s table, he would say, ‘What a change from Lodebar!’. In principle, he would say, ‘Am I not glad I was converted! Am I not glad I got the Spirit! Am I not glad that I know Jesus on high!’. He would say that, would he not? Here it is, beloved hearers; heaven’s choicest store – “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For ye have not received a spirit of bondage again for fear, but ye have received a spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God. And if children, heirs also: heirs of God, and Christ’s joint heirs; if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him”.
There are many believers in this world in other countries, and some perhaps do not have enough money to pay for the basic necessities of life. Perhaps they cannot buy two or three pounds of rice or bread, but as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, they are heirs of God. You might say, ‘Well, that will not fill an empty stomach’. It may not, but many a beloved saint of God has been sustained in hope, joy and peace despite years of privation and suffering because of the sense of the goodness and the blessing of being placed before God in sonship, and all that they were going to enjoy eternally with Christ. Heaven’s choicest store, beloved hearers, is available tonight. Could this poor world have any attraction for you? Could it? Do you really value these divine blessings? I would appeal to you. I would appeal to all of us here tonight. There may be things that we regard as indispensable, just to make us comfortable, for easy living. How much better to have the eternal riches, the blessings that come to us in this time of Christianity when God is pouring out His best. He is pouring out His best as the translation of the church to be with Christ draws near.
May we all prove it for His name’s sake. Amen.
Gospel preaching, Edinburgh
7 February 1993
Willie Dickson