HAVING TO DO WITH GOD
R. J. Campbell
Hebrews 4: 12, 13; Isaiah 1: 18–20; Luke 18: 9–14; 15: 20–24
This scripture in Hebrews has impressed itself on me, beloved hearer. I thought that I could get something else, but this scripture kept coming before me. I would like to speak to you about having to do with God. I do not know whether you realise it, but you will have to do with God. Men do not realise that generally. Men have no thought about God at all, in fact it says, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God”, Psalm 14: 1. Think of that! Men in this world, created by God Himself, His own creatures, and yet some say, ‘No God’. I would like to tell you, friend, there is a God! But it says of some others that “they did not think good to have God in their knowledge”, Romans 1: 28. Perhaps you are like that. You would not go as far as to say, ‘No God’, but perhaps you do not think good to have God in your knowledge.
Now the gospel is to bring you into touch with God. There is no other purpose in the glad tidings really but to put you in touch with God. You think of the word of God; we perhaps do not realise the greatness of this particular occasion when the word of God comes in all its discerning, penetrating character, reaching right into your heart, friend, and exposing it; not exposing it to anyone else, but exposing it to you, and exposing it to you in order that you might have to do with God.
I would like to tell you that you cannot hide anything from God. You know that; He knows all about you. It does not matter what you do, what sins you have committed, sins that no one else knows about; I can tell you that God knows about them. Everything is “naked and laid bare to his eyes, with whom we have to do”. You cannot hide anything from Him. Indeed, it says in the Psalms, “Thou hast set our ... secret sins in the light of thy countenance”— secret sins, Psalm 90: 8. Think of that. You might do things and your parents do not know, no one else knows about it but you, but God knows about it; He has set your secret sins in the light of His countenance. I would like to tell you that you have to do with a God who knows all about you. He knows the very innermost recesses of your heart and what is lurking there in the way of sin. You cannot hide anything from Him. Indeed it says of God, “for in him we live and move and exist”, Acts 17: 28. You think of that; your very breath God has in His hand. He knows everything about you in detail. Now that is not to terrify you, friend, it is that you might come to a judgment of these things, that you might have to do with God and have to do with Him about your sins. If you do not want to have to do with God at the present time, you will have to do with Him in a day to come. It is sobering, but it is a fact; you will have to do with God.
I would like just to impress that on you, that you will have to do with God, but His desire, friend, is that you might have to do with Him now. How wonderful! God in the glad tidings is presenting a way of liberation from these sins, all these sins that He knows about, unconfessed sins—He knows all about them and He wants to have to do with you about your sins. Are you going to have to do with God
tonight? Are you? I would like to appeal to you, friend. Put yourself in the presence of God tonight, now, where you are in your seat. God wants to have to do with you about your sins, and He is even prepared to reason with you. How gracious God is! He says, ‘I know all about your sins; I know every single sin you have ever committed and I want to have to do with you about them and I am prepared even to reason with you about them’. What a gracious God we have to do with! How wonderful that in the glad tidings, despite the sin of man, God has found an answer to that question. Despite your particular sins God has an answer and He is saying, ‘Will you not come? Will you not come and let us reason together?’ Will you not put yourself in the presence of God tonight and have to do with Him? He says, ‘You know, these sins of yours that nobody else knows about, I know about’. God says, ‘I am prepared to remove every one of them’. Can you understand a God like that? It is sovereign mercy, friend. God shining out on men in the glad tidings, and He is saying, ‘Whatever kind of sinner you are, whether your sins are public or secret, or whatever kind they are, I want to have to do with you about them and I want to clear them out of the way for ever’.
Do you know your sins forgiven, friend? Have you had to do with God? I appeal to you young persons too; have to do with God. Every one is a sinner; you cannot elect yourself out of it. No matter how young you are, you have sinned; no matter how old you are, you have sinned, and every one has to do with God. I heard of a young girl of eight who confessed Christ as her Saviour last week and took Christ into her heart. You think of that, young people; eight years of age yet realising the need of a Saviour, realising the need to do with God; realising the need of a Saviour. Oh friend, God wants to have to do with you He wants to have
to do with you about your sins and He is saying, “Come now, let us reason together”. Will you have to do with God tonight? Will you allow Him, as in His own presence, to speak to you about your sins, to tell you about these sins and to tell you He has an answer? He has an answer in the finished work of Jesus. I would like to tell you, friend, that every sin you have committed can be covered completely, never ever to be raised again, these secret sins gone.
God having met them entirely in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus.
So He says, “Come now, let us reason together ... though your sins be as scarlet ...” You think of the shame of sin, the distinctiveness of sin in the presence of God. God says, although your sins are like scarlet, “they shall be as white as snow”—not a trace left, friend, not a trace of sin left. God is prepared to take those deep-dyed sins of yours, all that stands out against God in your personal history; He says, ‘I will take it all out of the way’. “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool”. Friend, do you know this? Have you had to do with God? Do you know this in your own personal history that, having had to do with God, these sins are gone completely? You think of God looking at a man in his sin, the scarlet, the distinctiveness of sin in man; God looks at that man and He can remove every sin and he can look at him as white as snow.
I have read in Luke 18 just to emphasize this point, just to let you see a man who had to do with God and who proved in his own personal history that his sins were gone. In the presence of God he was as white as snow. Wonderful, friend! I do not know whether you realise the blessedness of having your sins forgiven, of these sins of yours being removed from before God’s sight for ever, never to
be raised again, and you set up in peace toward God enjoying a wonderful, blessed relationship. O, friend, you think of this man. He realised that his sins were like scarlet, that they were like crimson. But there was another man—there are two men here. Scripture often gives us two persons, one to show us a person who did not get the gain of what was available, and another who did get the benefit of what was available. You find it in the Old Testament, you find it in the New Testament: the two men here, the two thieves at the cross; you think of brothers in the Old Testament with the same opportunities; one gets the blessing, the other does not. Think of these two men both going up to the temple, both assuming to go up to have to do with God, and one man says, “God, I thank thee”. How impersonal! no feeling, no sense of what was due to God, no real sense of having to do with God. He says, “God, I thank thee that I am not as the rest of men”. Oh, the temerity of the man, to assume to address God and presume he is better than other men!
He was a sinner just like the tax-gatherer, probably a worse sinner than the tax-gatherer, and he did not realise it. But in the glad tidings God would put His word before you and seek to bring you into His presence that you might have a thorough judgment of your sins, and in confessing them before Him, be cleared of them and cleared completely. This man says,
“God, I thank thee that I am not as the rest of men, rapacious, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax-gatherer”. Think of it! no sense of his sinnership; not a single trace of any acknowledgment of his sinnership, a man in his pride refusing to have to do with God. And yet this other man—oh, how wonderful! “Standing afar off”—you think of the feelings of the man, you sense them immediately, “O God”—you think of him realising the scarlet character of his
sins, their crimson character. What he needed was mercy, mercy from God, and friend I can tell you, mercy is available.
‘See mercy, mercy from on high,
Descend to rebels doomed to die’.
Friend, that was me, a rebel doomed to die, yet mercy reached out. I can say my sins are like wool, they are as white as snow, and this man proved the very same. He was indeed a sinner, but he said, ‘O God, have compassion on me, the sinner’. Think of him, in principle appreciating the work of Christ, saying that it does not matter who else sinned, I have sinned; I am in God’s presence and I realise that I am a sinner. Friend, do you realise you are a sinner? There is no hope for you unless you realise you are a sinner. The first step to blessing is to realise that you are a sinner, and God would say, ‘I have got the answer to it. I will reach out my hand in mercy to you and I will give you the conscious sense that those sins of yours will be as white as snow and they shall be as wool’. You think of that. This man enjoyed the forgiveness of sins—yes, he enjoyed the forgiveness of sins, but he went down to his house justified. Do you know it, friend? Do you know that there is not a single trace of sin on you when you come into personal touch with the Saviour, not a single trace? It has often been said that you are as much without sin as Jesus is, just as if you had never sinned. Do you realise, young friend, that God is prepared not only to clear you from all these sins of yours, but to justify you, give you a standing in His own blessed presence without a single trace of sin on you, as without sin as Jesus is. How wonderful! The blessed Saviour, dying on that cross at Calvary and shedding His precious blood, provided God a righteous basis whereby he can come out towards men in blessing and free them from their sins. But He also went into the grave—you think of that, the
completeness of the work of Christ, going into the grave and then coming out of it.
‘Out from death, His work completed,
Burst the portals of the grave;
High at God’s right hand now seated,
He can e’en the vilest save’.
Friend, He can save the vilest, and He can save you. Not only has He settled the whole sin question, but He has removed sin from before God because He is out of the grave without a single trace of sin upon Him, and He is in the presence of God. What a Saviour! God wants to have to do with you; He is presenting His beloved Son for your salvation, and not only for your salvation but for your justification, to be in the presence of God justified. It says, “This man”, this poor tax-gatherer, this sinner, “went down to his house justified”, justified. You know, friend, you can go out of that door tonight justified, you can go back to your house, sinner as you are, unrepentant sinner perhaps at the moment, you can have to do with God about your sins and you can go out of that door justified. That is the glad tidings—immediate blessing for you, immediate justification. Will you have to do with Him? Will you come into the presence of God? There is only one way to blessing and that is by having to do with God.
“Repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20: 21) is the divine highway to blessing. Will you take it, friend? Will you simply move into the presence of God and tell Him you are a sinner? You can do it there in your seat. You can, just where you are, say, ‘O God, be merciful to me, the sinner’. What will be the answer? Immediate salvation, immediate justification. Will you not have it? God is making it available for you.
He wants to have to do with you about your sins.
Not only that, it says in Isaiah 1, “If ye be
willing and hearken, ye shall eat the good of the land “. This man in Luke 15 ate the good of the land. This young man really did not want to have to do with God, in fact he wanted to get as far away from God as he possibly could. He said, “Father, give to me the share of the property that falls to me”, and he went away into a far country, as far away from God as he possibly could. But you cannot get away from God. The father saw that younger son there, he saw him in that far country; he knew all that was going on and you can confirm that by the fact that as soon as the son came to himself the father did all the running. He moved towards him into that area where he was in absolute poverty and secured him for himself. The way to this man’s blessing was in having to do with God. He says, ‘I will rise up and I will go back, I will go back to my father’. Oh, friend, young friend,
‘Come!—the Father’s house stands open,
With its love and light and song;
And returning to that Father,
All to you may now belong’.
Think of this young man. Young friend, I appeal to you, do not go into the world. You think of the wonderful blessing in the Father’s house. Is there anything like it in the world? That domain with all its gaudy tinsel, there is nothing in it. It is an empty, barren world. In it you would find yourself in the same situation as this younger son. The only way back is to put yourself in the presence of God. He says, “I will rise up and go to my father”. Were there recriminations? Friend, there is nothing like that. God is holding nothing against you. All He wants to do is have you in His own presence to eat the fat of the land, to enjoy the wonderful blessing of being at home in His own presence. Is there anything like it? There is nothing like it, nothing. Try the world and you will try the broken cisterns, as one has
said—
‘I tried the broken cisterns, Lord,
But, ah, the waters failed.
E’en as I stooped to drink they fled
And mocked me as I wailed’.
This younger son proved it. But he came to himself. He says, ‘I will have to do with God. I will go back, and I will have to do with my father’. Will you not have to do with Him? Will you not come back? It is all there for you, with nothing held back.
The Father does everything for you. He says, “Bring out the best robe and clothe him in it”—
set up in dignity in the presence of the Father in all the blessed worth of His own beloved Son. Do you want it, friend? It is available for you. The Father’s house stands open—there you will eat the fat of the land, you will enjoy the most wonderful relationship that it is possible for man to enjoy, sonship with the Father. “And bring the fatted calf”—oh, friend, is it not wonderful that God is presenting these things to you? You are a sinner, but you have to do with God, and He says, ‘It is all there for you. If you will have to do with Me, it is all there for you’, and He is prepared to reason with you. You think of this younger son. He says, ‘I will go back and I, will say to my father …’—and he had quite a speech prepared, but he did not get through the whole of it. He left out the last part because God is immediately intent on blessing. You acknowledge your sinnership, you repent before God, and He is immediately intent on your blessing, “Bring out the best robe and clothe him in it, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet”. Do you want to enjoy the liberty of the divine presence? God would make you suitable for it; not only make you suitable, but make you conscious of it. He would give you the ring on your hand and the sandals on your feet.
God is proposing these things. He is saying, ‘Will you not have to do with me?’ “But if ye refuse and rebel ...”—may there be no rebellious person here tonight. God in His overtures of divine grace is appealing to you. Are you going to rebel? There is judgment coming, friend, there is judgment coming,
‘From sin’s distant land of famine,
Toiling ‘neath the mid-day sun,
To a Father’s house of plenty,
And a Father’s welcome. Come!’
But then the hymn says,
‘Come!—for night is gath’ring quickly
O’er this world’s fast fleeting day;
If you linger in the darkness,
You will surely miss your way.
From the world and its delusion—
Now our voices rise as one,
While we give God’s invitation;
Heav’n itself re-echoes—Come!’
Will you have to do with God? Is it not worth it, friend? Judgment is coming, but blessing is available. Will you have it? It can be yours now. May you come into the enjoyment of these things! Have to do with God; He wants to have to do with you. If you do, friend, you will come into the most infinite blessing, beyond what you could ever conceive. May we enjoy these things, for His name’s sake.
Preaching at Kirkcaldy
23 September 1990