THE FOUR POINTS OF THE COMPASS
[p. 67] THE FOUR POINTS OF THE COMPASS
Job 37:9; Job 37:17; Job 37:22
I wish to connect what I have to say with the four points of the compass, and, in referring to them, not to occupy you with what is physical but with what is spiritual. There is such a thing as spiritual geography; indeed, it is said as to God that “the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made” (Romans 1:20). He made everything on His own account, having in view a race of creatures who should not only be physical but spiritual.
The physical part of our being is said to have been made by God out of dust or clay (very humiliating!), but the spiritual part of our being came from God. God breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. We do not, therefore, receive our spiritual being from our parents, we receive it from God, as it is said, “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:7). That does not simply refer to what Adam received personally, but to what each one of us has received. We receive our spirits from God, and thus we are in direct relation with God and in direct responsibility to God. Let us not forget this. When dissolution happens, the spirit returns to God who gave it. It is that part of us in which we have direct responsibility to God, and God claims the spirit. Where we are to be, as identified with our spirits, is determined in the time of responsibility, which is the present time. In that light I refer to what is material — the north, south, east, and west — in the hope of our apprehending the invisible things God would disclose. These being there, they have their own voice as the other things have that are made; they have a spiritual significance.
[p. 68] Those of us who have believed the gospel and received the Holy Spirit from God, and thus are in the house of God, have an outlook towards the east, which means that our hearts are always full of hope. How is it with your heart? Paul preached that those who believed might abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13). How much hope is in your heart? If you look at the world as it is — suppose you are a politician — what is your hope as to the future of this world? What is to be the outcome of the wisdom of the governors and legislators of this world? It is a western outlook, that is, the sun is going down on all that system of things for ever. Whatever it is you are associated with, your hopes and aspirations, all have an outlook westward, and there is only “the blackness of darkness for ever” there (Jude 13). I am not here to decry politics, but for the deliverance of souls from all that keeps them away from God and from Christ. It is said of those that are lost: “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not” (2 Corinthians 4:3,4). If your hopes are built up in connection with this world, its ultimate end is “the blackness of darkness for ever”. The politicians of this world are at their wits’ end. Some of the leading ones admit that civilisation was well nigh destroyed through the Great War. What shall it be the next time? What will happen to this world if another such war occur? Let no one be deceived; it is a dark outlook, so to speak, a western outlook. That point of the compass refers to disappointed, unrealised, unsatisfied hopes!
The believer in Christ has light in his soul. His outlook is in another direction. He knows Jesus, who lives by the power of God in heaven as having accomplished redemption. The believer knows that just as the sun rises, so will Jesus arise as the Sun of righteousness with healing in His wings (Malachi 4:2). In other words, we believers have something in our [p. 69] souls. We have the light of the glad tidings which have been declared by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven, and we have believed them. That is the one great thing — to believe; to repent, and believe the gospel (Mark 1:15). “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Romans 10:9). The Holy Spirit has come down from heaven to proclaim it. It is presented on the principle of faith to faith. Have you, dear hearers, believed the gospel? I press it home. If you have, a bright or eastern outlook is yours, you have a hope that “maketh not ashamed”, for the love of God is shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5).
I want particularly to speak about the north and the south. The east and west refer to the future as the north and south refer to the present time. The east points to the coming of the Lord Jesus. Every time I see the sun rising I am reminded that Jesus is coming. The sun setting is the dissipation of all earthly hopes. It indicates darkness, which for the unbeliever or Christ-rejecter is the gloom of darkness for eternity. But there is the north, and also the south. These God made for Himself, and Elihu, in speaking to Job says, cold cometh out of the north. We all know it well; we know what the north means. God made it as a sign that judgment awaited guilt. Jeremiah in his day, as he began to serve, sees a vision, a seething pot, “and the face thereof is toward the north”. God’s explanation is, “Out of the north an evil shall break forth” (Jeremiah 1:13,14).
But Elihu says again, “Fair weather”, or as it correctly reads, “Gold cometh out of the north”. That is why I say the north refers to the present time, as the south does, for if gold comes [p. 70] out of the north it is because Jesus has borne the judgment of God. Jesus has faced the bitter cold winds of God’s judgment, so that gold, or righteousness, is there for us. In order that we might be covered with divine righteousness — the righteousness of God — Jesus faced all that the north signifies. Think of Him in that hour! He says, “Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt” (Mark 14:36). We think lightly of sin, but Jesus did not think lightly of it. As He took the cup of judgment from God, He knew what was in it. He knew men had sinned from Adam onward; all had sinned. Does any one think otherwise? Let God be true and every man a liar. Admit the truth in God, the lie in yourself. If any think otherwise than that all have sinned, they think a lie.
“All have sinned”; you, dear hearer, have sinned. As the light of God comes into your soul, you say, I have sinned; “O God, have compassion on me, the sinner” (Luke 18:13). There is no hope for any one unless he repent. God has opened a door of repentance for you: God “now commandeth all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). We should face these things. As the light of God enters a man’s soul, he acknowledges his guilt: “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned” (Psalm 51:4). “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). When Jesus took that cup from the Father’s hand, He knew what was in it — the judgment of God against sin. Jesus bore that. Becoming Man He took upon Him all that lay upon man and glorified God in respect of it in His death.
This applies to the Chinese and to the negroes as it does to us in the west, for the simple reason that we are all men. As Man, Jesus stands in relation to all men; He is the one Mediator between God and men, who “gave himself a ransom for all” (1 Timothy 2:6). Luke gives us His genealogy back to Adam. As in death He was on our side to take up the liabilities which lay on man. The judgment of God on us was in the cup, and He drank it. Is that light to your soul? It is to mine, thank God. Jesus has suffered in my stead; I shall never come into judgment. Gold comes out of the north. The Authorised Version reads “fair weather”. It is fair weather surely. What could be fairer than the morning of the resurrection when Jesus rose from the dead — not a cloud to be seen in the sky.
There is, however, more than fair weather; there is clothing for men, the righteousness of God, for gold comes out of the north, and that speaks of divine righteousness. When Eve sinned and Adam sinned, both were irretrievable, as left to themselves, but God clothed them with skins. His righteousness is now the clothing which fits every believer for the presence of God; it makes us “meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light” (Colossians 1:12).
What do you, my hearer, know of the gold out of the north? What has come out for you? The gospel deals with individuals; it was never intended to civilise the nations, but to take a people out of them — a people sanctified by the Holy Spirit; it contemplates that each one has to do with God separately. What has come out of death for me? The best robe. In the story of the prodigal son, which never grows old, the prodigal is clothed with the best robe that God has. That has come out of the death of Jesus. We are not told what creature was slain to provide skins for Adam and Eve, but we read that God clothed them. Now God brings the clothing for us out of the death of Jesus — He who entered into the judgment that lay upon us and exhausted it. The fierce blasts of the north wind bring cold. When Jesus was [p. 72] forsaken of God on the cross there was darkness over all the land from the sixth to the ninth hour. The bearing of that is present; it is for us; hence the gold.
The reference may be to the Aurora Borealis, the wonderful lights that shine in the north; but the great moral truth is that God was glorified in the death of Jesus. Out of that death has come the gold by which God covers us, “the righteousness which is of God by faith” (Philippians 3:9). “Now the righteousness of God ... is manifested ... unto all and upon all them that believe” (Romans 3:21,22). Many here tonight have it on. Would you like to be robed with God’s righteousness? He will never quarrel with that robe; it will stand in His presence. We believers know what it is to be in the presence of God perfectly restful; we are there in the full value of the death of Christ. We are before God clothed in His own righteousness.
Some do not submit to the righteousness of God, but this is the height of folly, for without it we must be shut out from God for ever. The righteousness of God is manifested “unto all and upon all them that believe”. It may be yours now on the principle of believing. It is not on the principle of works. God has undertaken to save man; it is His own work. “He sealeth up the hand of every man; that all men may know his work” — that is, that He might have a free hand (Job 37:7). He has undertaken this in the death of Jesus. He seals man’s hand; the law effected that. The gospel announces the work of God in the resurrection of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is all the work of God. The benefits of the work of God are presented in the gospel. Every man is to see to it.
The south is just a continuation of what I have been saying. From the standpoint of Scripture writers the sun as it shone in the heavens was always [p. 73] in the south. It speaks of the attitude of God towards man; we are in a south aspect. The place Christ occupies in heaven now indicates God’s favour to man. He is on the Father’s throne, It is a favourable aspect, and so grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The present is a moment of wonderful favour for all — the Chinaman, the European, and the African. It is, as it were, the same sun in the heavens that shines for all. “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). God is looking towards you in mercy to fill your heart with hope by the Holy Spirit as you believe. This blessed Sun remains in heaven and shines on all at the present time. The south is the present aspect. Elihu says to Job, “Dost thou know ... how thy garments are warm, when he quieteth the earth by the south wind?” (verses 16,17). Many have felt this warmth even before they were converted; I certainly did. I found the world bitterly cold and indifferent, but among the people of God there were those interested and sympathetic who cared for my soul. It is an external heat at the beginning. Your garments get warm when He quietens the earth by the south wind, but when you receive Christ the warmth enters your heart; the love of God is shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit, who is given to you.
God is holding and restraining things in this world; it is the time of the south wind. If the north wind comes to believers, it is in discipline. It comes in love. The death of Jesus has changed the north wind for us. All discipline is in love. We are not afraid of the north wind, but God has quietened the earth by a south wind. It may be your garments are getting warm today. The favour of God is brought [p. 74] to you now; He would save you now. Embrace the opportunity, beloved friends. You will get cold again if you go out without Christ. Now is the time to decide for Christ, while the atmosphere is warm, while the Holy Spirit is striving with you and the people of God are round about you — all earnestly desiring your salvation. Many have ignored the word, and gone out into the cold, and never come back! “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).
Pages 75 - 152 — “Notes of Conference in Bristol”, November, 1915 (Volume 31).