THE BLESSINGS OF GOD IN THE GLAD TIDINGS

J. Spinks

Acts 26: 9–18; Luke 15: 22–24; Proverbs 10: 22

I would seek help to speak of what God has in mind in the glad tidings. God has thoughts of blessing in mind for every one here in this room tonight; He has blessing indeed in mind for all men. His desire is that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. It is good to lay hold of that, but in the gospel God would love to speak personally to us. I do desire that every one here tonight would have a sense that God is speaking personally to each one of us. He knows us intimately; from the day of our birth He has watched over us, and always has had in mind that we should come into blessing, the blessing that maketh rich.

How wonderful the thoughts of God are! In one of the prophets God says, My thoughts are greater than your

thoughts, My ways than your ways (Isaiah 55: 9). Satan too has thoughts; he sees us coming to the meetings and he would seek to hinder us from coming into blessing. Of course his knowledge of us is limited, but he has a certain knowledge and a certain power, and he takes account of every one coming to the gospel. But then, God would say, My thoughts are ones of blessing and I have nothing but your good and blessing in mind.

That is why I read in Acts 26, the Lord sending Paul, “to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me”. That was the message given to Paul; a very full one, one of wonderful blessing. The darkness is all around us, the whole world lies in the wicked one. While, as I said earlier, the enemy has a certain power, and God has allowed him to take over certain territory in this world, yet He limits his scope.

Indeed, not only does He limit his scope, but in His grace He has intervened to show that His power is far greater than the power of the enemy. The power of the enemy seems very extensive; more so in these days than in any other time in history, on account of the terrible violence and corruption, the awful departure from the truth of God in the professing church, and the power of the enemy acting in men’s minds to turn them against the light of God. But the power of God in the gospel (how we love to think of it) is God’s power to salvation. Paul had been an emissary of Satan; he did not realise it but he was. It is a sad thing that persons can be doing Satan’s work without being aware of it. Paul was like that, he thought to do much against the name of Jesus. But think of the power of God’s grace breaking him down, breaking down his prejudices, breaking down all his thoughts of animosity towards the name of the Lord Jesus, and turning him into the greatest lover of Christ who ever was. I love to think of the power of the gospel; it is God’s power, and it is unto salvation, that is the great end in mind.

When God speaks about salvation you can be sure it is a full salvation, it is no small matter. It is referred to as “the glad tidings of your salvation” (Ephesians 1: 13), and also as the “glad tidings of the unsearchable riches of the Christ”, Ephesians 3: 8. It is all bound up with Christ, and it has power to emancipate man; to free him from whatever bondage he is under.

Satan uses many things to keep persons in bondage, and those of us who are a little older know what it is to be under his power; Satan working through the flesh, keeping us bowed down and unhappy and miserable, and unable to lift up our head like the woman in Luke 13: 11. Satan can do that, but the power of God is greater than Satan. The power of God is expressed in His grace. It comes in all its liberating power and frees us from the thraldom of sin, bringing us into the liberty of sonship; that is the great end in the gospel. I would love to be able to convey something of God’s great thoughts. There is nothing small about God; there is nothing small about His thoughts of blessing, they emanate from His own heart of love, and he has worked right from the foundation of the world to bring them into effect. It says,

“when the fulness of the time was come. God sent forth his Son, come of woman, come under law, that he might redeem those under law, that we may receive sonship”, Galatians 4: 4, 5.

These are great and wonderful thoughts of blessing for man. As believers, God has “blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ”, Ephesians 1: 3. When we are young we do not think too much about spiritual blessings; we would rather think of what is within our range, what we can touch and what we can see and hear, things which relate to our natural senses. Of course, there are many things that we can legitimately enjoy, and God would not withhold them from us, but when we set out to indulge our natural tastes and desires, it always ends in disappointment. The blessings of God never fail and “he addeth no sorrow to it”, Proverbs 10: 22. When we follow a path of self-will it

invariably brings sorrow. Things do not turn out the way we had hoped and we are left feeling unhappy and disappointed. When God acts in the gospel He acts in power and grace in order that He may bring us into wonderful blessing.

So Paul here is speaking about his feelings of animosity against the name of Jesus, he says, “I indeed myself thought that I ought to do much against the name of Jesus the Nazaraean”.

Think of him being consumed with hatred. The source of that hatred is the enemy; he is the accuser of the brethren, and he is full of fury against all that God is doing. We read about men like that; Haman in the book of Esther was another who was filled with fury against the people of God. The enemy is bent against the blessing of your soul, and if he could stop us gathering to hear the gospel he would do it. Thank God for every room in this land where the glorious message of the gospel is going forth and the name of Jesus is being proclaimed. I saw a sticker on a car as I was coming along to the gospel, ‘There is hope’. Thank God for the hope there may be in the person’s soul who put it on. I trust our hope is all in a living Saviour at God’s right hand. Some people hope for a transformation of this world, and they preach to that end. They think that this world will be changed by the glad tidings; that is a false hope, this world is going on to judgment. The gospel is not being preached to change the world, it is preached to draw people to the blessed Man who is the centre of God’s world.

Paul had really been drawn to Christ as the Sun and centre of God’s world and was sent to witness to His glory.

The preaching of the word of God does not bear on this world, it bears on another world where Christ is enthroned in glory. It has had great results here, myriads have been brought into the knowledge of God and have been committed to His testimony. It is not a preaching of reformation, it is the testimony to another Man in another world. It is the blessing of God that

“maketh

rich, and he addeth no sorrow to it”. It is not to say, of course, that we do not have sorrows in the pathway. We do have very real sorrows, but the Lord Jesus, in His priestly grace and succour, is able to sustain us through the trials and pressures. God is not only able to make us happy in heaven, no Christian would dispute that, but He is able to make us happy down here.

Every believer knows that God will maintain us in a state of eternal blessedness, but how many of us know the power that is able to keep us happy and contented and satisfied here?

God is able to do that, and there are many believers who can say they are truly satisfied.

There are those who can say like Paul, at least in measure, “for me to live is Christ, and to die gain”, Philippians 1: 21. Let us see to it that we are on the line of going in for these great blessings “The blessing of Jehovah, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow to it”, Proverbs 10: 22.

Paul here is really a heavenly visitor; he has been taken up and given a taste of these blessings; now we see him in the sphere of testimony with his heart full of Christ, and a desire to lead others into the fulness of God’s blessing. I would like to awaken some desire in your heart to go in for these blessings. It says, “Things which eye has not seen, and ear not heard, and which have not come into man’s heart, which God has prepared for them that love him”, 1 Corinthians 2: 9. He has prepared them before the foundation of the world. All these blessings were in the heart of God before the foundation of the world, and they are brought to light in the glad tidings. So the message is “that they may turn from darkness to light”. God always acts in the light; that is the first thing He does in Genesis 1, He brings in light. He brings light into the soul and helps you to see things clearly. Satan always acts in the darkness, he brings darkness and confusion into men’s minds and seeks to obscure the outshining of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. This whole world is built up on a system of artifice and falseness, but the light of God shows everything in its true character. It may expose you if

you are still in your sins. I trust there is not any one here who has not yet accepted the Saviour. If there is, do not put it off, lay hold of God’s offer in the glad tidings.

In Genesis 3, when God came into the garden and spoke to Adam, Adam was exposed immediately. He tried to cover himself with what was available, and men still try to do that, but the word of God came in and exposed his nakedness. Then comes that wonderful verse, “Jehovah Elohim made Adam and his wife coats of skin, and clothed them” (Genesis 3: 21).

Just one simple verse, but what wealth is in it! It was looking forward to the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, in order that man could be righteously before God. Skin involved the death of another, and that Other was the only-begotten Son of God. Paul goes on to say, “that they may receive remission of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me”.

What is the inheritance? For us it is a heavenly inheritance, but it would include everything that belongs to Christ. Of course, everything belongs to Christ, and He will soon come and take up His rights. The god of this world has claimed the inheritance and he claims man too, but God will come in in Christ and reclaim all that belongs to Him. The things in the heavens and the things in the earth will all be headed up in the Christ, the rightful Heir, and all those who have come in through redemption will share in that wonderful inheritance. It is not that our inheritance is an earthly one, but we will come into everything that belongs to Christ.

These things have a present bearing; “among them that are sanctified by faith in me” brings us on to the ground of Christian fellowship. It is what we enjoy together among those who are like-minded, persons who have tasted the grace of God and seek to hold the ground for Christ. Would you not like to be among them? Would you not like to be among those who sit down at the Lord’s supper and say in effect, We acknowledge Thy rights Lord, and

seek to hold the ground till Thou dost come. His coming is not far off, but what a wonderful privilege it is to hold the ground for Him; in the breaking of bread we announce His death until He come. It means that we are not going to come under the sway of the usurper; we are not going to allow his blandishments and his power to turn us aside from the path of God’s will. No, we are not going to do that, we are following in the path of the Lord Jesus, the One who could say, “Lo, I come ... to do, O God, thy will”, Hebrews 10: 7. That will for Him involved the ultimate sacrifice. For us it may not do that; it involves sacrifice surely, but the blessing of God is far in excess of any sacrifice we may be called upon to make—it maketh rich.

The enemy never made anybody rich; he may help persons to become rich in this world’s substance, but he never brought in true riches. The person who follows the Lord Jesus knows what it is to be rich according to God; rich in faith, rich in the knowledge of God and in appreciation of the inheritance. These are true riches; these are riches that do not diminish and we do not leave them when we leave this scene, they go through into eternity. It is good to read the scriptures and see what goes through into eternity. One of the wonderful things is,

“he that does the will of God abides for eternity”, 1 John 2: 17. We have known persons who have given themselves up to the lusts and pleasures of this world; as they grow older their senses weaken and they lose their enjoyment of things, and often they die a miserable death away from God. Not so the believer in the Lord Jesus; although he may become old and feeble, his enjoyment of divine things does not diminish. The vessel may be an earthen one, but it contains a wonderful treasure. What is the treasure? The treasure is the knowledge of God, and an appreciation of the blessings that He so bountifully gives. These are wonderful things. I feel how feebly I can speak of them, but I just feel impressed by the greatness and glory of the glad tidings. They are outside the range of human understanding but can be entered into and enjoyed by the Holy Spirit.

Young people may have some difficulty in understanding these things, but the answer is to commit yourself to the Lord Jesus. Know Him as your Saviour, then recognise Him as Lord.

Acknowledge that He has certain rights over you, certain claims; yield to these claims. He never asserts them in a hard or arbitrary way. He would just come alongside you and gently speak to your heart. He would help you develop an appetite for divine things; that is another wonderful service of the Lord. It says, “I drew them with bands of a man, with cords of love; and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I gently caused them to eat”, Hosea 11: 4. Sometimes we come across young people who have been damaged by systems of men, and they have become embittered. The Lord would graciously draw alongside and cause us to eat, cause us to enjoy divine things. Can you say, dear young one, that you enjoy divine things, even in a limited way? You may say, Well, I have still a taste for the things of the world. I know what that is too, but then the Lord helps us to acquire a taste for His things, the things of Jesus Christ. The more you touch these things and commit yourself to them, the more your appetite will grow. Instead of the meetings being a burden to you, you begin to look forward to them. You begin to look forward to hearing more of Christ and your knowledge of that blessed Man grows. Then you begin to realise you have only touched the fringe of a whole range of blessings all centred in Christ.

I suppose every one in this room would admit that they have only touched the fringe, but the more we touch it, the more we see the fulness and blessedness of these things. Fulness is a word that belongs to Christianity; it relates to all that has come within our range in the Person of Christ, and is enjoyed in the circle of the saints. It is a circle of affection centred in

Christ; a circle that is going to expand and fill the whole universe. We read in the gospels about Jesus coming into the midst; it is a sphere that consists of those that love Christ and who seek to give Him the first place in their affections and in their lives. God has decreed that the Lord Jesus Christ will be the focal point of the universe; every knee must bow and every tongue must confess Him as Lord, to God the Father’s glory. That circle exists now, it exists in the hearts of those who love Him. The gospel is preached to the end that you may be drawn into it. The Lord would seek to feed you and lead you into the enjoyment and blessedness of these things.

In reading Luke 15 I wanted to say a little on the blessings of the Father’s house. Think of the Father’s feelings—“Bring out the best robe and clothe him in it”. I referred earlier to the coats of skin as making us acceptable in the sight of God, but the best robe is a fuller thought.

It is all based on the death of Christ, of course, but it relates to the purpose of God. All that the Father has prepared in His house are things which emanated from His own heart of love before the foundation of the world. I would say, dear young ones, that He has the best robe ready for you. I do not wish to use common language, but it is a personal fitting; it is prepared for you personally, and relates to the purpose of His love. The Father goes on—“put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry”. The celebration has begun; it began immediately Christ was raised from among the dead and has continued ever since. When Christ was raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father and set down at His right hand, everything was completed to God’s entire satisfaction, and God is inviting persons to join Him in the great celebration of righteousness. Myriads have been brought into it. Would you not like to be among them?

Would you not like to know what it is to have on the best robe, to be clothed with the worth of Christ, and enjoy the blessings of the Father’s house? They are all available in the glad tidings.

I trust that this message I have brought to you tonight may induce you to go in for these things, and if there is anything hindering you, get before the Lord about it and remove it out of the way. Let nothing at all hinder you from the enjoyment of these wonderful blessings—

“The blessing of Jehovah, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow to it”. May the Lord help us into these things, and bless the word for His name’s sake.

Preaching at Dundee
16 July 1995