“DRIVEN OUT, COMPELLED TO COME IN”

David Robertson

Genesis 3: 20-24; Luke 14: 15-24

The first scripture read speaks about God driving man out and the second speaks about the bondman compelling men to come in – a very great contrast! One would remind us that God had to take this action in Genesis chapter 3 because man, His creature, had come under the power of sin. God, being God, was “of purer eyes than to behold evil”, Hab 1: 13. So He had to take issue with His creature. It was not an unfeeling matter with God. He felt for man and He felt too the loss of man because sin had robbed Him of His creature. God felt that keenly. I want to use these scriptures in as simple a way as I can, and if there should be one here still in their sins, God feels keenly for you. I believe that none of us can fully understand how much God feels as to man away from Himself in sin.

And so God takes account of this terrible happening that sin entered in through man’s disobedience, because He had placed man in a place of great favour, of great blessing. He had provided for Him in the way that only God could. Yet in spite of all that, man disobeyed God and became a sinner. It was caused through disobedience. The root principle of sin is disobedience. We will see later on, I trust, that the root principle of blessing is that we begin to obey the glad tidings. That is what God is looking for as He announces the glad tidings, that we might be persons who in the obedience of faith accept the glad tidings and come into wonderful blessing! Nevertheless, what this scripture teaches us is that God could not tolerate sin in His presence and He drove man out, a very strong matter, a judicial action by God, and yet, as we know, those who have some understanding of the teaching of scripture, there was mercy involved in it. He says, “lest he stretch out his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever …!” It was as if God was considering this matter. The tree of life was there to sustain man in life that would go through eternally without death, and God was considering the situation as only God could consider it because God was the One who was offended by the coming in of sin. He felt it and, as I have said, He felt it keenly. He is taking account, we may say, of the reality of man, eating of the tree of life and going on eternally as a sinner. What a thought, man going on uninterruptedly going on in sin, and God interrupted that. While God acted in judgment, it was an act of mercy that God interrupted the awfulness of man living forever in sins. What a terrible thought!

And so He protects the way to the tree of life. It says, “And he drove out man; and he set the Cherubim, and the flame of the flashing sword, toward the east of the garden of Eden, to guard the way to the tree of life”. He did not remove the tree of life. It was still there, but it was guarded. The way to the tree of life was guarded and man, as man in his sin, never regained that. There had to be a change and only God Himself could effect that change. Only God Himself could establish a condition of things where man once again, apart from sin, would have access to the tree of life. That is what we have in Luke 14, and I will come to that. That is what I want to speak about, but I just want to get home to you the sobriety of this thought that sin was such in God’s sight that He could not countenance man living for ever in sin and He drove out man from His presence, and He put the Cherubim – it speaks of God’s righteousness – “and the flame of the flashing sword, toward the east of the garden of Eden, to guard the way to the tree of life”. How solemn that is! What an action on God’s part! I trust, dear friend, that you have some sense that you have to do with such a God. It is imperative. He is a righteous God. Have you ever faced up to that? Have you ever faced up to the solemn reality that you have to do with a righteous God who knows not only your actions but who knows every inward motive of your heart? “All things are naked and laid bare to his eyes, with whom we have to do”, Heb 4: 13. He is a holy and He is a righteous God. Men live as if there was no God. What a reality when you are brought face to face with the sure understanding in your heart that you must have to do with God.

It is in view of blessing. God is not driving man out now. He has secured a means whereby He can compel men to come in. What a change was needed if man had to be brought into blessing and compelled to come into blessing – for make no mistake, that is God’s attitude today. He is compelling men to come into blessing and unless God compels you, you will never come into blessing. As you will see in Luke 14, none of the invited came. And if you were left to your own devices and I was left to my own devices, we would never come, but the truth is that in the glad tidings, God is compelling men to come in. It is a wonderful compulsion: it is the compulsion of divine grace. It is the complete opposite, we may say, of this action that God had necessarily to take because of His righteousness and because He must guard the way to the tree of life and prevent man from living for ever in his sin. God has found a means and He has found it through His beloved Son and the work that the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished on the cross of Calvary. God has found a means whereby He can righteously bless man on the principle of His grace. What a blessed God He is!

I want to speak a little about Luke 14. I have said enough about Genesis 3, I trust, to sober us that we have to do with a righteous God about our sins. There is no way out of it. If you are to come into blessing, you have to do with God about your sins and the first step to blessing is that you accept that you are a sinner in a the sight of a righteous, holy God. It is not a question of trying to do better or trying to improve. You never will. It is a question of coming to the simple acknowledgment that you and I are sinners in the sight of a holy and righteous God, then to come to the realisation that God has prepared a condition of things through the redemptive work of Christ where men can be brought in to the richest possible blessing.

What this section in Luke 14 sets out is that God is inviting you to join Him in His feast. It is not a question of what the sinner finds in Christ exactly in this section; it is a question of what God has found in Christ. And God would invite you to share in the infinite delight and satisfaction that He finds in the work of Christ accomplished in righteousness through redemption. That is the substantial truth of the glad tidings. Of course, the sinner is blessed through it, but you could never be blessed unless first of all God Himself had been satisfied with Christ and with Christ’s work, and the glorious truth is, dear friend, that the Lord Jesus Christ has come here as man, He has gone through a life of perfection, doing the will of God and delighting to do it, but laying down His life at the end of that life, that God might be glorified, satisfied with the work that has judicially terminated the great question of sin. One’s heart is full with that, that God is totally satisfied with what the Lord Jesus Christ has done in meeting the requirements of divine righteousness. The work is complete: sin has been dealt with, has been taken account of by God and judged unsparingly in the Person of His Son. You think of that cry we often refer to on the cross when the Lord Jesus said, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Matt 27: 46. Have you ever contemplated that? Have you ever thought about it? Has it ever entered into your soul, the tremendous awfulness, the horror of that moment? No wonder one could say:

O day of greatest sorrow,

Day of unfathomed grief!

When Thou did’st taste the horror

Of wrath without relief.

Has it ever come into your soul, dear friend, that Christ endured the wrath of God on your account? If you are to be brought into blessing, it necessitated that the Lord Jesus had to meet sin as it was in God’s sight, not as it was in your sight or as it was in man’s sight, but as it was in God’s sight. There was a transaction to take place between God and Christ. Think of a holy God and a holy Man! Beloved Mr. Darby said there was nothing unholy in that scene except your sins and mine. A holy God and a holy Man, and yet what was being judged was the terrible unholiness of sin! You might say, what a God! What a Saviour! Friend, what does it mean to you, that the Lord Jesus should go that way that you might be saved, that I might be saved, that we might be brought into blessing, that God might be satisfied with the meeting in righteousness of the whole question of sin. God dealt with it there unmitigatingly. He did not spare Christ. Christ bore in judgment, the weight of the judgment of God against sin.

Now this chapter is recorded on the assumption that the work is completed and God is satisfied with it and the great question is that He makes “a great supper”. It is not just an ordinary supper; it is “a great supper”. Scripture speaks about a “great salvation” (Heb 2: 3) and surely we can speak about a “great salvation”. We certainly can speak about a great God and a great Saviour and a great gospel. It is a great feast, not only great in the eyes of men like ourselves who have come into blessing but great in the eyes of God because God is celebrating. He is celebrating the glory and the satisfaction He has in the completed work of Christ on the cross of Calvary. What a work it is! It satisfies God and, not only that, He is justified with the perfection of the One who has accomplished it.

And so the invitation goes out. It is a “great supper” and I trust it would become great in your heart that God has provided such a supper and would invite you to it to share with Himself in His delight in His Son. There were persons neglecting it. The scripture says, “how shall we escape if we have been negligent of so great salvation”, Heb 2: 3. You can be sure of this if you are amongst those who are neglecting it; eventually it might mean that you find that you have rejected it. I trust there are here no rejectors of Christ, of God’s appointed Saviour. It grieves the heart even to contemplate it, that there could be one soul in this room who is neglecting the great salvation and who may be rejecting it. Oh do not be like that! It is too solemn and too serious a matter. It involves issues that belong to eternity. Your eternal salvation depends on it. As the little poem says:

Eternity where? Eternity where?

In the glory with Jesus or lost in despair.

There is no middle road when you come to what I am preaching about. There is no neutral ground. You are either saved or you are unsaved. You are either an acceptor of Christ or a rejector of Christ. You are either one who is compelled to come in and enjoy with God His complete satisfaction in Christ and Christ’s work or you are left to utter darkness and eternal loss. Let me appeal to you, think soberly about this tonight! Be arrested in your way! Do not go on heedless and careless! If you have gone that way, cease at once and take due consideration of where you are and how you stand before a righteous and holy God. He has made provision for you through the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ and through His precious work. Think of Him suffering on your behalf! Think of Him laying down His life in death under the judgment of God! Think of Him shedding His precious blood, the only blood that can atone for sins. It says, “it is blood that maketh atonement for the soul”, Lev 17: 11. The Lord Jesus Christ has shed that blood, the only blood that could atone for your soul. What precious blood it is!

Not only that, He has gone into the grave. He has borne the judgment of death and overthrown its power and He has come out of that, come out of the grave, risen, victorious Man and not only risen but now exalted to the right hand of God and God is saying on the ground of that glorious work, “come, for already all things are ready”. Oh, that you might hear God saying that word to you. Do not stay away! Do not miss the blessing! I remember many years ago listening to the gospel and hearing an old brother speaking – no doubt he was quoting someone else – but he said that procrastination is the thief of time. Put it off and you have lost a little more time; put it off and you have lost some more; put it off and finally there is no more time left and your opportunity has gone! Friend, it is too serious to let it go! You must have the blessing. The blessing that God has in mind is the greatest possible blessing and it is to understand and share with God Himself in the blessed joy that He has in His Son. That is the feast. It is a great feast, “a great supper”. God is celebrating it. I may say, to speak reverently of God, His heart is fully happy and satisfied with what He has found in Christ’s work and He is saying come and share it with me. What a blessed God He is! Are you going to turn your back on it? May it not be! May it be that you fall in with this compulsion of divine grace!

Well, there were those who were invited and none of them come and then it goes on, and the lame and the poor and the blind and the crippled are brought in. “And the bondman said, Sir, it is done as thou has commanded, and there is still room”. That is the position now. Thank God for it that there is still room! The day of grace is still going on. There is still room. But what about tomorrow? It may be gone and the opportunity might be lost. Friend, do not trifle with it!

There is a final word here. “And the lord said to the bondman”. In Matthew’s gospel it is “bondmen” (chap 22), but in this gospel it is a bondman. I think it is typical of the Holy Spirit’s service. There is a power at work in the preaching of the glad tidings, it is the power of the Holy Spirit and it is a compelling power, something that is greater than your natural revulsion keeping you away or your pride that would keep you from the blessing. There is an operation going on here, a power to be known, and it is in reality the power of the Holy Spirit that would compel you to come in. You may say it is in spite of yourself, because left to your own devices you would never come in. I know only my own heart, the choice would never have been made naturally, but through the compulsion of divine grace, you are brought in. The blessed Holy Spirit is at work, in order that you might be compelled to come in. What a blessed word it is: “Go out into the ways and fences and compel to come in” and there is a reason for it, “that my house may be filled”. That is what God wants for you, that you might have a place in the filling of His house. Not only would God then be satisfied with Christ – and He is satisfied with Christ and He will be eternally satisfied with Christ – but His thought is that He might be satisfied with you. He longs for your company. He lost man’s company through sin, but through these wonderful glad tidings of grace, God not only brings men into blessing but He secures their company for eternity. Think of God desiring your company for eternity! I read an interesting touch in the ministry of Mr Stoney. He said that the gospel is preached to fill a vacancy in the heart of Christ. Did you ever think about that – that Christ is up there, that glorious Saviour, the Man who has accomplished God’s will, the Man who has accomplished redemption, the Man who has met the whole question of sin in the sight of God, the blessed Man who has shattered the power of death, and who has risen and gone up – think of Him there, as you might say, in the highest pinnacle of glory; and yet there is a vacancy in His heart and only you can fill it. Are you going to fill it tonight? There is a vacancy in the house of God too as presented here. He says, “compel them to come in that my house may be filled”. What a heart God has! What a house God has! How extremely thankful I am to be able to tell you that there is still room for you tonight! Is it too simple for you? Men stumble over it. I have known such. What about you? You have had your opportunity. Oh let the appeal in, the appeal from God: “compel to come in”! You need salvation and the Saviour has accomplished the work which provides the ground of salvation. Why should you not come in? Could you give me one valid reason why you should not come in today? Well, you say, there are all these reasons here. There are none of them valid. It is a solemn thing that it goes on to say, “for I say to you, that not one of those men who were invited shall taste of my supper”. You know why they never came? Because it was left to their own choice; and if it was left to your own choice, you would never come, but God is working in the power of the Holy Spirit and He would compel you to come in. That is the kind of God we are preaching. The same God who drove man out because of His righteousness and because of the fact that He could not in any way behold iniquity in His creature, that same God has provided for men and provided for Himself, I should say, first of all, in the sufferings and death and blood-shedding of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has secured righteously the ground where He can compel men to come in in the wondrous grace of His heart to share in the greatest things with Himself and to have in yourself a person, and in all of us, with whom He can share His joys eternally. Think of being with God eternally, not only enjoying with God His satisfaction in Christ but also providing in the wonderful throng of the redeemed for the satisfaction of God’s heart eternally! There can be no greater blessing for man than that. The greatest blessing of the creature is really to serve God in holy worship and to praise Him from satisfied heart. May it be that you will be added to that number and may there not be one in this room who is left outside of it! I say, friend, and I say with feeling, there is still room; room for you and, thank God, room for every sinner for it says that God “desires that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth”, 1 Tim. 2:4. Friend, there is room and there is room for you. May you not miss it, for His Name’s sake!

GLASGOW

18 November 2001