PREACHING OF THE WORD OF GOD

Robert Taylor

Genesis 3: 4,5,7-11; 2 Corinthians 5: 18-21; Luke 8: 43-48

The passage in Genesis is speaking of a time when sin had just come into the world; that it is still rampant today hardly needs saying. There are fruits of it all around us. What I would like to speak about for a moment is how man has attempted to meet the matter and on the other hand how God has settled it. The relationship between God and man became disturbed at the incoming of sin. The first thing it brought to man was a guilty conscience. God had been there before, speaking to them; they never tried to hide themselves. God had communed with man, said many things to him; there was perfect relationship. But what sin has given man is a guilty conscience. And every man has that, whoever he may be. If the matter of your sins and peace has not been settled between you and God, the conscience remains guilty. The first thing they did was try to satisfy their conscience. And that is what people are doing today. There are all kinds of things. Sin, because of its abundance, may in people's eyes have lost its seriousness. Some things that in the days of our fathers were considered very serious, today are taken as commonplace. There are even some things that required a penalty in law that are no longer so regarded. That brings out the deceitfulness of sin, working to dull the conscience. My friend, if your conscience has been dulled, may it be stirred tonight that you must have to do with God - you must. That is one great certainty in life or in death that man must have to do with God. There is no escape. These aprons were very poor, what man made. Oh, there are many aprons being made today. We could speak of the apron of entertainment that man has brought in; the apron of sport, that man has made to try not to think about God. Just put it behind us, sweep it under the carpet, do not think about it and it will go away. These are the aprons that men have made. They sewed fig leaves and made themselves aprons. I suppose they thought it was all right. Maybe you think it is all right. Well, everybody else has sinned, everybody else does this or does that, you may think it is commonplace and it is all right, you have your apron and you are hiding. Where did they stand, my friend, when God came in and He said, "Where art thou?" Where were their aprons? Could they hide from those simple words? Could they hide when God raised the question, "Where art thou?" The whole thing is exposed. The whole working of what men have erected as a barrier is exposed. He brings in one excuse after another. But the aprons that they had made were no use. There is no hiding place, my friend, for man today save in Christ. What a multitude of hiding places has sprung up in the world. My friend, there is only one hiding place that I know; it says, "And a man shall be as a hiding-place from the wind", Isa 32: 2, a man, the Man Christ Jesus, God's Man. It says, a Man shall be a covert from the storm, a hidingplace from the wind, as the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land. A Man, who is a different man, a Man who has come in from God. God has come to remove the distance and settle for time and eternity, for you and for me the question of sin and our sins. And, my friend, He has done it to perfection. There was a man of old who raised the question, "How can man be just with God?" Job 9: 2. What could he do? What could Adam do? Very hastily, I suppose, he made those aprons, and through the course of time how many attempts have been made. But what can man do to be just with God, a God whose holiness is intrinsic in His being, a God who is of purer eyes than to look on sin. How could a man be just with God save that God from His own side has come in; in the Person of Christ. It says, "God was in Christ", God was there. The history books would tell you there was a man who was here called Jesus, they would tell you something about Him without distinguishing Him perhaps from other men. But it says more than that here, it says, "God was in Christ" - God was there. One of the prophets looked on to that; as he was looking for salvation he says, He will come Himself. Oh, how precious! He will come Himself and save us (Isa 35: 4). He did not only send Isaiah, and the other prophets, but the prophet had some sense that He will come Himself. And what a difference when He came Himself. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself". Oh, what power, what grace, what love was there when God came in in the Person of Jesus. He did not come with angelic forces or power to frighten man, but it says, "God was in Christ"; the most approachable of men. The One who could lay His hands upon the children, who would take a journey to meet one woman at Sychar's well - God was there in Christ. He was there, my friend, as another writer tells us, undoing the works of the devil (1 John 3: 8). That woman that we read of came to touch something of that. He was there bringing men on to true ground and true relationships that sin had disturbed and made irreconcilable, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself". Friend how did He do it? He did it in His death. From heaven's point of view the world was never more beautiful than when Jesus was here, because on this earth where every man had dishonoured God, where sin had made such inroads, there was a Man that was in perfect accord with heaven. God's eye was there on Christ and His grace was going out to men to bring them all to that one Man. The effectiveness of that as the writer here is speaking, was all accomplished in that He removed the distance - removed it. How could it be met? You think of the distance that sin had brought in, perhaps not so great between Adam and God, although it was the same in a sense, but in the course of time there is no doubt the gulf had become widened in the things that had come in. Because sin, as the scripture says, became exceedingly sinful (Rom 7: 13) as the race went on. How was it going to be met? It could only be met, my friend, by it being removed. And that is what God has done in Christ, He has removed the distance. That is what reconciliation means, that the distance had to be removed. As most in this company would know, if it was only bridged it could break down, the gulf would still be there. A bridge between two things is a very narrow connection, and the distance and the guilt would still be there. But in reconciliation God has removed the distance because His Son went into the distance. Oh, how dark, my friend, how deep that distance. This passage tells us how deep He went, "Him who knew not sin", He did not know it.

That is why I said there was one spot on this earth of brightness when Jesus was here that had never been before. There was a Man here who did not know sin. There were writers that loved Him, who went over it time and again; one of them said, He did not know it as here, another said, He did not do it, "Who did no sin", 1 Peter 2: 22. That was a man who knew Him, who had been with Him most of the days of His service and seen Him in every circumstance. As he looked back he says, He did no sin. What a Man. He did not know it, He did not do it. Another one who loved Him says, In Him sin is not (1 John 3: 5). How precious these testimonies to the Man who went into the distance. Sin was foreign to Him in His character and in His movements and in all that He did; "Who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth". Oh, the sinless One! How beautifully Peter speaks about Him: ''when reviled, reviled not again;" 1 Peter 2: 23 - no sin. "When suffering, threatened not;" and perhaps most beautiful of all he says, "but gave himself over into the hands of him who judges righteously". When suffering, that is what He did when He was there tasting the distance, not only measuring it but when He was removing it He gave Himself over into the hands of Him who judges righteously, "Not my will, but thine be done," Luke 22: 42. Oh, what a Saviour. God was in Christ settling the matter Himself to His own glory by a Man who was sinless. It says He was made sin for us. I cannot explain these words; it was what God laid upon Him. We sinners in our being and in our practice, but there the sinless One He was made it. Oh, how dark the world became, my friend, how dark it became. If in earlier days, as I said, it was at its brightest, in those hours it was at its darkest when He was made sin for us. There was the darkest hour in one sense in the world's history; when the perfect sinless Man was made sin. The scripture explains it, it says it was for us. The word vicariously is used; it means He was there in place of us and the judgment of God against sin was poured upon Him. Can you understand it? No, save that it is an expression, an appeal, of the love of God to you and me as to how He has settled the sin question and settled it for time and for eternity for those, I trust you, who put their trust in Him now. So it says, "he has made sin for us". That means that for you and for me the matter is settled. When God does something it is done to perfection. If another had done it there would have been imperfections in the work, but it says, "Him" that is Christ "who knew not sin he" - that is God - "has made sin for us". Oh, what an expression of His love. If an apron would have done for Adam this was what God required. God required that the distance would be removed and He removed it Himself in the Person of Christ. It says, ''that we might become God's righteousness in him." What a change. But that "we", I raise the question, Are you among them? "That we might become", the work has been done, but I think the ''we" is the persons who come into. You can be among them through exercising faith, and putting your trust in what Jesus has done.

And that is what that woman did that we read of in Luke. She tried the aprons, she tried the physicians, year after year she tried one thing after another. I suppose the remedies poured out in her day just as they do today, every week something fresh coming in but only bringing out the insufficiency of the previous remedies. But the root question still remained. Maybe she got better nights from some remedies but the root question still remained, she was still troubled. Indeed it says she became worse (Mark 5: 27). But she comes to touch the hem of His garment. That is a reference to what is here tonight, the hem of His garment is here in the preaching. Christ Himself has gone into heaven after He bore the weight of sin on the cross, after He bore God's judgment. He exhausted that judgment to God's satisfaction. You say, How do you know it? Because God raised Him from the dead. He who knew no sin was made sin, but the matter was settled, the sin question was met and God raised Him from the grave to the highest place in glory. But the hem of His garment is here in the Spirit's voice in the preaching. God has found His delight in what Jesus has done and in the Spirit's grace and power He is proclaiming His name tonight that you and I may find how God has met for His satisfaction and for our peace, the question of sin and of sins for time and eternity. This woman did not need any more remedies, she found an answer, she found the remedy when she found the Saviour. But then it says, "immediately her flux of blood stopped." My friend, one act of faith and it is done for time and eternity, she touched the hem of His garment. 'Only a touch' the hymn writer says, the Lord Jesus was there within her reach. It says only a touch, but oh, how much was in it - only a touch, would she the venture make? She did. Will you make it tonight my friend? Will you put out your hand tonight to touch what has come to you? It says, The word is near you, in your mouth, the word of faith, which we preach (Rom 10: 8). "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from among the dead, thou shalt be saved." Oh, those precious words of Romans 10: 9, how precious they remain. And here this woman, believed in her heart, she put out her hand and it says, "immediately her flux of blood stopped." There is the answer to social reform, moral reform and all the rest. It says immediately it was stopped; through faith and touch with the Person, immediately it was stopped. 'My sins - Oh the bliss of this glorious thought - My sins - not in part, but the whole - Were borne on the cross, and are gone evermore, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!' (hymn 238). She did not have to wait like the lepers of old seven days outside the camp, but it says it was immediately stopped, never again to be raised. My Saviour, my friend, He bore the whole matter for me. He met God about the whole question, but only if you touch the hem of His garment, only if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth, do you come into the blessedness of the way that God has made. O my friend, do not try any more aprons, do not try any more of the remedies that man has brought in, but tonight reach out to touch the hem of His garment. But you know there is much more. It was immediately stopped. You say that would be enough. Ah, no, He has a lot more in His heart for you than just to forgive you your sins; He said, Who touched Me? He felt it, you know. My friend you may be one of many, one of fifty or whatever it is in this room, you may be one of millions in this city, but if you exercise faith in the work of Christ tonight He knows you. There may be only one in a great congregation, as there was here, there were crowds thronging Him. Peter says, They are all touching Thee, Lord, and you say 'Who?' Yes, He knew that woman's touch of faith and cry of need that was so different from the cries of all around, in the mixed multitude. And He knows your cry, He knows what you would be saying in your heart tonight; He says, Who touched Me? Not to give her a sense of shame, no, He says, Who touched Me, to bring her into the family, because the next word He says is "daughter". That is where grace would place you, my friend. Oh, to come from the distance to come into the family. That is what He does with her, He says, "daughter". No longer a boweddown daughter, no longer someone crippled. The same woman in the same circumstances but she has come into another family. He says, "Be of good courage, daughter; thy faith has healed thee". You could have said it was His work that healed her, true it was, but she got the gain of it through touching the hem of His garment. His work stands there before God's eye and you are brought into the eternal gain of it through confessing His name as this woman did. And He says, "daughter; thy faith has healed thee; go in peace." What an answer to all man's puny efforts that God has come in and done things according to the power of His grace and of His love and He is appealing to you tonight. The garment is within your reach; 'Only a touch. Will you the venture make?' tonight. He was within reach, that is how close His garment came to her. We do not know how many were there, but the garment was within her reach and that is where the gospel comes, within your reach. The reach of your hand, however short it may be - the power is in the hem of the garment and it is just within your reach wherever you are tonight.

My friend, may you reach out not only to know the peace of your sins forgiven but to know the joy of being brought into the family of God. What a family daughter. Oh, how precious these words. Maybe nobody had called her that before. I suppose they would not own her before. The man in John 9, they would not own him. But here is someone who owns her, "daughter". How precious it is to know the Saviour's voice for the first time: calling your name, esteeming you in His love, and leaving on her heart, as He would with yours tonight as you exercise that touch of faith, "Go in peace." May it be so for His Name's sake.

NEW YORK

5 November 1995