THREE SPHERES OF BLESSING

W. Dickson

Luke 7: 36–38, 48–50; Romans 5: 1, 2; Ephesians 2: 18–22

Despite the increasing darkness of the day in which we live and the evident encroachment of the apostasy, the public testimony of God as to the glad tidings is still very pronounced in the way of preachings, in the giving away of tracts, and many other ways—even the board outside a meeting room—in which there is a public testimony to men and women that God is continuing the day of grace. These things make some impact upon the minds of men and women. I am quite sure that many of them say to themselves, ‘What has Christ got to offer me? What can He offer me more than I have just now?’.

Beloved hearers, I would like to speak tonight of some of the great blessings that God has to offer you in the glad tidings. Not that I could compass all the blessings—to do so would be impossible. All the blessings that God would offer to men in the glad tidings are so great, are so widespread, are so far-reaching, that I can only be selective in what I have to speak of.

I want to speak of three great spheres of blessing into which God would bring men in the acceptance of the glad tidings. That is something which should appeal to every man and woman because there is so little blessing in this world. Even circumstantially men’s lives these days are over-clouded by shadows,

sorrows, and calamities of every kind, so that it is good news to speak of blessing to men and to call their attention to great spheres of blessing which they can come into through the glad tidings. These scriptures that we have read show us that we may have access into these places of blessing. I suppose there is no more frustrating experience, even for the boys, than to see the sign, ‘No access’. You go this way—‘No access’; another way—‘No access’. But you never find that in the gospel. God in the glad tidings is opening the door to every sphere of blessing for men so that they may come into it tonight. Even the youngest may come into it— enter in in all your guilt and need and find a Saviour. The hymn says—

‘Christ is the Saviour of sinners,

Christ is the Saviour for me’.

Has everybody in this room really sung that in their hearts, that Christ is the Saviour for me? He offers me blessing; He offers through His own precious, finished work access into the great blessings that God has in His heart for men tonight. So this woman had access to the feet of Jesus. In that house of Simon the Pharisee, God saw to it that that woman in her burden and in her need would find access to that place where the blessed Saviour was ready to administer the forgiveness of sins to a poor and needy heart. What a sphere of blessing! That woman had never known this in her life before. She had known sorrow, she had known what it was to taste the wells of bitterness of this world, but in that house of Simon the Pharisee—in the most unlikely environment—she found access to a place of blessing for the forgiveness of her sins.

Have you ever found that place? Have you ever searched for it? Have you ever been affected by the Spirit of God in the preaching of the glad

tidings—so that you have longed to find that place of blessing, that initial place of blessing where Jesus speaks these feeling words, “Thy sins are forgiven”? Here was this woman, with the burdens that were in her heart, and she sought out that only place—think of that, that only place in the whole world—where she could have that wondrous message of forgiveness. She sought it out and was prepared to brave even the hardness and the coldness of that religious Pharisee in order to find a place of blessing. Oh how earnest she was! If there is one thing, beloved hearers, I would love to see, it is persons in earnest about the matter of their links with Christ and their links with God—in earnest about it, feeling that the issues of life and death and what is eternal are pressing upon them, and that they must be in earnest about it. This woman was really in earnest. She sought out the feet of Jesus and she expressed her appreciation of that wonderful pathway that opened up before her as it had never done before—the wonderful sphere of blessing for her heart.

Oh what a day it was! She could sing, ‘O happy day that fixed my choice’,

‘Happy day, when Jesus washed my sins away.

He teaches me to watch and pray

And live rejoicing every day.

Happy day! Happy day!’

Is that not wonderful? That woman was like that. She had reached a sphere of blessing. She had tasted wells of bitterness, wells of anguish, but that day as she went into that house she found access to the most blessed spot on earth, the feet of Jesus. She would sing that hymn— she would sing its equivalent—she would be touched in her heart that at last she had found a place where instead of judgment, instead of sorrow, blessing was being administered. How her ears must have

been touched to hear these words from Jesus, “Thy sins are forgiven”. Have you ever had a touch like that from the Lord—‘Thy sins are forgiven thee’? How essential it is to have soul dealings with Christ!

I am convinced, if I may say so, that any lack of fervency in meetings is because links with the Lord in regard of these blessed transactions have never been fully experienced. There is such a thing as ‘being converted’. I am not saying that everybody should be able to give the date and the hour and the place when they were converted—not everybody is able to do that. But I do believe this, that there is an experience in which you hear the Lord’s own voice, experience His own touch, and He says to you in His own words, ‘Thy sins are forgiven thee’. That provides a wondrous basis from which you grow in love and affection for Jesus.

It says, “And they that were with them at table began to say within themselves, Who is this who forgives also sins? And he said to the woman, Thy faith has saved thee; go in peace”. You know, there are thousands of souls in this world tonight searching for the message that the Lord gave this woman. They are trying every means possible to get it, they are searching every possible source to get peace, and they can find it only at the feet of Jesus.

Oh, if men and women would only come to that, that God has a Man in whose hand there is the solution, not only of every problem in the universe, but to every problem in the life and history of each man, and woman, and boy and girl. There is a Man who has the answer to it— “Go in peace”. Have you heard these words? If so,

amidst all the burden of things in this scene you know that, because you have settled that great matter of your link with Christ, you can go in peace.

In Romans 5 you find another wondrous sphere of blessing; “Therefore having been justified on the principle of faith, we have peace towards God through our Lord Jesus Christ”. What a sphere of blessing! Perhaps we do not hear as much as we should in the preaching about justification, because there is a lot of unhappiness with some, a lot of doubts sometimes, a lot of anxiety as to whether their links with the Lord Jesus are really permanent. I find that if you speak with men and women at large many will say, ‘Well, yes, I know that Jesus died for me, but I have just a doubt in my mind as to whether, when it comes to the final reckoning, I shall be saved’. Well, how thankful we are for the truth of justification by faith. You know, there are thousands of souls in a not very wide radius from here who are enslaved in a system of darkness, who believe with absolute confidence that the answer to the peace of their souls lies in what they can bring, and what they can give, to a hierarchical system.

Now here is a blessed Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, and God looks at you in all the perfection and blessedness of His finished work. As God sees that Man, risen from the dead in all His acceptance in His presence, God looks at every believer and there will never be a sin, never a charge, never an imputation of guilt, against any person who trusts in our Lord Jesus Christ. Are you troubled? Despite the fact that you once committed yourself to the Lord, do you have an uneasy feeling sometimes? Do you wake up in the night and say, ‘Am I really saved?’. Does the enemy get at you and say, ‘Well, you did something

yesterday, you allowed something to happen yesterday—How are you going to be a christian if that happened?’. We have all had these experiences. How wonderful just to get your eye on a Man in the presence of God in all His glory. His finished work accepted up there, and God’s eye resting complacently on Him.

There never was a day like the present in which there is a new religious cult coming into prominence almost every week. New cults are springing up because men and women are seeking satisfaction for their souls. Anybody who can produce something that tends even for a moment to allay soul hunger gets a hearing. What does that speak of? It speaks of the longing that men and women have for something that will satisfy their souls amidst all the materialism and empty pleasures of this world. I can tell you this with certainty, that none of these so-called ‘faiths’ can present as glad tidings a living glorious Man in the presence of God, who is the standard of your acceptance, the measure of your forgiveness, the surety of your joy, and the extent of your privilege. None of them can offer that. The only Person who can provide an answer to the need of your soul is Jesus in the presence of God. Hallelujah! What a Saviour! How wonderful!

It says, “Having been justified on the principle of faith, we have peace towards God through our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom we have also access by faith into this favour in which we stand”. We have favour, and access into the highest circles. Nothing is barred, the highest circles of privilege, the highest circles of acceptance, and “we boast in hope of the glory of God”. Men are very boastful these days, are they not? The arrogance of men makes one tremble sometimes—the utterly profane way in which they speak of God and of Christ. Yet here is something that we can boast in—“We boast in hope of the glory of God”. God is going to fill this world with all that He has found in that beloved Man. He will fill it with the glory of that Man who is rejected at the present time. What a thought that is! At the Supper this morning Ecclesiastes 10: 7 was quoted, “I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth”, emphasising the place of reproach of the believer consequent on the rejection of the Lord Jesus. That is what happens today; but the day is coming when God will manifest the glory of His beloved Son and the servants will be walking on the earth and the princes will be riding on horseback. What a change! “We boast in hope of the glory of God”. Dear young people, I would appeal to you. I do not think, despite all the sorrow that has come into things publicly, that there is anything greater to which a person can devote his or her life than the testimony of God. Despite what has been incurred in the way of reproach and condemnation in the eyes of men, this remains, that the testimony of God regarding Christ, carried in faith and affection at the present time, is the greatest matter to which persons can devote themselves.

Dear young people, do not let the opportunities of this world divert you from that. You may say, ‘Well, it is all right for you, an old person, you have had your day, you have had your run of things in this world’. Do not let that divert you; but in your own simple way commit yourself to the testimony of God.

In Ephesians we find another sphere of blessing: “For through him we have both access by one Spirit to the Father”. What a place of blessing! I do not think anybody will question me about bringing this into the preaching. I do not think anybody will say,

‘That is not part of the glad tidings’. Of course it is! It is part of the blessing in the glad tidings that we have access to the Father. How wonderful are the privileges of christianity! Christianity is essentially a system of privilege. It carries its responsibilities. Once you confess the name of the Lord Jesus the responsibilities that devolve upon you are immense— so are the resources in the Holy Spirit to enable you to meet them. But essentially christianity is a system of privilege. Now here is the greatest privilege that anyone could have, “access by one Spirit to the Father”. “So then ye are no longer strangers and foreigners, but ye are fellow-citizens of the saints, and of the household of God”.

I like that word, “the household of God”. I think everybody will know the difference between a house and a household. The house is where order is maintained. A man is head of his house and maintains order there. But the household is a sphere of the administration of blessing, and it says here that we are “of the household of God”. Oh the blessings that God dispenses in His household! We have enjoyed some of them these past three days. That has distinctly impressed me, the household of God, and God not only maintaining order in His house, not only saying that these are the standards that have to be maintained (as befits God, things must be such as please Him), but God in His household administering food and blessing, care and comfort. What a household to be in!

Beloved brother, is your household like that? Do the children feel like that? Do they say, This is not only a house, but a household, where there is an administration of blessing, joy, and peace. That is something that brings the impress of heaven into the lives of the young people, that takes away

the spirit of legality and replaces it by the features of a household, the household of faith, the household of God. How would God conduct His household? He conducts it in a beneficent way and ministers blessing to men. It says, “Being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the corner-stone”. What a house! What a sphere of privilege to see one glorious Man as the corner-stone of that dwelling. You look round at the edifices of this world. Think of a young man going down to Westminster, seeing the Houses of Parliament, or up in our part of the world seeing Holyrood Palace, and he would say, ‘No, they are none of them like where I belong. None of them has a corner-stone like this—“Jesus Christ himself being the corner-stone”. It is the thought of beautification; it imparts a feeling of dignity. O, beloved hearers, christians are to be dignified persons. You do not go through this world grovelling, just giving people an impression that you have to be very apologetic if you speak about the Lord. No, no! a christian is marked by dignity because Jesus Christ Himself is the chief corner-stone of that wonderful edifice and you find yourself a part of it.

It says, “In whom all the building fitted together increases to a holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit”. What a sphere of blessing!—to find constantly that your soul is being brightened and watered and strengthened. There is an area of things down here in this world, and we must call attention to it. I was thankful that our brother today made an appeal in regard to the breaking of bread in his preaching. When I was a young person there was rarely a preaching that did not include an appeal to the young people to commit themselves to the Lord in the breaking of

bread. But what are they committing themselves to? Are they committing themselves only to a position of reproach? No; they are committing themselves to a great sphere of blessing, growing up as constantly supplied by the river of God, constantly supplied by divine provision, and growing up to something that is going to be for the pleasure of God Himself, in which He will dwell. That is christianity. What has Christ to offer me? Heaven when I die? Just that? Is that all Christ has to offer me? No—He will give you now the forgiveness of your sins, access into this favour in which we stand, and access into the presence of the Father, now! I know there are anticipative thoughts in christianity; the Scriptures are full of what is anticipative; but the glory of the present moment is what, in the Spirit’s power, can be experienced an enjoyed now. May we all come into it, for His name’s sake.

Preaching at Barnet
19 October 1975