GOD ACTING SUDDENLY

Paul Martin

Luke 2: 10-14; Acts 2: 1-4, 9: 1-9; 1 Corinthians 15: 51-58

I expect everyone here, and not only everyone here but everyone in Sunbury, has been affected this past week by the fact that things happen suddenly. The people boarded that Concorde flight, said goodbye to their families; they thought that in three or four hours they would arrive safely. Things happened suddenly, and things do happen suddenly. You cannot say that God made that plane crash, but He allowed it. He did not make it; He allowed it happen. There are things that happen in the lives of men in which God speaks. He allows them to happen in order that He might speak to men. It may be that He has spoken to somebody here through it. I think He has spoken to me through it. God can do that.

But I have read these passages because there are things that God does suddenly. He does not do them for the destruction of men. That is not the God that we preach in the gospel. God does everything for the blessing of men. That is the present dispensation. God’s attitude is one of blessing. He has your blessing in mind, dear friend. You say, why should He do this, why should He allow that? Why should so-and-so happen? It happens because He has your blessing in view. It happens not only for your blessing but the blessing of men. He has in view that you should come to know Him and know the heart that lies behind all that He has done Himself. What comes out in these passages is that the blessed God was moving. He is moving in relation to men. Think of the wonder of that! Before the creation, God was there, before there was time, before there was a heaven and an earth, God was there. I marvel as I think of that One so great, self-existent, needing nothing - Paul says in this book of the Acts, “Himself needing nothing, giving to all life and breath” – one so great as that found an interest in me and should have found an interest in you. Why should that be? We may touch something of it as we go through these scriptures that we have read.

When the Lord Jesus came into this scene, think of all that had taken place before! God had been waiting for four thousand years upon men. Is that not a long time? It is a long time. Has God got that patience in relation to His creature? Yes. The blessed God has patience in relation to His creature. Why? Because He wanted to make known His heart. He wanted to make His love known to men. He wanted you, however young or old you are today. He wanted you to come to know His love, to know that He loves you. You could say that to every person, every man, woman and child, that God loves them. I do not think you can say it of animals but you can say it of men. The kindness and love to men of our Saviour God appeared; it came to men. Oh the wonder of it! God’s love is towards man. He made the animals and He saw what they were like and it says that they were very good: but they never called out His affections; as man called out His affections. His kindness and love to men has appeared. How distinctive man is in God’s sight!

You may be very young, you may be very old, and you may think you are not worth anything, but you are valuable to God. You are very valuable, so valuable that He sent His own Son into the very world in which we are. The Lord Jesus came into this world. He walked in the streets; not these streets in Sunbury, He came into the streets in Nazareth. He walked those streets. He grew up as a boy. What a wonderful thing that men saw Him growing up and they wondered at Him. There was something there in the Lord Jesus that they had never seen before. When He was four years old and when He was six years old and when He was eight years old and when He was twelve years old there was something in the person of the Lord Jesus that they had never seen before. It says that when He was twelve they wondered at Him. Oh who was here, who was here? None less than the blessed God Himself in the person of Jesus, come so near to the creature that He might win the heart of the creature and hold it for God. Oh what a Man!

This passage that we have read in Luke 2 speaks of the angels speaking to the shepherds. It says, “This is a sign to you”. It says, “Today a Saviour has been born to you in David’s city who is Christ the Lord”. When the Lord Jesus came in after four thousand years of God dealing with mankind, men were living here. What hope had they? What were they looking forward to? What did they expect? Israel was under Roman rule. The Roman Empire was spreading itself throughout the known earth. But what hope had man? There was no hope until Jesus came. The godly remnant of Israel looked on to this. What a moment! Into that very scene of darkness, into the very scene of illness and sickness and death, came the Son of God. What a moment - coming into the very world, (we touched on it a little this morning), He had made Himself. The hymn writer says:

Came to the world His hands had made

And stooped to take the sinners place.

Oh the wonder of it, that the One who is not less than the glorious Son of God should come to the very scene He had made Himself. Come into the world, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That is why He came; He came to save sinners. The angel was saying to these men, a Saviour has been born. What light for man! I can tell you tonight that there is light for you. If you have never come to know Him there is light for you. A Saviour has come into the world. Oh what a moment! A Saviour who is available to you has come right near to you. Paul says, “the word is near thee … in thy mouth … the word of faith, which we preach”. Oh how close the word has come in the Person of Jesus. A Saviour has come. It says, while the angel was saying this, suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God. Think of that! He came in: there was no room for Him in the inn. Men said as to Jesus right from the moment He came into this scene that they would not have that Man, there was no room for Him in the inn. The angelic host, the heavenly host, acclaimed Him with glory as He came in.

Dear friend, the world has rejected Christ. If the Lord Jesus had not been rejected there would not be the preaching as it is today. He would be here Himself. The Lord Jesus has been rejected and the preaching goes out in grace. But here the angelic host, the heavenly host, were praising God with singing. What a moment! The whole of heaven was stirred when Jesus came, because of the One who was lying there in a manger, coming in as the Saviour of the world, great enough to be the Saviour of the world. John, looking at Jesus as He walked says, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”. Think of the volume of sin that had come into the world. By one man sin came into the world and by sin death and thus death passed upon all men. It comes to you, dear friend, and it comes to me. It may come fast and it may come slow but it comes. It is the portion of all once to die and after death the judgment.

But Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He came in that you and I may never taste the judgment. He came in and not only lived here in perfection. The perfect life of Christ showed man what He was as away from God but He came in to take upon Himself all that was due to me according to the judgment of God and He took it upon Himself in love. What a wondrous person the Lord Jesus is! Not only were the heavenly host stirred but think of the fact that the One who was here was moving onward to the cross. He came in for this. He says to Pilate, “For this have I come into the world that I might bear witness to the truth”. He came in to bear witness to all that was in the heart of God for you. He did that and He did it in perfection. Oh the wonder that man should know what was in the heart of the blessed God and be held by it, not repelled by it but held by it, in the presence of One who was no less than God, but here as a blessed Man, found here as a lowly Man, moving through this scene through which we are passing. He went onward to the cross. If He was to be the Saviour of the world it did not mean only that He should come into manhood but it meant that He should stoop into death. What a stoop that was! I wonder if you have ever contemplated it, that the Lord Jesus Himself, the One who is so great and glorious in His Person, yet as Man should stoop into death, should go that way, should Himself be the subject of the ridicule and hatred of men. Men hated the Lord Jesus. It was not just that they ignored Him but they hated Him. He says that in the prophetic writings, “They hated me without a cause”. He never gave man a single cause to hate Him. He had never done anything against man. He had done everything for the blessing of men. He says, “They hated me without a cause”. What was He going to do? He said, “I could call for twelve legions of angels”. Was He going to call for so many angels to remove the whole of mankind? Was He going to do that? He could have done. I think the Roman Empire had twelve legions of soldiers in Jerusalem. The Lord Jesus said He could call for twelve legions of angels. One angel could remove the whole of the Roman Empire. He had the power to do it. If the Lord Jesus had done that where would you and I be? What gospel would you and I have heard? The gospel of judgment.

Thank God we are not preaching a gospel of judgment. Judgment is God’s strange work. Men say, I do not understand how you believe in Christianity because God is a judge. Dear friend, it is His strange work. He will execute judgment later. But He will execute it on those who have judged in themselves to reject the Saviour. He will execute judgment upon such. But God’s judgment is His strange work. He is towards man in blessing. Man could have been removed from this scene before the Lord Jesus went to the cross. Oh the wonder of it, that the One who went to the cross and suffered at the hands of man was the same blessed Person who could say, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”. Have you ever contemplated why it was that He should do that? Why was it that He should say that of those Roman soldiers and of the Jewish rabble? They hung round the cross in their hatred for Him. Why should He say of them, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”? Was it something in their heart that was worth the forgiveness? Was it something in mine? Nothing, it was everything that was in His that caused Him to say, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”. What a cry! It says in the book of Joshua in the Old Testament; “There was no day like it, from that day to this, when Jehovah hearkened to the voice of a man”. God has hearkened and He is hearkening tonight to the voice of a Man. He is holding the whole world tonight in provisional reconciliation because of the work that has been done on the cross, because of that cry that had been uttered from the cross, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”. The Father has hearkened to that and He is hearkening to it today. He is holding the whole world in the light of what Jesus has done. And He is doing it in view of your coming into the blessing of what the Lord Jesus has affected in His dying on the cross.

What has He affected? Has the Lord Jesus done anything for you? I ask you that. You may be young, you may be old. Has the Lord Jesus done anything for you? You say, He has done a work. Yes, but has He done if for you? Did the Lord Jesus die for you? Did the Lord Jesus shed His precious blood for you? You can answer that. I can answer it, thank God. I can say, Yes it was for me. I have put my faith in that precious blood, not because I am any better than anyone else but because the grace and kindness of God has stirred my heart to lay hold in faith and accept the blessed Saviour when I could do nothing for myself, and to lay hold of the One who has done it all, removed all that stood against me, all that would have caused the judgment upon myself, and laid hold of the One who bore the judgment for me. Oh, blessed Saviour, hanging there upon the cross, bearing God’s judgment for me and bearing it in order that I might know what it is to have a place with Him, not upon the cross in judgment but in the scene of glory where He now is. Oh how wondrous! He bore my place on the cross that I might share His place where He is in heavenly glory. And He has nothing less in His heart for you, for every man, that you and all might share the place that He has in scene of His own exaltation.

What a man! Think of the wonder of it, that God came into the scene that had gone on for four thousand years. He came in suddenly: it says, “Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host”. You can understand the heavenly host rejoicing in the One who came in who was going to secure everything for God and bring in for man eternal blessing. Dear friend, there is eternal blessing, eternal salvation in Christ. Not saved today and lost tomorrow. That is impossible if you put your faith in that blessed Person. I might lose the joy of my salvation or the joy of communion with the Saviour, but the work that He has done and the Person who has done it will remain eternally whatever my feelings are. They will never alter God’s feelings as to Christ. It says in Philippians 2, “Wherefore God has highly exalted Him and given Him a name that which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of heavenly and earthly and infernal beings and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to God the Father’s glory”. I ask you tonight have you bowed the knee to Jesus?

You say, I have been brought up and my parents took me to the meetings: mine did too and I shall never cease to thank God. My parents brought me up, my mother prayed with me from before I could even remember and they brought me to the meetings and I sat under the sound of the gospel. But there is a moment in your life when you have to come to it yourself that you cannot stand on your parents’ faith. I would appeal to you tonight. The Lord Jesus came into the world. He came in to save you, that you might stand on your own faith in Jesus, have faith in Him and in His precious work and prove the attractiveness and the beauty of the Man who has been into death, has broken its power and come out of it victorious, and He is there at the right hand of God to be a Saviour.

I read from Acts 2 because not only is Jesus glorified but also the Holy Spirit is here. He has come to the very scene where the Lord Jesus had been. How wondrous that is! It says, “The day of Pentecost was accomplishing and they were all together in one place”. They could do that in that day, all the believers were together in one place. Thank God for the spread of the glad tidings and the spirit of believers who have put their faith in the Lord Jesus. But at that time they were all together in one place. It says, “There came suddenly a sound out of heaven”. The Spirit of God has come from heaven. He has come from the Lord Jesus, from the presence of the Lord Jesus. He has come forth from with the Father. Think of the wonder of that, that the Lord Jesus was received up in glory, made Lord and Christ. Oh what a place He is worthy of! Every true lover would say that He is worthy of the place that has been given to Him, worthy of the honour that has been given to Him. It says God has given Him glory and honour. How worthy He is of it. Man sought to humiliate Him, to dishonour Him. God has answered to it by giving Him glory and honour. Oh the wonder of it! There has never been more honour heaped upon the head of any man. There could be no more honour heaped upon the head of a man than has been heaped upon the head of Jesus, and He is worthy of it all. He can bear it with dignity and with affection. It does not make Him at a distance. Persons in this world are honoured: they are removed to a distance. They are on a different social stratum from the rest of mankind. The Lord Jesus has been given glory and honour. He is as available to the man lying in the gutter in Calcutta as He is to the king in the highest kingdom of the world. What a Man! He is available to them and he is available to you.

He is there at the Father’s right hand and the Holy Spirit has come from the place where Jesus has gone. I love to think of that. It was not that the Spirit came to believers before Jesus was glorified. No, it had to be that the Holy Spirit came once the Lord Jesus was glorified. Oh the glory of it, the Spirit of God bringing first hand with Himself the greatness, not only the report but the feelings and the atmosphere and the affections of all that was proceeding in heaven between the Father and the Son, bringing that into the very scene where those who had put their faith in the Lord Jesus were assembled. They were together, it says, in one place. Suddenly there came a sound as of a violent impetuous blowing that filled all the house where they had assembled. Think of the distinctiveness of the presence of the Holy Spirit. We have often spoken of this. The Holy Spirit has come from a glorified Christ. There has been witness that the Spirit has come from a glorified Christ. There has been witness that the Spirit has come. There was witness that the Saviour came, in the angelic hosts praising God. There has been witness publicly that the Spirit has come in the sound of the violent impetuous blowing and with men speaking with tongues. Think of the wonder that men were able to speak. It says, There appeared to them parted tongues of fire sat upon each of them and they were all filled with the Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave to them to speak forth. We are not on the day of the speaking with tongues but this was the inauguration of this dispensation, the Spirit’s day. There was a public witness that the Spirit of God had come. God gave a testimony to the world that there was a divine Person here. And He is here still, a divine Person, the Holy Spirit.

I would like to ask you and to ask myself, how well do I know Him? He has come. The earth rejected the Saviour, they were gathered together (we read of it earlier in the day in John 20), the door shut and the whole of the world’s system kept out. And then after forty days they are still gathered together in one place and the Spirit comes. How well do you know Him? Is the Spirit just doctrine to you - I ask myself this question - is it just on the page of scripture or do I know Him? He is more than a power and an influence, he is powerful. He is influential but He is a Person, He has come to occupy you and me and to fill the heart of the church. He has come to fill the heart of the church and those that comprise it with the glory and affections of the love of Christ. And He would have a place in your affections. Is He not worthy? He is giving power to men, women and children to move through this world in the light and dignity of a heavenly calling, linking them with a Man in the glory, causing that the love of that Man should fill their hearts. He is causing that it should be so. You can understand that immediately the Lord Jesus was received into glory – I say immediately – that suddenly and consequent upon that the Holy Spirit should come. Suddenly He came. And He is come. He will be here until the Lord comes to take His own, and then the Spirit will go. He will leave this scene when the church leaves this scene. But He is here at the moment, and my exercise in reading this was to raise the question with myself and perhaps with someone else as to how well do I know Him, this divine Person who is so great, so glorious, equal in Godhead glory with the Father and the Son, and yet come to take up His abode with us, to have a place in your affections and in mine that you and I might be here as fruit-bearers responsive to God, attached and united to the Man in the glory.

I come to Acts 9, because Paul was journeying. You see how God works. The Spirit came suddenly. Here is Paul going about his business in hatred and opposition to the Lord Jesus. And it says, “Suddenly there was a light out of heaven”. What happened to Saul of Tarsus was distinctive to him. The Lord Jesus entered into the life of that man. Has the Lord Jesus ever entered into your life? He may come into it suddenly. Things happen suddenly in Christianity. They happen suddenly in our lives. The Lord Jesus can do that. He can wait in patience upon us; He waited in patience on Saul of Tarsus: I do not know how many years but He waited in patience. He says to him, Saul it is hard for thee to kick against the goads. Think how the Lord felt every kick that Saul had made. He says it is hard. He waited in patience upon him. But a moment came in Saul’s life and I trust that moment will come in your life when the Lord Jesus will come into it suddenly. Not that He was not going to come in before: He had spoken to Saul. Saul says, “I was present at the martyrdom of Stephen”. They laid his clothes at Saul’s feet. He was present there; the Lord was speaking to Saul. Be he did not answer Him then. The Lord came in suddenly in a way which Saul could not do anything but answer. Oh how wondrous the grace that bears with us until the moment when divine Persons see it to be right and come into the circumstances of a man’s life as they did here. It says, “There shone about him a light out of heaven and falling on the earth he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul why dost thou persecute me?”

Have you ever heard a voice saying anything to you? You say we are sat in a room here, forty persons sitting here tonight – the voice is speaking to us all. We preach in faith that there may be a voice to you tonight. He heard a voice saying to him, Saul. The Lord Jesus wanted Saul, He wanted him for Himself. He wanted him to come, not only to be an apostle, great as that was. That was important, the Lord took him up as an elect vessel, but there was what was greater than that. He wanted him to come into the enjoyment of all that was in the heart of God, not only for Saul but the greatness of God’s thoughts in blessing, that were being wrought out because Christ was in glory and the Holy Spirit here. Saul’s apostleship was great; I am not bringing it into question but speaking of what he was as a person, not officially but formed according to the divine nature as divine Persons would have each of us formed according to the divine nature. It is what gives delight to the heart of the blessed God and the heart of the blessed Saviour who appeared to him on the Damascus road. I would say to you the Lord Jesus would speak to you tonight. He would call you by name; He would speak to you just as you are. “Saul, Saul why dost thou persecute me?” It says, “And he said, Who art thou Lord?” He came immediately under the authority of the Lord Jesus, came to prove what it was to find that there is blessing in coming under the sway of Christ. What blessing there is? The hymn writer says:

‘Tis the truest joy and blessing,

Jesus as our Lord to know,

Here to yield Him full allegiance,

Follow in His steps below.

You may say to me, it is all right for you to say these things but it means that I have to surrender. You are not surrendering to what is inferior. You are not surrendering to what is against you. In accepting the Lord Jesus as your Lord and Saviour you are surrendering to what is for your blessing that you could never have thought of yourself. Someone referred to it in prayer this afternoon – “things which eye has not seen, neither ear heard, which have not entered into the heart of man but God has prepared for those that love Him”.

Think of the glory of what you have been brought into through submission to the Lord Jesus. How wondrous! Everything that the Lord has done for you could not be better. He has brought you into an eternal inheritance. He has given you the gift of the Holy Spirit. He has given you the forgiveness of sins. He has given you a title, not only of sonship, but also as an heir. That affected me recently. Paul says that in Galatians 4, that “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 might receive sonship … but if son heir also” (vv 4,5,7). There are persons who are sons never inherit anything, but in the divine thought we come into the enjoyment of relationships, we inherit everything that is in the heart of God. You come into the enjoyment of relationships with the blessed God Himself, know what sonship is and inherit the fulness of what is in His heart.

Now I just want to touch on this briefly – it says we shall not all fall asleep. This is the apostle speaking of the Lord Jesus coming for those that love Him. We are waiting for that. We are not going to be here for ever. Thank God for that! We are not going to be in these bodies for ever – we can thank God for that too – these bodies of humiliation which express the fruit of the working of sin. It says, “We shall not all fall asleep but we shall all be changed”. We are all going to be changed. There are those that have died who are lying the grave, their bodies are in the grave, they are with Christ. There are those that lie in the grave; they are going to be changed. They are going to be raised incorruptible. It says, “We shall all be changed”. What a wonderful thing! You do not have to be old to feel the limitation of what the human body is; you can feel that when you are quite young. We all have limits. Even the disciples had limits. It says as to two of them, one could run faster than the other; he had a limit. You do not have to be old to prove that. But it says that we shall be changed.

“In an instant” – that is what I wanted to speak about – “in the twinkling of an eye”. Is it going to take long for the Lord Jesus to change these bodies when He comes? He that has raised up Christ from among the dead will quicken these mortal bodies. Our brother referred to that in the reading. These bodies will be quickened and they will be changed. Will it take long? No, no. How will it be done? We shall not all fall asleep but we shall be changed in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. There have been trumpet sounds right down through this dispensation. What sounds they have been! There will be the last trumpet: that would suggest that there have been others. “For the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible”. They will be raised incorruptible. Oh the wonder of that! Some, tomorrow, will be placing the body of a sister in the grave; it is corruptible. But it will not be raised corruptible; it will be raised incorruptible. There will be nothing then to which decay could attach in the believer’s body, nothing at all. It will be raised incorruptible. It says, “The dead shall be raised incorruptible and we” – that is those of us who are alive today – “shall be changed”. The Lord Jesus when He comes for His saints will come out of heaven. That is the next occasion that we are looking for. We are looking for Him to come. And it is going to happen. It will not take long. It is as if He is on the way; for faith He is. He is ready to come. And He will come out of heaven. Is that not wonderful? We have never seen Him yet. Peter says, “Whom having not seen ye love”. We have not seen Him but we are going to see Him. And when we see Him we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. One view of that perfect glorious Man will change everything. You might say it changes everything now. I have often thought that about he Supper. The Lord Jesus comes in and you get an impression of the glory of that blessed Man. He changes everything; He eclipses everything. We come away and everything is put in its right place in your mind and in your affections, because of the One whom we have not seen. We shall actually see Him. When He comes everything will be changed. We shall be changed. These bodies shall be quickened on account of the Spirit of God. Think of each of the divine Persons working in relation to the bodies of the saints that we might be, not suitable because of our moral history, no, but taken out of a condition that would be unsuitable for eternal enjoyment of the presence of God and changed to eternal conditions, changed from conditions in which we are into eternal conditions like unto His own. A body of glory like unto His own body of glory. And this corruptible shall have put on incorruptibility. Oh the wonder of it, that we shall be suited entirely for the presence of divine Persons, suited for eternity, never to get old, never to get feeble, never again to prove the limitations of what the flesh is. Only the limitation of what belongs to creature, but never again to prove the limitation of what the flesh is. But we shall be eternally in the presence of Jesus.

How wondrous. Are you looking forward to that? Are you speaking to Him about it? He loves to hear His own speak about His coming. Have you spoken to Him about it recently, perhaps spoken to Him about it today? He loves to hear you speak about His coming because that is what is in His own heart. What a moment for Christ when He has the result of His own death and what He has secured for His own heart with Himself eternally. What a moment for Him, and it is going to happen in an instant in the twinkling of an eye. It will not take long. It do not want to be fanciful as to it, but divine Persons will work together in view of the translation of the saints into glory and as there, to be suited to the realm into which we are brought. Who has done it? What is it based on? The blessed Saviour has done it. The woman said in the hymn:

My soul shall yet still praise Him,

And loud His grace extol,

Thou hast thyself redeemed me,

Yes, thou hast done it all.

What a wonderful Person Jesus is! How wonderful, not only to save us from our sins but to come into the very scene to take us out of it and make us suited to the very presence of God. That is the full work of the gospel to make man suited to the presence of God, as suited as Jesus is.

I have touched on these things very briefly; I have not put them very well. There is much more that could be said about them in much more clarity, but things have happened quickly from the divine side. They have happened quickly from man’s side and it has always led to failure and sorrow. But things have happened quickly from the divine side and they have been in view of your blessing. The work of Christ coming into the very scene to secure you for Himself, the gift of the Holy Spirit that you might know what it is to have a living link with divine Persons, the Lord Jesus Himself appealing to you in grace. All these things have happened and they may have already happened in your soul. But then there is what will yet happen. He will come Himself in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye. There will be no struggle. Myriads upon myriads of the saints, going right back in history, how many hundreds and hundreds of thousands will be raised and changed, myriads upon myriads. The sky for the moment will be full of the bodies of the saints meeting the Lord in the air, in rapturous adoration of the One who Himself has become the alone object of their hearts. May He become that increasingly with each one of us. For His Name’s sake, Amen.

 

SUNBURY

30 July 2000