SPEAKING

^[p. 317] SPEAKING

Luke 1: 19 - 20; Luke 11: 14; Luke 7: 15; Luke 24: 33 - 36

This gospel written by Luke is specially evangelical: the others are, too, but Luke is peculiarly so, and so the gospel is enhanced by the preachers given in Luke’s account. The first evangeliser is Gabriel, a great heavenly dignitary; not that a lesser angel could not have communicated to Zacharias, but Gabriel was deputed. He says, “I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God”. Angels are not lazy beings, they are ministering spirits; they are standing up, either serving, or ready to serve, and are sent out to minister. This great angel is sent down to Jerusalem to this priest Zacharias, to announce glad tidings to him. Then we find in the next chapter another angel visiting the shepherds who were out keeping their sheep; he said to them, “behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people”. So throughout this gospel we have persons and circumstances which enhance what is presented — as if you must believe, the tidings are so wonderful you cannot let them pass by as if they were nothing to you. In chapter 4, we find the great Preacher Himself, the Lord Jesus, and He is presented in the same way, as enhancing the testimony by His manner. His words; never were such words, words of grace.

Now in all this there is the thought in the mind of God of having speakers, and that at the present time. The speaking is to be in faith, for if it be not in faith it is valueless and worse. In the world it is a time of speaking, of oratory; the art of speaking is cultivated; and not only oratory, but conversational powers are cultivated. All this is outside of faith and is of no value in God’s account. “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity (love). I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal”, 1 Corinthians 13: 1. Yet God intends that there should be speakers; heaven ^[p. 318] is to be filled with persons who can hold holy converse; we shall be speaking there — those of us that are saved, that are elected in the counsels of God for a place in heaven — we shall not be dumb there.

Well now, I want to work this out a little in relation to the gospel. Those who are saved speak now, and they speak acceptably to God. With this subject in view as connected with the gospel, we see that there is a penalty on unbelief, a penalty of dumbness. The angel says to Zacharias, “thou shalt be dumb”. Why? “Because thou believest not my words”. You see how a penalty is imposed, not only for committal of things, but also for non-committal of things — what we do not do. It is quite true that the things that we commit, the sins committed, are all recorded; not one of them is omitted. I suppose there is nothing more accurate than the books of God. They are opened in due course, not now; God is not reading out of them now. If books are opened at all now, it is this book that I have before me, and the book of life, but the time will come when the opening of the books will take place, and the records will be as accurately brought forth as they have been written down. “The books were opened”, we are told, Revelation 20: 12, “and another book was opened, which is the book of life”. We do not know how many or how large are the books, but the names of the wicked dead are all in them. The names of the saved are all in the book of life, one book. I should not like to be in any other. I love to think of being in that one book with all the redeemed, all the living; but there are “books”, and God will open them according to the time on His calendar and there will be found the works of the wicked — terrible word! God forbid that there should be any here amongst them! — the works of the wicked will be unfolded, and the judgment of God shall be according to the books.

Here in the case of Zacharias it is that he did not believe; the penalty is on account of unbelief. Zacharias ^[p. 319] was not a man that could be classified as a wicked man, he was a priest, and ministering as a priest; like many today, doing God’s service ostensibly, and praying, too, and yet unbelieving. He prayed, and Gabriel says, “thy prayer is heard”, but he did not believe it. God has no pleasure in prayers of unbelief. He has great pleasure in the prayer of faith, but a prayer of unbelief God hates. Zacharias was tested as God sent this great dignitary down from heaven to tell him that his prayers were heard, but he did not believe it.

It may be that there are those here who have prayed; you have been longing for things. You have seen others saved. Zacharias had seen others with families and he coveted a son. You have seen others saved by the grace of God, you have seen how happy they are, you wish to be like them; you have thought of being like them, but it is in vain without faith. Perhaps unbelief like that of Zacharias may be in your heart. The language of unbelief comes up, as he says, “I am an old man”, and so forth. If you allow the language of unbelief to come up you may hinder the entrance of the word in your heart; it will be unmixed with faith and you may go out of the door unsaved, with a penalty upon you.

Every time you hear the gospel and you reject it or you fail to believe it you incur a penalty. The apostle Paul had been amongst the Thessalonians for three weeks, and a good many were converted. They believed the gospel, but the enemy began to work amongst them creating disturbance in their souls, as is often the case with young christians; the enemy would work through people who are unbelievers, persons who, it may be, attended the meetings with them. Paul in writing afterwards to these christians speaks of some that should be “punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power”: why? — Because they know not God and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see the penalty is ^[p. 320] the result of not obeying the gospel; and so it was here. Gabriel brought the message. Can we doubt that en route he was concerned as to how he would deliver it? He comes to him with glad tidings and he does not believe. There was a penalty, not, indeed, everlasting destruction, for Zacharias was saved; but he was dumb for a season. Thus God would say to you now, that there is penalty attached to the refusal of the gospel.

In the second scripture I read Satan is hindering a person from speaking. In chapter 1 God hinders Zacharias as a penalty, a divine penalty, for unbelief. Unbelief is repugnant to God, in whomsoever it may be found. He abhors it, for it dishonours Him and it robs your soul of the blessing that He proffers in the gospel. Zacharias, as I said, was undoubtedly a true child of God, but he suffered from unbelief. The fact that I have been converted is no guarantee that I may not suffer and rob myself of the blessing of God through unbelief, but then Satan is also hindering people from speaking. The chapter is a remarkable one in that it speaks about God giving the Holy Spirit to those that ask Him. Well, if Satan can shut your mouth in the presence of such an opportunity he will do it. This verse comes in immediately after our Lord’s words saying, “how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” Satan knows that God is a hearing God, and that He has the greatest things to give to those that ask, and if he can make you dumb, if he can silence your vocal powers, he has succeeded. This wonderful opportunity was offered to the man in Luke 11; the very best gift of God is available to the one that asks. Satan says, If I can make that person dumb he will get nothing, he will miss it.

I want you to notice that it is not a mere historical fact that is recorded. It is what the Lord was doing; He was casting out a demon. Not that He had done it; He was doing it. That is the light in which we are here ^[p. 321] today, that the Lord is doing things. Some preach the gospel as a mere matter of history. Surely it is a matter of history; the greatest happening in all history is the death of Jesus; the atoning suffering of Jesus is an historic fact, never to be repeated; it is the basis of the gospel; but it is not all the gospel. The gospel includes what Jesus is doing. He is working, from the east to the west all day long, saving souls. There was a prayer to the Lord here this afternoon, asking Him to make this day fruitful, a day of a harvest of souls, and one said Amen to that. We are not sufficiently believing as to what the Lord is doing. The gospel includes what He is doing, what He has done, and what He is doing, and what He will yet do. All these times are included in the gospel: What He has done — He died on the cross; He is risen — gone into heaven; the Holy Spirit has come down: all that is a past matter, but infinite in its bearing; without it there could be no gospel. Then there is what He is doing, and that is what Luke records here — He was casting out a demon. Attention is called to the mode of procedure, to what He was doing, and then we are told that the demon was dumb: meaning that he caused the person in whom he was to be dumb. Now Satan is active on those lines all the time, he is unremitting in his activities to keep people from speaking when they should speak. Some of you here have been enlightened years ago and got a touch in your souls, and you have never confessed the Lord Jesus yet, you have never told people about Him, that He is your Saviour. Satan is doing that, he is keeping you from speaking. Now David would instruct you on that point. He says, “When I kept silence ... my moisture is turned into the drought of summer”, Psalm 32: 3, 4. Is it not so with you? You have kept silence. You refer back to the time when you got a little bit of light from a preacher, it may be; the Lord gave it to you, but you kept silence: you have not confessed the Lord; the enemy has been keeping you dumb ^[p. 322] and you have not confessed the Lord. It may be you have not confessed your sins. David said, “I kept silence”. God will have something said about this matter of sin and sins. He has said something about them, He has said, “all have sinned”, but then the convicted one says something, too, and if he does not say anything his convictions make him miserable. Look at David’s comments about his state of soul after he had sinned, but before he confessed. He said: “I acknowledged my sin unto thee”. And then he got relief. All was cleared in his soul as he acknowledged, but the enemy would have kept him from acknowledging. Indeed, David kept silent until God sent His messenger to him, Nathan the prophet, and Nathan convicted him. We are here tonight in that same capacity — to bring the word of God to your conscience, as Nathan brought it to the conscience of David, and to break the silence. Let me urge you to break the silence, first to God about your sins, and then to your nearest relative or friend about your Saviour. You do not need to tell them about your sins. Tell them about your Saviour. Tell God about your sins, as David did; he said, “I have sinned”, and Nathan said, “The Lord also hath put away thy sin”. That is the gospel.

To return to Luke 11. The Lord was casting out the demon; He must have felt the inability of this man to speak, for it is not mentioned as a mere historical fact. It is a question of the work of God; there was something going on with the man, and Satan was hindering him, and the Lord felt it, and He was casting out the demon. What He did then He is doing still. Let us not assume for a moment that the Lord is not working. If you have hitherto kept silence and you are in misery of soul, the Lord would relieve you, so that you might speak. It says the man spoke: that is all that is said about it, and that is all that is necessary. He was dumb, but he is speaking.

^[p. 323] Now in the case of the young man of Nain we have a dead man. It is well known, of course, that dead people do not speak. It is not now a question of Satan hindering it. It is a question of the state of the man — he is dead, dead morally. There are many like that. There is no movement toward God. This man was dead literally — I am not ignoring that fact: it is a very solemn fact, too, for any young people who are looking out on the world and calculating what place they may obtain in it that they may shine there, and make a name. The world is very deceptive, and Nain, I believe, stands for it. It is that which is pleasing and attractive; but there was a funeral coming out of it. The Lord was going into it, we are told, and He was not going into it alone. The Lord is sometimes presented alone and He evangelises alone and speaks to persons alone and saves them; but on this occasion He is going in with a goodly number of His disciples, just as we are here tonight. A goodly company of the Lord’s people are here to meet you. I never have any difficulty about saints in the gospel meetings — the more the better; they enhance the position. Moreover, there is not a saint on earth that does not need the gospel — not one. I believe that the apostle Paul would be the best possible listener to a good gospel address. If he were near where Peter was preaching he would enjoy listening to Peter preach the gospel. If Peter were preaching the gospel he would not say he did not need it. There is not a saint on earth that does not need it; nor is there a true saint of God that does not enjoy it. It is not irksome to any saint to hear the gospel. We are thankful when preaching the gospel to have the saints with us; they are good listeners, they are sympathisers; they pray, and through them the gospel goes forth in power.

The Lord was going into Nain, and He was not going into it alone. The Lord is not alone now. He was alone on the cross; He bore the full weight of divine wrath on the cross. He said, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” There was no other there. He worked out atonement. He was alone in that. The thieves were not in that. The Lord did not say anything about them. He said, “why hast thou forsaken me?” He is not alone now; He has myriads with Him. He enlists the sympathy of all His people in the gospel, and He has many tonight. So in entering Nain He had a goodly number with Him, but this funeral was coming out — a very solemn fact. Not the funeral of an old man or an old woman, but of a young man. Some of you may not actually think that only old people die, but the thought lurks in your heart that you have a long stay in this world; it is a deception: you may not have a long stay. This young man is going out of the city dead and the Lord touched the bier. He said nothing, but touched the bier: and they all stood, the bearers stood. What a touch that was! Young people often think they can go hither and thither and do as they wish; but some day you will stand still in the presence of Jesus; these bearers stood still. It was well they did, it was the touch of the Creator.

What a moment it was at the gate of Nain! They stood still, and He spoke to the youth; He called him a youth. I do not know how old he was, but he was a youth. This is a text for young people, written down by the Spirit of God for young people so that the gospel should be enforced upon them, and the danger of rejecting it and the shortness of their lease of life in this world. The Lord says, “Youth, I say to thee”. What an opportunity for you now, tonight! What an opportunity — the Son of God, the Creator, speaking to you! “I say to thee”, He says. It is reiterated in Scripture what He said to this and that one; has He never said anything to you? He has often spoken to me. Many others can say the same here; has He ever said anything to you? You remember the boy Samuel, how in the ^[p. 325] house of God he lay down to sleep and Jehovah called to him. And the Lord came three times and said, “Samuel!” Samuel thought it was Eli; he could not discern between the voice of God and the voice of Eli. It may be that is the case with some of you, you have never discerned that the Lord has spoken. “I say unto thee”. It is a question of you. Four times Jehovah came and stood by Samuel. What grace there is in that! The Lord would not do less for you; He would come and stand by you. I could cite instances in which He did. He stood by Samuel and He called his name twice, “Samuel, Samuel!” It is no more the voice of Eli. It is the voice of God. You would love to have Him in your heart tonight. It is the voice of God; not my voice simply, it is the voice of God. He would call you by name. When God calls a man’s name twice He has something special in mind for him, and what could be more desirable in your soul than relief from the pressure of sin, or whatever the pressure may be. Relief from pressure is one of the greatest possible experiences, and the Lord is here to receive you. In the case of this young man, He says, “I say unto thee, Arise”. “Wake up!” — may I not repeat it? — wake up, young man: young woman, wake up! You have been lying in the midst of the dead, “Wake up, thou that sleepest, and arise up from among the dead, and the Christ shall shine upon thee”, Ephesians 5: 14. Is it not worth while?

Now this young man woke up; and he began to speak. I do not suppose he will ever finish speaking. We are destined as believers to hold holy converse in heaven with Jesus and with one another, too. I should like to have heard what he said. There was not another in the town who had such an experience as he did. He began to speak. Some of you here have been in a like position, you have been wakened and have come into blessing, made some little progress, but you have been stunted, it may be. There has been no movement for some time ^[p. 326] back. The Lord does not like that, He does not care for stunted growth in believers. This young man began to speak; it is not said that he ceased, it is just the fact that he began to speak. When the Spirit of God tells us about a beginning, it is not to be denied that it goes on according to God. The divine end is to be reached, and what could be more delightful to the ear of God than the voice of the young man risen from the dead speaking of his experience. If you were to ask him about things after the Lord delivered him over to his mother, you can understand that he would say: Jesus touched me, and spoke to me, and I can only speak well of Him! Jesus has spoken to his soul, and he has begun to speak. What could he speak of but Jesus? I am speaking of these things now normally. The Spirit of God puts these things down, and they are to be taken normally: he began to speak. If there was a meeting in the town of Nain later on, as we say, it is no stretch of imagination to say that this young man would be there. Would he speak? Would he pray? Would he give thanks? Can there be any doubt? It would have been delightful to have heard him, as I said, in his mother’s house that night, speaking about the Lord. Have you ever spoken about the Lord? Have you begun to speak as one awakened from the dead? As having come into touch with Jesus, have you begun to speak well, to speak about Him? Nain had a person there the like of which they had never had before — a risen man who began to speak, one who has come back from the dead.

I take him to be material for the assembly of God. Luke has that in view always. A young man who is converted and has not begun to speak in the assembly is depriving the Lord of His due, and is depriving the brethren, too, of their due; because the voice of the young convert, indwelt by the Spirit of God, is beautiful, is delightful to heaven. A young man saying “Abba, Father”, by the Spirit of God — there is freshness in that.

^[p. 327] In chapter 24 we have the speaking of some who had strayed from the Lord, they had turned their backs on Jerusalem, and the Lord had gone after them, as the great Shepherd of the sheep. The day after the Lord arose was a very very busy day for Him in the activity of His love, and every day since has been busy; the Lord is constantly active, whether in converting souls or in going after the straying ones — He is constantly active. It says, He went after two to Emmaus, and they came back. He did not come back with them; He went with them as they went in the wrong direction, which you might say is remarkable, but it is grace, it is Luke’s way of presenting grace in the Lord’s activities in recovering wandering ones.

Maybe there are some here who have turned their back on the assembly, which Jerusalem represents, and you have gone out “into the country”, as Mark puts it; you have gone to Emmaus, a village. The Lord is here now to bring you back. They left that same hour, we are told, and they returned to Jerusalem. Oh, may God grant that some of you may just return, change your mind, as you sit there, and see how foolish you have been; you have been depriving yourself of the blessing of God.

The Lord would put it to you to change your mind. He would impress you with His grace. He is not charging you with anything. You know how beautifully Luke presents Him as the Shepherd going after the sheep, and when He finds it He does not reprove the sheep. He says nothing. He puts it on His shoulders and returns rejoicing. There is a marvellous setting out of grace in Luke 15. It is illustrated in Luke 24 in the most striking manner. The Lord went as far as He could, into their house, and sat down at their table, gave thanks for their meal, and broke the bread Himself. Wonderful grace! Then He left them, He vanished. Why did He not stay and go back with them? Because He is skilled in dealing ^[p. 328] with souls. The idea of a shepherd is not only that he has affection for the sheep, but he has skill. It is a skilful profession, as I may say, dealing with sheep. So the Lord Jesus did not stay. He would rather see them go back themselves, and He did! He saw them act together themselves. It is very fine to see a believer who has strayed coming to himself like the prodigal, turning back the same hour. They might have waited until the morning; no, the work of God is ever true to itself; they returned that same hour, and went back to Jerusalem, which was a good distance, a good walk; and they found the eleven. Oh, you say, look at those few christians that meet down there; how small they are, how broken they are. How despicable they are! Those eleven in that little room, how small compared with the temple that Herod had built there, how despicable they were! Returning prodigals do not think like that. They know where the truth is; they know where the authority of Christ is, and where it is owned. They found the eleven; they were a broken company, but they loved the Lord and they respected His word, they kept His commandments — that was characteristic of them; they are the greatest people on earth in God’s mind, people who loved Jesus and in loving Him kept His commandments. I would urge you to find them, however few or many.

The returning ones found the eleven and those that were with them gathered together. What were they saying? “The Lord is indeed risen”. What power there was in those words! Every word is power, especially the word “indeed”. The Lord is risen indeed. That is glorious news. And then they say, “and has appeared to Simon”. That means that grace reigned in that company, for Simon was a sinner. He was worse than the two that went to Emmaus; he denied the Lord Jesus with oaths and curses, but the Lord appeared to him in spite of that. That is grace. It is a question of what God can do in spite of our sins. That is the idea of grace; it ^[p. 329] rises above our sins however black they are, and that is what they were saying, “The Lord is indeed risen and has appeared to Simon”. The whole atmosphere was victory and grace. If I were there with the blackest sins upon me I would say, There is hope for me: if He has appeared to Simon He will appear to me. So He would love to appear to you now to tell you that He has borne your sins in His own body on the tree; that you need never bear them, they are all put away, and that forgiveness and righteousness are yours on the principle of faith. Do not forget that. If anyone preaches the gospel without making it clear that it is on the principle of faith, he deceives you.

So the Lord appeared to Simon: that is what they were saying, and the Lord Jesus came in at that time and stood in the midst, as if to say, It is just what I want. I would urge young believers here not to deny to the Lord the speaking He is pleased with. Talk about His resurrection; talk about His glorification and His coming again; but talk about His present grace; what He is doing. He is casting out demons; He is appearing to Simons; He is restoring wanderers; He is building up His assembly in which the greatest possible speaking is to be heard, greater than that of angels, where the Holy Spirit is indwelling hearts and saying “Abba, Father”. Angels do not say that; Jesus said it, and believers say it in the power of the Spirit of God.