PREACHING OF THE WORD OF GOD

Alastair McBride

Matthew 27: 45-54; Genesis 27: 34; Luke 18: 35-43; Romans 8: 14-15

These Scriptures refer to persons who cry. The two cries in Matthew 27 are cries like no others; they are the cries of Jesus on the cross of Calvary. The first was a cry of anguish, when He was conscious of being forsaken by His God. The second was a cry of power, when He yielded up His Spirit. The cry in Genesis was a cry of remorse, an exceeding bitter cry. Then Luke tells us about a man who cried in faith, what a cry that was, "Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me". I trust everyone here knows what it is to have made that cry from the bottom of their heart, or if you have not already done so, that you may do so tonight. You need the Saviour. The last cry is a cry of liberty. What God has in mind in the glad tidings is to bring persons into liberty - delivered from the bondage of sin, tear or self-centredness, into the blessed liberty of the knowledge of sins forgiven and possession of the Holy Spirit. That is God's thought in the glad tidings, the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. The blessings of the gospel, how wonderful they are! God is presenting them tonight from the glory where Christ is, a Man at the right hand of God. From there the light of God is beaming out on mankind, full of blessing, not imputing trespasses. That is the wonder of this present time, God is not imputing trespasses. In Christ, He is reconciling all to Himself. God has a heart, a heart that longs tor you; for your presence; for your company; for your satisfaction and eternal blessing. God's thought is that people should come now into the blessedness of knowing His Son as their Saviour.

For that blessing to come to you and me, Jesus went to the cross at Calvary. It meant these two cries, of which we read in Matthew 27. They became necessary in view of God's rights and His holiness being met by One who only was able to take the judgement for sin on Himself. Personally, He was not guilty. There was not one thing in Jesus personally that merited the forsaking of God. Oh the perfection of the life of Jesus; what a sight for God as He looked down on His own Son, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight" (Matthew 3: 17)! Think of His delight in saying that, and His delight in the undisturbed communion, day and night, with His own Son. Yet on the cross, there came a moment when the consciousness of that relationship was lost, for these three awful hours, because of the weight of sin that He took upon Himself. Think of God having to visit, on His own Son, the full weight of his wrath against sin and sins as the perfect Offering took our place. To meet the full claims of God in respect of sin involved His going into the distance of being forsaken by God. What would it mean to the heart of God that He should give his own Son on the cross, and there turn His face away from Him because He was bearing sin. Mr Darby says something about it - "Never was love like the gift of the Son of God for sinners; never justice … that which did not spare even the Son Himself when He bore sin on Him; never majesty like that, which held the Son of God Himself responsible for the full extent of its exigencies; never truth like that which did not yield before the necessity of the death of Jesus". He had to be forsaken. It is that cry as He felt the distance. "Eli, Eli, Iama sabachthani? that is, My God, my God, why ha thou forsaken me?" That should have been our portion, forsaken of God forever because of our sins, but Jesus took our place. The Son of God took my place. Someone quoted in our meeting this morning, "The Son of God who has loved me and given Himself for me" (Gal 2: 20). Paul was looking right back to the cross when he said that. What a Saviour Jesus is! He exhausted the judgment of God on the cross but He Himself was not exhausted. This second cry was also with a loud voice, "having again cried with a loud voice gave up the ghost." He dismissed His spirit, and in dying, He removed forever from before God, the whole order of man that sinned. Man was so lost in sin that there was nothing that God could do but terminate that order of man in the death of Christ and bring in a new order in Jesus. He died and has risen again and is now in glory, the Head of a new race for God. The veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom. His blood was shed to meet the claims of a holy God and to effect redemption, the "redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God has set forth a mercy-seat through faith in his blood'' (Romans 3: 24,25).

There was a man here in Matthew 27 who said "Truly this man was Son of God". What light he had. Have you had light as to Jesus? It is shining now on you in the gospel. Who is Jesus? He is the Son of God. Let the testimony of His Person into your heart. There was someone earlier (v 19), Pilate 's wife, who testified to her husband that Jesus was a righteous man. She recognised that in that One standing before Pilate, there as the essence of justice and goodness; and poor Pilate was there in His very presence but rejected the testimony. He missed the blessing and lost it forever. Which brings me to Esau, because he lost it too. He is called to Hebrews a profane person (ch 12: 16) because he sold his birthright. You have a birthright, you young people. You have been born into a Christian household, into Christian families. That is a great and wondrous privilege, and God would say to you, "That is your birthright". Hold on to it. Do not give it up. Do not be like Esau. Do not sell it for anything else. The world would make great claims upon you, present its attractions to you and so make it easy for you to give up your inheritance. Esau could not see any future in it at all so he gave it up for what he thought was more desirable ... “the red thing there" (Genesis 25: 20). He gave up his birthright and lost it for ever. That great and exceeding bitter cry of which we read was when he realised what he had given up. It was a cry of remorse, but remorse I need not tell you, is not repentance. Repentance is that you cry to God as convicted of sin but Esau did not cry in time. He had time to repent, but the epistle to the Hebrews (ch 12: 17) tells us that he found no space for repentance. When he sought to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, though he sought it earnestly with tears. Do not be like that. There will many loud and bitter cries, when the day of grace closes, when souls realise that they are eternally lost. That is the sober side of the gospel; it will happen. God does not want that to happen anyone here. There is time for repentance today. Now is the time, not yet for a cry of remorse, but for a cry of faith. Is that not a beautiful scripture in Luke 18? The blind man heard the crowd passing and he inquired what this might be. The man was blind. They told him Jesus the Nazarene was passing by. He knew the only person to help him was Jesus. He needed blessing and called out in faith. Part of the gospel is to open our eyes (Acts 26: 18). He called out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me." Those that were going on before rebuked him that he might be silent. Think of that! They were not with Jesus, you know. A real lover of Jesus does not go before Him: a real lover of Jesus follows Him. There were followers of Jesus there as well, but there were some who were going on before and they said "be silent". That is like the modernists, those who think they can reason things out for themselves, they can dispense with the great truths of Christianity, they can dispense with Christ, they cast aspersions as to his virgin birth, as to His finished work, and His resurrection. They would tell you that you do not need Jesus as your Saviour. But this man was not put off. He says "I need Him". It says "he cried out so much the more". O friend, do not be silenced! Let your voice be heard in the presence of Jesus. I do not mean to shout out in this meeting, you can cry in your heart. If you cry with faith in your heart to the Saviour He will hear you. It says that Jesus stood still. Think of that! He was going to the cross. It was the last time he was to be in this neighbourhood as He moved to Calvary. He stood still for one person! He will stand still for you tonight! He would call you to Him, would speak with you. He says "What wilt thou that I shall do to thee?" (v 41). He would say that to you in simplicity tonight. If you are worried about your sins, (and I trust you are), if you are unconverted, I trust you are burdened by your sins, because they will take you to hell if you do not have them forgiven. O come to Jesus and be healed! He said "Lord, that I may see." Is that not beautiful. He said Lord to Jesus. What blessing there is in owning Jesus as your own Lord. He had cried in faith and Jesus says "see: thy faith has t1ealed thee." He found his place as a follower of Jesus; he did not join those who were going on before. He joined with those who were following the Saviour. And that path leads to wondrous blessing, because consequent on the forgiveness of sins, comes the gift of the Holy Spirit.

There was another cry we might have read about. In John 7: 37 it says "In the last, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink." What a wonderful invitation! Are you thirsting after some thing tonight? Some unsatisfied need in your soul? The Lord Jesus will meet it. He says, "He that believes on me, ..." That is like the man in Luke, He believed on Jesus. The cry of faith made him a believer on Jesus. "He that believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this he said concerning the Spirit, which they that believed on Him were about to receive ..." The gift of the living water, the Holy Spirit of God, is to satisfy and permeate the believer's life and flow out in testimony for Him. He will satisfy you With Christ, He will fill you with the love of God (Rom 5: 5) and give you power too, to overcome the things in yourself which are against His own blessed work. He is power, too, to follow Him in the Christian pathway. He is the power to enjoy the new relationships into which faith brings us. Faith brings us into new relationships, into the family of God. We become children of God (John 1: 12). We become sons of God (Gal 3: 25) and this man in Romans 8, says we cry "Abba, Father". That is a cry of liberty. He is no longer in bondage. What bondage he was in in chapter 7. He says "Who shall deliver me out of this body of death" (v.24). He was so burdened by what was in himself, his flesh. He was captive to it. He wanted to do right but could not until he cried to the Lord. He is the great Deliverer who by His death has condemned sin in the flesh so that by the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus we should walk now according to spirit. He is a Spirit of adoption, that is, of sonship, so we have the liberty to cry "Abba, Father'' which simply means "Father, Father''. Now is not that beautiful? That is what the gospel blessing is. How full it is. Dear friend, it is for you. Then there is Christian company. God would not have you alone. Paul has the Christian company in mind when he changes the word in verse 15 of chapter 8 from "ye" and ''these" of verses 13 and 14. He says "whereby we cry, Abba, Father. This opens up immense privilege. You need be no longer alone. The Christian circle is composed of lovers of Jesus who know their sins forgiven and who have the blessed assurance that His Father is their Father. May you be among them, for His Name's sake.

GLASGOW

28 July 1996