PREACHING OF THE WORD OF GOD

J.D.Gray

Proverbs 20: 27; John 3: 13-21; Revelation 22: 16, 17; Isaiah 55: 1-3

I look to the Lord for help to preach the gospel from these scriptures. It is quite a responsibility to preach the gospel and it is also a privilege. As asked to preach you feel your own inadequacy, for it is a very great matter. It is the word of God. That is why we read the scriptures before we say anything, because in reading the scriptures we are reading to you the word of God. That word can have its own effect without the preacher saying anything, other than reading to you the word of God.

I would desire a little help to speak about these scriptures – there is another scripture which says, “who of men hath known the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him” (1 Cor 2: 11). I do not know what is going on in your spirit, and you do not know what is going on in my spirit, so you might think you are foolproof, that no-one knows what goes on in the spirit of a man save the spirit of the man himself, but you are deluded if you think that. That is true in the things of men, we do not understand and we do not know what is going on in each other’s spirits or minds, but there is One who knows. Have you ever thought that God has a link with you through your own spirit? You know, young and older friends, God gave you your spirit. People speak about what is biological and all that side of things and the development of the child before it is born. What they do not believe, but what I believe and what scripture says is that God imparts life to a being. He “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and Man became a living soul”, Gen 2: 7. He imparts life – it is called quickening – He imparts life to the child that is to be born, and He has a link with every person through their spirit. Have you ever thought about that? Do you think you are foolproof? I might think that I am foolproof because nobody knows what is in my spirit save me, and the same with you, but there is One who knows. You do not have to be a believer for that to happen. All you have to be is a creature, and you are a creature of God in the sense that you have your origin from Him. Your spirit you received from God, our body that we have carries the genes of our parents, that is biological, but, “Man’s spirit is the lamp of Jehovah”. He can look into your inwards, into your motives, into your thinking, into your actions, into everything that pertains to every one in this room, all of us, and every one that exists in this world. God is able for that. You can go into cities and see people going past, millions, thousands, hundreds; you say, Where are they all going? Is no one taking account of them? Yes, God is taking account of them. Job says He is the, “observer of men”, Job 7: 20. Not just what you see publicly, but He sees into the hearts and minds of every creature. God has given us a spirit. That spirit is the “lamp of Jehovah”; it looks into all the crevices. He knows what you are doing, what you are thinking, He knows your motives, He knows your uprising, and He knows everything about us. That is not just theoretical, that is practical. We cannot understand it. There is a being who is infinite, that is God. We cannot understand infinity, we never will. As one dear man said, if the finite could understand the infinite, there would be neither finite nor infinite. Infinity is beyond the human mind. There is a being who is our creator and He has access to us through our spirits.

“Searching all the inner parts of the belly”, that is the whole being of a man, the whole motives of a man, not just his public actions, but his inwards, and there is a God who knows. Would you like to come to the light? That is what John 3 says, “For every one that does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light that his works may not be shewn as they are; but he that practises the truth comes to the light, that his works may be manifested that they have been wrought in God”. Which category do you belong to? Do you belong to the category that you would not want to come to the light, that you would choose darkness rather than light? Men have loved darkness rather than light. The world is full of that kind of man, men away from God who have loved darkness rather than light, “for their works were evil” – I ask again, which category do you belong to? Do you belong to the category that does not like to come to the light, does not want your works to be shown as they are? It is a challenge to you and to me and a challenge too to every believer. Not that the believer belongs to persons who are lost because they have been saved by Christ, but what about the present state of you and me at the moment? Are we free to be in the presence of God? Are our works such that they can be shown to be wrought in God? The believer’s works should be shown that they have been wrought in God. It says, “he that practises the truth comes to the light, that his works may be manifested that they have been wrought in God”. He has nothing to hide. “The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son cleanses from all sin”, that is available to you if you are an unbeliever, and it is available to you and me as believers. Not that we should continue in sin – Paul says, “Should we continue in sin that grace may abound? Far be the thought”, Rom 6: 1. Who here would like to continue in sin and say, Well, I am saved and Christ is my Saviour; then do what you want? No. That is not the thought, but I would like the word of God to challenge all of us today. It says here, “men have loved darkness rather than light; for their works were evil”. That is unregenerate man. Then it says, “For every one that does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light that his works may not be shewn as they are”. Are you prepared to come to the light, believer or unbeliever? As a believer you should be in the light, I should be in the light as a believer, but is it true or have I a shady life? Are you a Jekyll and Hyde? We do not want to be a Jekyll and Hyde, we do not want to be one thing amongst the saints and another thing amongst men: the word of God is searching us this afternoon as to where we are, where we stand.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son … For God has not sent his Son into the world that he may judge the world, but that the world may be saved through him”. I want to touch our hearts with that, “his only-begotten Son”. If you know Christ as your Saviour as God’s only-begotten Son, the only one He had, that is the Saviour for sinners. Again it says as to persons, “because he has not believed on the name of the only-begotten Son of God”. How God regards that Name and that Person, the only-begotten Son of God! He takes account of you and me whether we believe on the Name of the only-begotten Son of God, or whether we do not believe on the Name of the only-begotten Son of God. He says, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal”. Maybe everyone here has believed on the Name of the only-begotten Son of God, put their trust in Him, they are not going to perish, but I say again, are you true to your Christianity? Am I true to my Christianity? Am I prepared to be exposed by the light? Maybe not to the brethren but to God, but He knows anyway, “Man’s spirit is the lamp of Jehovah, searching the inner parts of the belly”. My spirit is a link with God and He can search me. As a believer you and I who are believers, and I trust all here are on that line, have the gift of the Holy Spirit. Is that true? If you do have the gift of the Holy Spirit, then you have a guest indwelling you. How are you treating that guest? If you are truly converted and have the Holy Spirit indwelling you He will never leave you. Is He dwelling happily within you? If my behaviour is such that I would not want it to come to the light, He could not be happy in me, He will not leave but He will be grieved. The Holy Spirit would be grieved in me. But the God who so loved the world has sent his Son; think of the love of God that He desires that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth! “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son”, the only one He had. These are not theoretical matters or religious matters, they are real and living affections that God’s Son came into this world, and He is the only-begotten One and He dwells in the bosom of the Father. What an intimate link He had with Him, and He gave Him to save this world. Do you know what it cost Him? It cost Him to fix on His Christ, His only-begotten Son, the condemnation of sin. He bore the sins of many. He condemned sin in the flesh in His Son. He had to break communion with His only-begotten Son because He under took to work out atonement and take the place of condemned man. The condemnation of sin in the flesh was laid on Christ, He was made sin for us, that we might become the righteousness in God in Him.

Then, for those who lay hold of Him, Christ became their substitute. He bore the sins of many. To get the advantage of Christ as your Saviour you have to lay hold of Him, ‘I want you, Jesus, as my Saviour’. If you do not lay hold of Him then you do not get the blessing. It is not that His work is fractional or limited, His work is such that He gave Himself a ransom for all. That means that every man can lay hold of Christ as Saviour. But if you do not lay hold of Him you do not get the blessing. He bore the sins of many. The many are those who lay hold of Christ. Dear friends, lay hold of Christ as your Saviour, He is a wonderful Person! It says of Him, “no one has gone up into heaven, save he who came down out of heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven”. That is a conundrum to the human mind. Who can limit Christ in relation to His Person coming into humanity and accepting its limitations publicly? When I say that I mean, when Jesus was in Capernaum, He was not in Jerusalem, He accepted the limitations. His spirit is another matter, the Person and who He was in His deity, He never ceased to be what He was by becoming what He became. He was perfect in what He became. He remained God, but He moved among men as a Man. Here he puts this to Nicodemus, “no one has gone up into heaven, save he who came down out of heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven”. There is a mystery attaching to divine Persons.

In Revelation 22 Jesus is coming again. He has testified certain things to certain persons, He says, “the assemblies”. There are assemblies of believers, (I use this in a simple way). He is testifying to them, “to the assemblies” that are on the earth. He says, “I am the root and offspring of David” – do you know what that is? Do you know what the root of David is? What is the Lord referring to when He says, “I am the root and offspring of David”? That was put to the Pharisees by the Lord Himself when He was here and they could not answer Him, that David calls him Lord, yet he is his son. How do you work that out? The root of David refers to the Lord’s deity. Jesus was a divine Person. The offspring of David refers to the fact that He came into manhood and sonship – very simple. “I am the root and offspring of David, the bright and morning star”. He is that. Is He a bright and morning star to you? Do you know what the bright and morning star is? In the heavens, in our part of the world, the morning star and the evening star is Venus, it is a planet. If you ever look up in the morning you will see Venus when all the other planets have gone, you will see it because it is so near the earth that it shines when daylight is almost there. It has been called the morning star – it speaks of Christ now. When Christ appears publicly the world will know it. He will take control and do two things. He will take the man of sin and the false prophet and cast him into the lake of fire. He will do that. That is a real thing and He will put Satan into the abyss. Scripture is very accurate, that is not the final place for Satan, but it is a temporary place where he can have no more action for the flesh in man and temptation in the millennial day. Christ is the bright and morning star for the believer. When He appears everybody will know it but is He the bright and morning star to you? You have to get up early to see the morning start literally – is He the bright and morning star for you, is He touching your affections? Is He Christ your Saviour? If He is your Saviour He ought to be the bright and morning star. We wait for the day of which it says “the Spirit and the bride say, Come”. That would include both the rapture and the appearing; it certainly includes the appearing, “the Spirit and the bride say, Come”. You know, friend, there is an entity called the bride of Christ or the body of Christ? The Spirit is associated with the body of Christ and the bride of Christ. The body of Christ includes every believer. Here the scripture says, “the Spirit and the bride say, Come”. There is love for Christ. There are many true believers saying Come to Christ, we want you to come, Lord. Are you among those persons or would there be an intrusion into your life and your lifestyle if Christ came?

I was struck once in reading in John 12, “While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may become sons of light. Jesus said these things, and going away hid himself from them” (v 36). He went out of their midst. How would I feel if Christ went out of my life? Young friend, would it make any difference to you if Christ went out of your life, would it really make any difference to you? Older friend, would it make any difference to you, would your lifestyle change, would your satisfaction change, would your joys change or if Christ went out of your life would there be no change? What a thing. It says, “and going away hid himself from them”, He went out of their lives and it meant nothing to the Pharisee. He had no place in their affections. Has Christ got a place in your affections?

Then it says, “let him that hears say, Come”. It is good to have ears to hear, someone is communicating it to you, you may not be immediately in touch with the bright and morning star and the Spirit and the Bride saying Come, but someone is saying Come. Christ is coming. There should be a response in every heart that hears in this meeting this afternoon to say Come. Then it says, “let him that is athirst come; he that will let him take the water of life freely”. Are you satisfied with life? “let him that is athirst come”, somebody who feels that their lifestyle is not satisfying them.

That leads me to Isaiah 55, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money, come ye, buy, and eat: yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price! Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? And your labour for that which satisfieth not?” – are you spending your efforts for that which does not satisfy the soul? Have you got soul satisfaction? We can have good jobs and good money and all that kind of thing, and spend on things that do not satisfy the soul. That can be true of me. As a Christian you have to keep judging yourself, you have to keep good relations with the Lord and with the Spirit, or I can be spending my life in that which does not satisfy my soul. There was a man in the gospels whose harvest was good, nothing wrong with his harvest, but his motives were wrong, “I will take away my granaries and build greater … and I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much good things laid by for many years; repose thyself, eat, drink, be merry”, Luke 12: 18,19. Is that your life? Is that my life? Am I a true Christian, are you a true Christian or are you using what you have acquired to buy that which is not satisfying to your soul? Young friend, take stock, “this do in remembrance of Me”, Luke 22: 19. What an appeal to every believing heart that the emblems are. He leaves His Supper for us, for every heart that desires to remember Him. What a remembrance. Not only did He die for me, but also He lives for me, He is my life, “Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness”. There is life in natural things which to an extent we enjoy, but there is life in this world which will yield us satisfaction to the believer, the world and Christ do not go together.

Wilt thou come, or wilt thou linger?

‘Tis the Saviour calls (Hymn 344)

I trust as He is calling today and that there will be answer to His word.

For His Name’s sake.

KIRKCALDY

13 March 2005