GOD'S SPEAKING
GOD’S SPEAKING
Proverbs 20:27; 1 Chronicles 21:9-13; 1 Chronicles 21:18; 1 Chronicles 21:26,27; Romans 10:6-11
Some of you may be enquiring in your minds as to the connection between these scriptures, and I would say at the outset that the connection lies in means, either in or near every one, whereby God can speak to him, or affect him spiritually. The first thing is that every one has a spirit, which is the subject of the first scripture read, and the second is that every one has got a conscience. Gad is said here in Chronicles to be David’s seer. He is not said to be God’s seer, but God used him. Although David had sinned he had not dismissed Gad. He still retained him, and so had in him a means whereby God could speak to him. This is true of all of us, perhaps Christians here, who may in their pride have sinned: we do not give up our consciences and therein lies our salvation. Then thirdly, Romans 10 speaks of the word of the righteousness of faith, that that also is near, not by our choice, it may be, but God has seen to it that it is near. “The word is near thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart”. These are the three thoughts, dear friends, that are linked in these scriptures, and every honest person here will say, as he compares, as he considers them, that they afford great possibilities. First I would say to any unconverted person here, or any person in whom God has not as yet begun definitely to work, that God is waiting to work in your soul, but you have prevented His entrance so as to operate, so far. Just as the Spirit of the Lord hovered over the deep, God, by the Spirit, is hovering over your soul; He has been for years, but He has not yet had an entrance. But He is still hovering, and particularly here tonight! The next time He is mentioned in the Bible we are told that He will not always do that. He will cease striving. I do not say that the first chapter of [p. 69] Genesis says that He was striving. He was hovering or brooding over the face of the deep, as if He knew something needed to be done, and would do it, but He was waiting His opportunity. The time came when God added to that, and commanded that light should shine. When God commands, you are having to do seriously with God, or God with you. If there be resistance to His command, it is more serious, and, as I said, when the Spirit is next mentioned, it says, “My Spirit shall not always strive” (Genesis 6:3). And so, as I said, there may be someone here who has resisted so far, or it may be you have never felt the strivings of the Spirit, the efforts He makes to get an inlet, and the first scripture read is for you particularly. It tells you that you have a spirit, and that that spirit is something in you that God has put there in order to use it as He has opportunity. He has given it to you. We do not get our spirit from our parents; we get it from God. It is something additional to what the lower creatures have. God gave the spirit, we are told by the wise man in Ecclesiastes. The time comes when the pitcher is broken at the fountain, and the dust returns to the earth as it was (a very humiliating thought!), but the spirit returns to God who gave it. And in giving it, He had in mind that He would have access to you sooner or later, at these gospel meetings especially! But the spirit of the man, the Word says, the spirit of the man is the candle of the Lord. That is something that every person has, and he has it because God intends to have to say to you as differentiating between you and the cow or the sheep or the goat or the camel. He puts that there so that He might have an entry into your soul to search the inner chambers of your soul — perhaps chambers you hardly know are there! Were you to know just what is there, were you to penetrate, yourself, into these chambers with the light that God affords, I believe you would be appalled. Things are far worse than you are aware of. When you [p. 70] think of the figures used of an unconverted man, you can see the force of what I am saying. “Their throat” spiritually “is an open sepulchre”, we are told (Romans 3:13). What must be below it! And the Lord Himself gives us a remarkable list of things that proceed out of the heart of man. I do not go over them. Mark 7 gives them, a terrible list of them. He says they proceed out of man’s heart. If these things proceed out of the heart, what must there be there? What kind of principles? What state and condition must be there? And so, this light that God has set in us, this candle or lamp that He intends to use, is that you might, not that God might, find out what is in your heart; He does not need a candle; although He may use terms so that we may understand. He does not need anything of that kind. The candle is for you, for you to go and look at this chamber, and at that chamber — the hidden chambers of the soul, and see what is in there. You will find it far worse even than anything you had thought of. Now God is calling upon all here tonight, who have not had any such accompanying service of God hitherto, or who have resisted, it may be, to let God into your soul with His light this evening. He will be there in a friendly way, for friendliness is the character of the moment. God is dealing on the principle of reconciliation, that is to say. He is not imputing trespasses. He is not occupied with those. He would convey to you that all His overtures and services are in your favour. He is friendly towards you. It is a time of great divine friendliness. Jesus Himself as the representative of God — He was God Himself indeed — was called the Friend of publicans and sinners, and He is that now. He can serve you even better now than He could have done when He was here on earth, and all His overtures are friendly, as divine overtures are. That is, God would not bring up anything at all to prejudice your mind unnecessarily. He will be true and faithful, and as He proceeds round the domain of your [p. 71] inner being with His candle, with the light of His word in it. He will not depress you; He will give you to understand He is in your favour, and if He exposes these things, it is to shew you that you may be clear of them, and that He has dealt with them judicially in Another; that He has dealt with them effectively in the cross of His beloved Son, in Him who alone could be a Substitute, who could represent us vicariously in death. That is what God would impress upon you.
Now the point in this verse is for any here who have not come to terms with God, who have not had any transaction with God knowingly, who have as yet just remained in their natural state, “having no hope, and without God” (Ephesians 2:12). The overture in this verse is for you, that the spirit of the man is the candle of the Lord searching into the inner chambers of the soul. Now will you not let God in? I am presenting the facts to you, presenting the truth in as friendly a way as I know how, in order to rightly represent the evangelical spirit, and God would impress you with this, that you are really regarded by Him as in reconciliation, that is, in a provisional kind of way — especially in gospel meetings — not for judgment. It is a place of friendliness, of grace, where the whole atmosphere is in your favour, and where God would say to you, “Now is the well-accepted time” (2 Corinthians 6:2), and “There is ... a time to every purpose” (Ecclesiastes 3:1), and if ever there is a time for man to come to close quarters with God, it is in a gospel meeting, when you are surrounded with such friendliness, and such solicitude for your welfare.
And so I would ask you to think of this, not after you leave the hall, but now! It is the best opportunity that you can get. God is ready to do this operation, to take the light of His word through the thing that is put in you; through the spirit that you have and that is presently going to have to say to Him, to return to God who gave it. He would operate in this way, and just shew you things as they are with Him so that you might [p. 72] take sides with Him, for as sure as you see them with His light, you will begin to see the situation is very bad indeed, and bodes much worse things than you already know; because the time will come, as I said, when the pitcher will be broken at the fountain and man goes to his age-long home, as the writer of Ecclesiastes says, and the dust returns to the earth as it was! What a humiliating thing that is! Who can turn aside from it? Who can dare to ignore the terrible thought, the most humiliating thought, the dust, that is what you are physically, returning to the earth as it was, and the spirit returning to God who gave it! What will become of that spirit when it goes back to God? That spirit will be reunited with the body, even of an unconverted man. There will be one thousand years, as most of you know, between the first resurrection and the second. “Blessed and holy he who has part in the first resurrection: over these the second death has no power” (Revelation 20:6). What do you think the second death is for? It is for persons who have sinned and failed to confess their sins and to believe the gospel. Their spirits will be reunited with the bodies in which they sinned, and they will stand before God at the great white throne, as it is called. Every man is judged after the books are opened, and they will be consigned — every man whose name was not in the book of life — to the lake of fire, the second death. These are very solemn facts; there are no facts more clearly stated in Scripture than these facts: that the spirit will be reunited with the body, for the unjust have a resurrection, the same as the just: “the resurrection both of just and unjust” (Acts 24:15). There are one thousand years between these two resurrections; the second will come as sure as the first. It will mean that all that are in the grave will come up; all in the sea will come up; and death and hell will deliver up the dead in them. All will stand before that assize, the solemn great white throne. It is well to be warned, and at a time like this to face the thing, and let God shew you [p. 73] how bad things are; then to shew you the wonderful provision He has made for you in the death and resurrection of Jesus, His beloved Son, that you might not come into judgment, that you might know heaven now with the rest of us here, that you pass from death into life and do not come into judgment.
The second scripture refers to persons who are already believers, and there are a great many of them who have sinned and have not repented of their sins. David was a great saint, but he also was a great sinner. This is the last great sin that is attributed to him, this sin recorded in the chapter read. He numbered the people. You may say, ‘It is not any sin to take a census’. Well, it was a sin for him to do it. It was the pride of his heart that sought to know how many people he ruled over. All our hearts are susceptible to that kind of thing. How much influence have I? How much power? What renown have I? David had sinned a great sin, and God told him so. But what I want to shew you is, beloved brethren, that David did not dismiss Gad, this great servant. He is a prophet, but he is called a seer. He is not called God’s seer, but David’s seer. For what I have in mind is your conscience, and, as you allow your conscience scope, it will tell the truth, and it will give you good advice too. It is another thing that God has supplied. It was not given to Adam when he was created. His spirit was given to him, but not his conscience. His conscience came later. God supplied him with a conscience when he sinned, as if God were to say, It would be dreadful if man were to be in this condition without something to reprove him’. That is what a man’s conscience is. David’s seer here is a man he did not dismiss. Had he been altogether away from God, he would have dismissed Gad. He would say, I will not have this man here; he will trouble me’. Some do that; they sear their consciences. The word of God comes at times, and the testimony of God comes, and they [p. 74] just put it away from them; they turn a deaf ear; as Felix said to Paul, “Go thy way for this time” (Acts 24:25). Felix trembled. Why did he tremble? If the apostle Paul had spoken to a horse as he spoke to Felix, the horse would not tremble; he might preach judgment to him, but the horse would not tremble. Felix did. Why did he tremble? Because he had his conscience; he did not have it as David had Gad; if so, he could have dismissed it. He dismissed Paul, but he could not dismiss his conscience. He sent away the messenger of God. That is what many of you have done. One has done it oneself. As the light has come, you dismiss it, but there is the conscience there. God says it is there, and it will come up again, and it will be with you, and I believe it will be with you for all eternity “where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched”, (Mark 9:44). It is a terrible outlook! What I am speaking of is this servant. Gad, this seer that David still retained in his employ. He was David’s seer. You can understand how, when he had committed this great sin, he would say, ‘That is Gad’s house; I am not going near that’. He did not dismiss him. He would be afraid, you can understand, but he did Hot dismiss him. That was his salvation. We are all liable, Christians too: David was a Christian, so to speak; he was a great saint. On two occasions after he became a saint, he became a great sinner. It may be there are those here who have sinned a great while ago, and nothing has been done about it. You have not gone near Gad’s house. You have not entertained him at all. He is yours; it is your salvation that you have not dismissed him altogether. He is here tonight, so to speak. And now God says to Gad, “Go and tell David”. And he is here tonight. That is the idea: a trusty person that you retain, and you admit all; in fact, you would not be here tonight if you were not ready to listen to Gad; that is to say, someone who will tell you the truth. It is your salvation that you are here tonight. He is [p. 75] the one who has extended the invitation to you. Heaven has watched you coming. Perhaps someone has brought you. If you have come of your own accord, all the better. Heaven has watched it. It is that you might hear what Gad says. David was already a sinner, and he knew it. Gad is going to tell you about the judgment, and give you the opportunity to make a choice. How anxious God is! There will be no thought of a sinner making any choice at the great white throne. The judgment will be meted out according to Him who sits on that throne. It is a great white throne. But now, as I said before, is the time of grace. It is the reign of grace. Grace reigns and Gad is just serving here to tell David first of all that there is judgment, and that it is for him to take his choice of three things, and David said, as shewing what a true saint he is, “Let me fall, I pray thee, into the hand of Jehovah, for his mercies are very great”. Suppose you say that tonight — ‘Let me fall into the hand of the Lord; His mercies are very great’, what will happen? Will He say to you there are three things to choose from — to be pursued by your enemies? or the pestilence? or famine? No; He will just tell you how all the judgment that stood out against you has been dealt with to His glory in the death of His beloved Son. May you not well say, “Let me fall ... into the hand of Jehovah, for his mercies are very great”? One would love to know that of some heart who had sinned, it may be years ago, and had allowed matters to drag. If you are utterly without feeling, you would scarcely be here tonight. You would avoid this meeting. But you are not; you have not dismissed your Gad. You entertain the thought of Gad, and you are ready to listen to him, and the more you listen to him, the more you say “Let me fall ... into the hands of Jehovah, for his mercies are very great”. And now he gets another message to David. David humbles himself, and he puts on sackcloth, an excellent dress, one of the finest garbs there is, a garb [p. 76] made of sackcloth; that is, on certain occasions. When it is a question of sin, it is the proper garb to use. One has often pictured the amount of it used at Nineveh. But I cannot stop to dwell on that, the amount of sackcloth that was there! The point here is not the amount of it, but that David and the elders were clothed in sackcloth. God does not care about light-hearted people, people who confess their sin tonight, and tomorrow are shallow, and give no evidence of deep-rooted feeling. David was not a man of that kind. He was a true saint, and generally the truer a saint is, the more deep his confession would be when confession is needed. The deeper the work primarily, the deeper shall be the feeling of sorrow, of contrition. God loves those feelings; He loves the tears of contrition; He puts them in His bottle. So David shewed the depths of his feelings, and his Gad is again employed. David says in verse 17, “It is I that have sinned”. Now you see how David takes the thing to heart. Others were suffering. It may be that your sin has caused suffering to others. It does usually. These sins of Christians, and alas there are many, affect others as a rule. It may be your wife, or your family, or your relatives, or, particularly, the brethren. I am sure that anything that has offended against heaven, and God’s rights, occasions sorrow not only to the sinner himself, but to others. The saints readily share the sorrow in view of the recovery of the sinner, for discipline means that the sinner is to be recovered, as in the case of the man at Corinth: that his spirit may be recovered. The saints readily join in with that. David is not asking for this here. Here were seventy thousand men suffering on account of this man’s sin! See the suffering! David says, ‘They do not deserve to suffer; I deserve to suffer. They do not’. That is a sure evidence of genuine work in a man’s soul. We may look for the speedy recovery of a man like that. It says, “The angel of Jehovah commanded Gad to say to David, that David [p. 77] should go up and rear an altar to Jehovah in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite”. Now you see Gad’s message is the dawn of a new day for David, and so it would be to any soul here, who is truly repentant. David reared up an altar there. Now you do not have to do that. The altar was that on which Christ died. He suffered on it outside the gate. He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. That is all a settled matter. David set up an altar, and we are told that he offered burnt-offerings. God told the angel to put the sword into the sheath. There is no permanent judgment at all against the believer. So David now is clear, and he offers further sacrifices; in fact he says, ‘This very spot is the house of Jehovah’. This is like a converted sinner who is also a saint, if you can understand me, coming into the light of the death of Christ, the meritorious death of Christ which bears upon us as believers as well as upon our sins before we were believers. He can say, ‘Well, it is all over now. My place is in the house, amongst the brethren. This is the house of the Lord, and the sword is sheathed; that is, the house is set up, free from judgment, where God is to dwell’. And your place is there. You will not come into judgment; you have passed from death unto life; you are in the realm of life already.
The final word is in Romans 10, and that refers to the fact that the gospel of God has been preached in your ears since you have been born. It is near you, says the apostle in this passage. It is the righteousness which is of faith that is speaking, “Say not in thine heart. Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above): or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead). But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach”. This has been sounded in your ears since you had an ear to hear, and it is all around you; it is near you. Beloved young people,
[p. 78] and it is to you I would speak, you have been born into it, born into the light. It is said of Paul, ‘The light shone round about him’. If you would only let it into your heart! “The word is nigh thee ... the word of faith, which we preach”. You say, ‘It is in my heart; and if it is in my heart, I am saved’. No; you are not against the Scriptures; you are not against the gospel — if you were against the gospel, you would not be here tonight. It is in your heart, and yet it has not become effective. That is the point the apostle is making. He conveniently cites from Deuteronomy: “It is not in the heavens, that thou shouldest say. Who shall go up for us to the heavens, and bring it to us, that we should hear it and do it? And it is not beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say. Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, that we should hear it and do it?” (Deuteronomy 30:12,13). He says, ‘Do not say that’. But he refers to it to shew that the ascending means that Christ has gone into heaven, and the descending that Christ went into death. Righteousness of faith says to you, young people, ‘Do not say that; do not question in that way’. There is nothing tries one more than to hear young people who have been brought up in the meeting, and have had the Bible read every day in their houses, questioning. Young people are full of this kind of thing, if not outwardly, then it is inwardly. Righteousness of faith is speaking to you. He says, ‘Do not say this; do not say. Who shall ascend to bring Christ down’. It is one of the principles of the gospel — He has been there and has come up from the depths. These are the very foundations of the gospel; do not question them. It is your questioning these things that is keeping you out of salvation. Do not question. Do not live in the land of questioning. The righteousness of faith says to you, “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from among the dead, thou shalt be saved”. How simple that is! Could anything [p. 79] be simpler? You cease questioning. And so the word to questioning young people here tonight is ‘Keep away from this questioning; it will bring you into damnation; keep away from this modernism; the world is full of it — this questioning’. But the righteousness of faith is in the land of certainty. It speaks of certainty. It tells you things simply and plainly and with great certainty, and the first thing is, “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from among the dead, thou shalt be saved”. I could not say it any plainer than that. There is not one in the world could say it any plainer than that verse. It is so simple, so plain, so conclusive that the person who simply takes that attitude and uses his heart and his mouth will be saved! And it goes on to say, “For with the heart is believed to righteousness; and with the mouth confession made to salvation. For the scripture says. No one believing on him shall be ashamed”. These are wonderful verses. These three verses (Romans 10:9 - 11), and verse 12 adds to them “For there is no difference of Jew and Greek; for the same Lord of all is rich towards all that call upon him” (Romans 10:12). He is rich; but He is rich unto all that call upon Him. That is the idea. The riches are unto you who call upon Him, and He knows how to administer them to your soul, as you call upon Him.
May God help you! Young people, abandon this questioning. It is right enough to ask the meaning of things, but the righteousness of faith tells you what not to say. Do not question the death and resurrection of Christ, and His ascension into heaven. These are facts, they are the basis of the gospel; without them, there is no gospel; with them, there is eternal salvation to every one that believeth.