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GOD IS SPEAKING

God has many ways of speaking to us. I suppose no one doubts that He can speak. When Moses told God that he could not speak, God said to him, “Who hath made man’s mouth?” Do you think the One who made man’s mouth cannot speak? He has given to His creature the ability to speak — a wonderful thing! Many take all for granted and never stop to think; but it is a marvellous thing to be able to speak. It distinguishes man from all other creatures on earth. Whatever infidels may say, the fact is that there is no other creature on earth that can speak but man. If God can impart, as the Creator, the power of speech to His creature, then surely God Himself can speak; He does speak in many ways.

Sometimes He comes and entreats men. That is a wonderful thing, that the Omnipotent God should come to His creature and entreat him. “My Spirit shall not always strive with man,” He says, but He does plead with them. Sometimes God warns men. Sometimes He comes to us with a command, speaking as the King eternal. Sometimes He reasons with us, and that is what is in my mind — I want to reason with you for God. God Himself uses that word, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord.” That is marvellous language for God to use — that He would come to His creature and say, We will reason the matter out. Paul did that, as God’s servant — he reasoned with Agrippa. He did not entreat him, he did not warn him, nor command him, but he reasoned with him.

In the verses in Jeremiah 5, God says in effect, When God removes all the lies that have been told, what will you do in the end? When everything that is false disappears, what will you do? I would like you to look this in the face. It says of what is false, “My people love to have it so.” I wonder why it is that if you tell people a lie, many delight in it.

A Christian doctor, who was a lecturer in a university, said that if he were to say that man was the offspring of the ape, many would clap. Many would be delighted to hear him tell them that they were the descendants, of apes, but if he said that certain families were descended from Kaffirs, some generations back, he might be taken to court about it. It is magnificent to be told that man has descended from the apes, but to be told that you have some black man’s blood in you might be regarded as libel. The first is a lie, and men love it; the second might be true — often is — and is not wanted. Now, why is that, dear friends? Why is it that men love lies? Scripture speaks of those who love and make a lie, Revelation 22: 15.

If the universe is simply an accident developed, then, of course there is no God and no question of good and evil, and no responsibility. Men, unless they know God in reality, like to believe that, for then they can go their own way and do what they like regardless of any moral issue. “The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?” What will you do at the end, for lies will not always stand, because God is true, and Jesus is true — the truth is in Jesus — and the Spirit of God is true.

Someone says, I am not prepared to believe about Jesus. That means, I am not prepared to acknowledge God. Do you know what the Scripture says, “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.” I do not apologize for Scripture, for it speaks the truth.

To look up into the heavens, to see the countless hosts of heaven maintained in order and balance, to look indeed at God’s work around you, to consider even your own body, and say there is no God, is folly indeed.

There may be a person here who says in his heart, I am not prepared to believe in Christ. I credit you with the desire to be honest in your attitude, and I would ask you to look at this: How many, do you think, have today seriously thought of King George V? He died not many years ago and he was loved by his people. How many people have really thought of him today? A mere handful. That is after so short a time. How many people today have even mentioned the name of General Wolfe? Hundreds of years ago he took Canada from the French — how many people have thought about him today? Probably not one. Go back further to Columbus. He was a great navigator. Who thinks seriously about him now? Go back to William the Conqueror, or to Alfred the Great. Whoever thinks of them? And yet, nearly two thousand years ago there was Someone here on earth — laid in a manger when He was born — He had not where to lay His head on earth — crucified as a malefactor at His exit from this world.

Yet millions of people today love Him. They would do anything for Him. Thousands have died for Him at the stake and in the fire — have never seen Him and yet have died for Him. Is that a myth? Impossible.

Dear friend, the truth of the matter is that Christ lives in heaven and His Spirit is here. That is why His name does not die. That is why He affects men, women, and children all over the earth irrespectively of rank or race. Now, dear friend, be honest, is this not the truth? Not only is God true and Christ true and the Holy Spirit true, but God has provided for men True Bread and He has shone upon man the True Light and He makes available to men the true riches. Have you got them? or do you so love what is false that what you eat is not bread? As the prophet Isaiah said, “Wherefore do ye spend your money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not?”

I once asked a man why were not some pictures shown of a purely geographical nature, say, of the Antarctic continent. He said, People would not come, and it would not pay. What is unclean attracts the crowds. The apostle Peter indicates that. Men run to the sink of corruption, and they think it strange that Christians do not run with them, see 1 Peter 4: 4.

God has made available the True Bread. What will you do in the end when all that which is not true runs out? Scripture speaks of the True Light that lightens every man. Do you prefer the light that is really darkness? How great is that darkness! Much that professes to be light is darkness — gross darkness. God has shone in Christ, the True Light.

What will you do in the end, if you continue in that which is not light, but is darkness? God has great riches available for men — “Riches and honour are with him” — riches that you can take into another world. Are you going to give your life for the riches of this world which will land you in eternal poverty instead of seeking the true riches from Christ? When you stand before God in your poverty in the end, what will you do?

I pass on to the next scripture. Another question is raised. It says, “If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses?” The figure used is clear to everyone. The footmen are running and you are running with them, and you have become tired. If that is the case, how will you contend with horses? I hope there is someone here who has become tired of running with the footmen. The pace is accelerating today. The pace of this world is getting faster and faster, morally as well as literally, and I trust there is someone getting sick and weary of it and would like to find rest. You cannot keep up, you know you cannot. Maybe someone is trying to keep up with its dress, its night life, its evil — it is getting faster. The horses are coming, indeed, they have come.

What will you do then, as the pace increases down the steep slopes to perdition? The world position is like the swine spoken of in the gospels — rushing down a steep slope to the abyss below. You may think you can get out of it or keep at a certain pace. No, you cannot. Many a young man has started, only intending to go a certain distance, but the slope got so steep that he could not stop. I have seen such young men and women — oh, the anguish as you see them! The pace grows and they are swept down with it.

The prophet says, “if in the land of peace” they weary thee; when there is a measure of order and peace you grow weary with the world of sin and darkness and Satan’s power; you have not been able to cope with it, “how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?” We all know, I suppose, that the Jordan, in Scripture, means death, that river overflows its banks and you never know who is going to be swept into its current from day to day. What will you do when death comes? What can anyone do? I have been in the presence of death a good many times, when men of profound ability come in and can do nothing at all. They would do something if they could. When you are caught in this current, you must meet it alone. Your husband cannot go with you, your wife cannot go with you, your children cannot go with you, your parents cannot go with you, your friends cannot go with you. What will you do? There is One that can go with you; He has promised to go with every one of His own. “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee.”

I have seen men and women go down into the realm of death with a shout of victory. A middle-aged Christian man said to his friends recently, as about to die. Give my love to — and tell them I would not change places with anybody. He was gone in a few hours and he knew he was going. Is that a myth? Dear friends, in the presence of death you cannot be unreal.

We read in the Scriptures of a father whose daughter lay dying. He heard the roar of Jordan as it overflowed its banks and came near his house, and he knew that his daughter would be swept away by its current. She was only twelve — children are not exempt; all ages are affected, so that everybody should listen to the voice of death. The man could not do anything, but he believed in Christ, who was then on earth, and he came down to Christ and said, My daughter is at extremity, she is just at the point of passing out of this world for ever — come down and lay Thy hand on her. No one else can do anything. As they drew near, there came those out of the house who said, “Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master,” but Jesus said, “Be not afraid, only believe.” He went in and said, “She is not dead, but sleepeth,” and they laughed Him to scorn.

The Lord was speaking in a language that we can understand. When a person is asleep, you go into their room, you say, So-and-so is asleep, and it does not worry you, even if they oversleep, because if you really want to wake them up, you can go in and call them. What sleep is to man, death is to God. God can awake the dead. The Lord Jesus went in and called her. They knew she was dead, and she was, as men say, but she was not beyond call in God’s sight. The Lord said, “Maid, arise,” and it says, “her spirit came again, and she arose.” Dear friend, are you prepared to say that is a lie? that the precious Scriptures are a lie? and that what Christ said is a lie? You may say that because you want to believe it; be willingly ignorant — because, if Christ can raise the dead, you must have to say to Him. “As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God,” Romans 14: 11.

Now, dear friend, “how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?” You say, Well, when that moment comes (and it must come if the Lord tarry) I will turn to Him. I would not and could not say that He would not hear you, but I do not know whether you would have time to turn to Him. I would say, if you want Him then, is not He worth having now? Are you going to say, I want the world of sin and my own will to the last minute of my life, then I want Him? If you want Him at the greatest moment of your life — if you want Christ then, and you will, for no one else can help you then — why not have Him now? If He is worthy of your faith then, when everybody else must leave you, is not He worthy of your trust and obedience now? It is sad to think of many young persons who really want the Lord when they die, yet live ten, twenty, thirty, forty years, not interested in Him, not prepared to break with the world and give up a pathway of sin. You cannot have the Lord and go on in sin. You cannot live in a world that hates Him, which would fain cast Him out, and enjoy His world. You cannot serve two masters, either you will hate the one and love the other, or hold to the one and despise the other, Luke 16: 13.

If you want the Lord in the hour of death, why not have Him in your life? He is worthy of your life. That is what Saul of Tarsus came to. He did not say, I will put this off until the end, but “that He died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again.” That was Paul’s judgment. I hope that is your judgment. As Paul says, “I beseech you therefore... by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,” Romans 12: 1.

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