DIVINE FEELINGS AND PATIENCE

J. Mitchell

Genesis 1: 2; 6: 3; 2 Chronicles 36: 15, 16; Luke 20: 13, 14

I read these verses because of an impression about divine feelings and divine patience in the glad tidings. The verses read span an extraordinary long period of time and indeed, verse 2 of Genesis 1 goes back to before time began. The verses show how that long period has been marked by divine feelings in relation to the matter of sin, firstly in the creation, but largely in the world, and particularly among men. No one feels more than God the presence of sin, resulting in all the disaster that has come in upon humanity, upon this earth and upon the creation. It is a very affecting thing that in the epistle to the Romans, where we get the teaching of the glad tidings, it is said that the whole creation groans and travails (see Romans 8: 22). Think of the effect that sin has upon the creation!

The enemy is set to destroy what is in the mind of God, and that is what we have in verse 2 of Genesis 1. Even before time came in, as God was proceeding with His creational plans, the enemy worked to bring in dislocation. This is very sobering—sin is of great antiquity. The verse read relates to a period before man was created, divine feelings come out. It says, “the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters”. Think of that! God felt the effects of the efforts of the enemy to bring in disruption, and dislocation in the ordered sphere He had in mind, and remarkably enough the enemy has been extremely successful in that. But it is comforting to see that divine feelings come into expression and divine patience too. In this chapter divine feelings are seen in the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters. It is an expression of the deep feelings of God as to what came in at the very beginning. God was proceeding to bring in an ordered sphere of things in the creation.

Then in Genesis 6, it is not just in the creation, but sin in mankind, and that brings out divine feelings in the most forceful way. It says, “And Jehovah said, My Spirit shall not always plead with Man”. You think of that, God pleading with man! Yet the enemy was seeking to turn men away from God, to bring in a breach there. That is what he was successful in doing, sowing distrust of God, and bringing in a breach in man’s relations with God. God felt it, not only because He was robbed of His creatures, He certainly felt that, but God felt it because of the result that there would be on mankind. No one appreciated more than God Himself what the result would be through the incoming of sin, and He felt it for man’s sake. God is feeling for men at the present time even though they may not take much account of it. We see only too clearly, even in this country, that man is shaking off God—“they did not think good to have God in their knowledge”, Romans 1: 28. I have thought a lot about that passage which relates to the antediluvian world, the world of which we read in Genesis 6. That expression could be used just as well at the present time. We are coming to that point where men are not thinking it good to have God in their knowledge. All kinds of thoughts are expressed about this, that and something else. Men blind their minds to God and are condoning sin, what is immoral in conduct, and that increasing quickly, even in the established religion of the day.

What is condoned there is abominable. It only shows that man does not think it good to have God in his thoughts.

Has God rejected man? I think that is a very affecting thing; God is pleading with man, and He is pleading with man by His Spirit. He pleaded with men in the antediluvian world. He pleaded then with very little result—only eight souls were saved. Thank God for these eight souls; God did not abolish mankind altogether. He did not remove mankind in totality, He

left eight souls. These eight souls have peopled the world in which we are, right down to our day. We are the progeny of those eight souls. In that day of extreme wickedness, Scripture records that, “My Spirit shall not always plead with Man”, indicating that His Spirit had been pleading with man up to that time. Think of the feelings of God in relation to man; think of those feelings at the present time. I have no doubt tonight that the Spirit of God is pleading with men, pleading in someone. There is someone tonight to whom the Spirit of God is speaking. He may be raising matters in their consciences, or raising matters in their hearts as to their conduct towards God, but lying behind it are the depths of the feelings of God for men. He “desires that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth”, 1 Timothy 2: 4. That is God’s desire, and His Spirit is operative tonight as He was operative in the antediluvian time, pleading with men.

Then it goes on to say, “for he indeed is flesh; but his days shall be a hundred and twenty years”. And later in this chapter He has to say, “The end of all flesh is come before me, for the earth is full of violence” (Genesis 6: 13). Thank God, as I say, for those eight souls. God secured them out of that antediluvian world, through the flood, through His judgment upon sin. Make no mistake about it, God being who He is, a holy God, He must judge sin. There is no question as to that, God has to deal with sin. We shall come to see the beautiful way in which He has dealt with it. But it is important to get some sense of His feelings in relation to mankind.

We come now to the passage in Chronicles. These people here were the progeny of these eight souls who came through the flood, all the disaster that came upon the earth. The end of all flesh having come, and the flood coming upon the earth, meant that man, apart from these eight souls, was removed from the presence of God. What a sobering thought that is. These were saved. They came through the flood, and in due course

God took up a people, Israel, and He gave them the very best. He gave them everything that was in His heart’s desire. He came down to see their affliction in Egypt and took them out of it in His feelings for them, and in His feelings for them He went with them throughout the wilderness forty years. Think of God’s patience with His earthly people. What came out, as recorded in the book of Numbers, was rebellion after rebellion. But God patiently went on with His people. I think one of the most affecting verses in Scripture is that in 1 Corinthians,

“for they drank of a spiritual rock which followed them—(now the rock was the Christ)” (1

Corinthians 10: 4). That shows divine feelings. There was the Rock, a type of Christ in His service, known as the Water Carrier. The affecting thing about that is that somebody who was minded to go away back would have had to pass by that Rock. Think of the faithfulness of God; think of the patience of God! The character of God comes out in how He meets man’s rebellion with divine supply. How wonderful that is! There is no one like God who can meet the most atrocious, immoral conduct of man with the blessedness of divine goodness. That is the way God meets it. That is the way He has met sin. No one can do things the way that God has done them.

His feelings come out in this passage in Chronicles. He cared for His people not only through the wilderness, but He opened up that good and pleasant land to them. He would give them an inheritance in it; He would give them everything that would satisfy their heart’s desire.

What came out again was the flesh in them and they desired other things. It says very touchingly, “And Jehovah the God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up early and sending; because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling-place”. That was the character of God. Think of His patience! How long He has borne with mankind! How He went on year after year of that whole dispensation, to which Chronicles relates, looking forward to the incoming of Christ when the whole matter of sin and sins would be

taken up and settled to His entire satisfaction. The patience of God came out in the way He bore with His people of old until finally, as we read in Luke’s gospel, he says, “I will send my beloved son”. I think the best has come out.

The Spirit had been striving in the antediluvian world; God had been active through His prophets with His people in the land; but in our day, beloved, He has sent His own beloved Son. I think that is the most affecting thing; the crowning touch of God’s ways with man, sinful man, is the sending of His beloved Son. What did they do? They said, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may become ours”. This parable goes on to say,

“What therefore shall the lord of the vineyard do to them?” He will certainly destroy them.

But what has God done? In the very place, the very city, where they crucified Christ, there God causes the gospel to go out. Think of divine feelings and divine patience in the way in which He acts. You might say, Was there any justification for that? There was no justification on man’s side; justification was on God’s side. That is, God being what He is in Himself, He meets the antagonism of men; abounding sin was there when they put Christ on the cross, but God met it with the abundance of grace. That is what they did to God’s Messenger, I speak reverently, because in His own Person He is God Himself, God here as a Man, as we sung together—

‘God come down, a heav’nly Stranger,

Love to sinners to display’. (Hymn 112)

Think of that blessed Man, here available to men. Think of Him sitting by that well at Sychar available to that sinful woman, a woman known to be a sinner. There was no question about her sins, they were too evident, they could not be hid. Think of God sitting by that well in a Man; a weary Man dependent on a sinful woman for a drink of water—God’s patience, God’s feelings set out in Him. It says, “he must needs pass through Samaria”,

John 4: 4. Why? Because there was a woman there with a need in her soul, with an empty heart, and grace compelled Him to go that way. That is the blessed Man of whom it says, “I will send my beloved son”. What a wonderful day we are in when we can proclaim that Christ has come on to view to take up the whole question before God; to take up the matter of my sins and the matter of your sins. If you are a believer in Christ He has taken up your sins; and tonight He is available to every person in the world who will avail themselves of the work that He Himself has accomplished. God has met the sin of man in the giving of His own beloved Son, as the verse says, “He who, yea, has not spared his own Son, but delivered him up for us all”, Romans 8: 32. Persons seem to think that God can overlook sin in man. God cannot overlook sin in man. The proof that God cannot overlook sin in man is that He spared not His own Son. Jesus had to be made sin. That is what it meant.

If God was to send His Son to where man was, He had to come into death because man morally lay in death. Jesus died. What a sobering thing to think of that. He suffered those three hours of darkness on Calvary when He was forsaken by a holy God. He cried, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me? and He died. The wages of sin is death. That is what it involved for Jesus; it was no light matter for Him. But He is risen again a glorified Saviour, out of death, now crowned at God’s right hand. The Man who came here, the lowly Man who suffered at the hands of men, and suffered for sin at the hands of God, involving the forsaking of God, who died that the penalty of sin might be met and removed entirely, is now seated at God’s right hand, exalted a Prince and a Saviour. That is a very wonderful thing but it is not the end of the story. God has sent down His Spirit, so that the Spirit, the same Spirit that pleaded with man in the antediluvian world, is here at the present time. The apostles were instructed in Luke’s gospel to remain in Jerusalem until they were clothed with power from on high (Luke 24: 49).

That is the Spirit had to come and they had to be anointed by the Spirit, that the preaching should go out. Immediately the Spirit came they were engaged in preaching. That showed divine feelings for man, and that has gone on for nearly two thousand years; that shows God’s patience, and He is waiting on you today. Maybe He is waiting on someone in this room, maybe He has been waiting long. The hymn we often sing says—

‘Jesus lingers still, ‘tis for you He waits,

And He’s waited for you long;

He waits that heav’n with its fadeless joy,

May yet to you belong’. (Hymn 439)

God’s patience is wonderful, but as we go on in years we sometimes say, How long can this dispensation last? The coming of the Lord must be very near; the closing up of the dispensation must be very close. Then there will be no gospel. It may well be that there will be people at the door trying to get in. That door will be closed and locked, there will be no preaching. What a sober consideration that is. Now is the well-accepted time, now is the day of salvation. We are in the period of divine patience; God is waiting on men; He is waiting patiently on you, but the message is that He is not waiting for ever. Therefore, it is an urgent matter, the most urgent matter in your life that you have to do with God about your sins.

There is no matter more important in your life than that you should have to do with God. I would plead with you that you should have to do with God now, right now. You can have to do with Him where you are sitting in your seat. “Christ indeed has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3: 18). You can be brought to God as a Saviour God tonight through the Lord Jesus Christ. Put your trust in that blessed Man.

The gospel is so simple. God does not make it complicated. The scripture says, “The word is near thee, in thy mouth”, Romans 10: 8. God would even put the words in your lips. He would give you the words to say.

He makes it so easy for you to come to Him. You might say, Well, I am a little afraid of God because I know that I am a sinner. But my friend, Christ has died for the sinner. That is the word, Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and He was buried; and He was raised again the third day according to the Scriptures. So the way to God is open. You can come without any fear, without any hindrance. God is there ready to welcome the sinner coming into His presence, in the value of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is appealing to men today; how long the appeal will go on I cannot say. I have no justification for telling you that there may be another opportunity. A well known preacher was preaching in Chicago one Lord’s day evening, and in the course of the preaching he said something about tomorrow. That night there was a great fire in Chicago. If you look up the history books you will find it recorded there; it was one of the worst fires there has ever been in the United States of America. Many souls perished that night, and the preacher’s conscience smote him as he heard about it. He said, I can never ever speak in the glad tidings of tomorrow; now is the well-accepted time, now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6: 2).

It is right to say that God has been patient over the whole of the dispensation. Even over the whole period of time God’s patience with man is something to marvel at. The more you think about it, the more it causes you to marvel. Yet at the same time we must press upon you we are at the close of the dispensation; time is running out, and it is running out swiftly. Do not delay, I plead with you. The opportunity is yours tonight. God is feeling for you. You say, Well, He feels for mankind. Yes, He feels for mankind. Mankind may not feel after Him, but He feels for the whole of mankind. That means, my friend, He feels for you personally. You can come to know Him as a Saviour God. I trust the word may appeal to us all that we may appreciate divine feelings and divine patience, and that, if we have not

already done so, we might avail ourselves of God’s desire that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. May the Lord bless the word.

Preaching at Rotherham
9 April 1995