GOD'S APPRECIATION OF CHRIST
D.Robertson
Matthew 3: 17; Job 33: 24-28; 1 Peter 2: 6,7 (to "preciousness")
One's desire is to seek to convey something of God's appreciation of Christ. God's great end in the announcing of the glad tidings is that the Lord Jesus Christ might become the Object of both man's faith and his affection. I believe the glad tidings are presented from the standpoint of God's satisfaction in Christ. The great appeal of God in grace to men is that they might be brought in to share with Him in His feelings and appreciation of Christ. It must be so that the God who desires to fill your heart, desires to fill it with what His own heart is filled with. He desires to fill your heart with Christ; and to fill it for time and for eternity. It is no passing matter, it is not as men speak a flash in a pan. One of the greatest assurances that Christianity is real is to see an old person who embraced it in their youth, embraced Christ in all His preciousness in the faith of their soul, and in the affections of their heart, and at the end of their days is still bright and thankful in appreciation of that blessed One. That, dear friends, is the proof of the reality of Christianity. Men search in their books and their records, and their statistics, and all the other things that they like to bring in to prove the verity of what they pursue, but the verity of Christianity is seen in the lives of men and women and their appreciation of the blessed Saviour who fills God's heart now and eternally.
So I read these verses, to seek to convey the way that God's heart is filled with this blessed Person. Here in Matthew 3 there is "a voice out of the heavens". What a voice! Think of the voices that fill this world, voices from darkness, leading men to darkness and leading them to death. The Scripture says, "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof is the ways of death" Prov 14: 12. How varied they are, and the tempter would tempt men on and stumble them by the voices from the depth. O, how skilful his ways are. One of Satan's titles is the tempter; how skilful he is in tempting men on in the ways of death, the ways that lead to ruin. As the apostle says "ruin and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known" Rom 3: 16,17. But, friend, there is a voice out of the heavens tonight, that is the gospel. The gospel is different, it is distinguished from every other voice in the world, it is the voice from heaven, it is God's voice, the glad tidings of God concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, and He has only one Man to call attention to, and that is Jesus. He is not confusing you with different choices, but day after day in His love and grace He is presenting one Man, and God's presentation is Jesus. I will tell you why He presents Jesus, because Jesus already fills God's heart. That is the gospel. It comes from the heart of God to man; the appeal is from God's heart and it is universal, it is not sectional, it is not national, it is not partial, but God says, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else" Isa 45: 22. Why is God able to say that? I will tell you, because He has a Saviour for men who is precious to Himself.
So here "a voice out of the heavens says, "This" - "This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight". This was uttered nearing the end of the pathway of our Lord Jesus Christ here on this earth. We sang of that this morning, those holy footsteps, giving God constant delight: His words, every one uttered in consideration for the glory of God, the pleasure of God. Every breath taken in that holy life, taken in dependence upon Him; every thought centred in God; think of Him saying "Jehovah is the portion of mine inheritance" (Ps 16: 5), that was the kind of life that was expressed in Christ before God. It was the kind of life that satisfied the heart of God moment by moment as Jesus lived here. You might wonder why I am saying that, but I will come to it in a minute or two: it is a necessary part of the gospel to understand what I am saying. A life of lowliness, the life of the Holy One; a life of blamelessness; a life of sinlessness; a life of spotlessness; a life of flawlessness. He goes into the Jordan, those waters are symbolic of the testing of every other kind of man, but now Jesus goes into them, and He comes up out of them, and what is the result? The voice from heaven. This Man in all His beauty, this blessed Person in all His holiness. "This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight". The life of Christ I believe is like the altar - it has the ability to bear the offering, it is completely consistent with what is in the heart of the Father. Had there been one inconsistency, one flaw, one little misdeed, one little sin, Christ could never have atoned for sin; He could never have taken His place before God as the One who was the sin offering - as we sometimes sing, "meet for God". There was no sin, He was blameless, everything was pure and spotless. This is the testimony of God's voice from heaven - "This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight". Well, that same blessed Person took His place on the cross. At this time, I do not speak of what men did; I speak of the grace of God, what John had in his mind when he saw the Lamb of God walking. He says, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1: 29). Men put Him on the cross, and this world's judgment stands recorded, and every true believer, in the declaration of faith, takes sides with God against it, against the wicked action of this whole world, but the moral glory of this glorious Saviour is that He accepted the cross and made it His own. Paul says, "by the blood of his cross" (Col 1: 20). He took His place before God on the cross and bore the wrath of God against sin, bore the penalty due to sin. Think of the glory of that work, the majesty of it, the immensity of it. Think of the sin of the world, the accumulation, both of the actions and the state of man; He bore it all, the Lord Jesus Christ. The sin Bearer was before the Holy God and bore His judgment, the judgment of God, all that was due to sin. He took it all, and He remained spotless. We sometimes sing:
'Spotless, sinless, holy, He
Bearing built upon the tree.
Hallelujah! What a Saviour!'
What a Saviour! O friend, I wish you to get this into your soul. You may have doubts as to your salvation - look to the foundation and see that the blessed Person who bore sin's judgment in the sight of a holy God was Himself spotless and you will never again doubt. You will see that He met the whole matter. The figures of the types and the animals used help in some way; just think that every year the godly Israelite would scan the herds for a suitable animal without blemish and without spot. It is but a feeble illustration of the One whose offering God was going to receive; all the unblemishable character of the One who took His place before God on the cross, a tremendous matter. The Spirit's witness in the glad tidings would be that God has be n fully vindicated in the work of Christ and is fully satisfied with it.
That is why I read in Job. God says, "Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom". Men speak about finding Christ but the whole truth is that Christ is preached as the divinely appointed Saviour because of what God has found in Him - what God has found in His spotless life and what God has found in His sufferings on the cross of Calvary. It is like the blood, I suppose, of the passover lamb. God says, "and when I see the blood, I will pass over you" Exod 12: 13. Forgiveness is preached tonight, dear friend, on this basis, that God is satisfied completely with the work of Christ on the cross. How glorious He is! What holy worth is to be found in Jesus; how one's soul delights to present Him and longs for the ability to present Him better, but nevertheless the heart is thrilled to speak of Christ; and to be in some way in consonance with the heart of the blessed God as we speak of God's pleasure in His life, of God's pleasure in His sacrifice, of God's pleasure in His holy Person, and His holy worth that fills His presence now. How the heart is full and would seek to expand the holy worth of this blessed Person, that you and others might be attracted to Him, that He might become the Object of your faith and the centre of your affections. Sometimes you meet a person and touch their faith, touch what is inward, and the beauty of it is an expression of the preciousness of Christ. I believe that is precious to God. I believe as we are able to touch that vital faith, what we find comes out of the soul is a holy appreciation of Christ, and is really a reflection of God's own appreciation of that precious Man. I was once visiting an old Christian in hospital, and across the ward there was another old woman near death: her relatives were around the bed, talking to each other. Suddenly the old person in her unconscious state began to sing. This was her song:
'I've tried the broken cisterns, Lord,
But, ah! the waters failed!
E'en as I stooped to drink they fled,
And mock'd me as I wail'd.
Now none but Christ can satisfy,
None other name for me,
There's love, and life, and lasting joy,
Lord Jesus found in Thee.'
The relatives said, Be quiet grandmother, but she continued it in her sweet old voice. What a triumph! That was God expressing His satisfaction in Christ in the soul of that dear person. What a triumph! There is nothing like it. Does Christ fill your heart? We sometimes sing that, 'Since Jesus came into my heart'. He is there in God's heart and filling it. Is He filling your heart? May you show that Jesus fills your heart. How long ago is it that you showed that Jesus filled your heart? O, that it might be revived tonight in this simple message, that you might be revived in your spirit and in your affection for this glorious Person, and that you might be able to join with that old woman - just like the man here. It says, "He will sing before men, and say, I have sinned, and perverted what was right, and it hath not been requited to me; He hath delivered my soul". None of us are worthy of it; none merited it; all that we really merited was death. As the old hymn says:
'My sins deserved eternal death,
But Jesus died for me'
What a triumph that is! Is your heart thrilled with Jesus? O, friend, I believe God would speak to you tonight, saint and sinner alike, God would speak to you to stir up your affection for Christ and that your faith might be centred in Him and that His preciousness, His holy worth, might hold you. What a precious thing it is what this man is saying, "He hath delivered my soul from going into the pit, and my life shall see the light". We were referring to that the other day. The Lord Jesus says, "he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" John 8: 12. This world is full of the darkness of death, the stamp of death is on everything. I suppose if you take a look back in your life you will have noticed that. You see a man and a woman in married life, for instance, building up something very precious in nature. You watch them, the family grow up; they live for each other, a man works for his wife and family, the family are bound together in the ties of nature. It is all very right, but then, it is struck - by death. Death coming in breaks up the whole framework of human affection. The best goes; not only the worst goes, but the very best, the framework of what is beautiful - I believe even to God it is beautiful what is retained in some way of what is right in nature - but the stamp of death is upon it. Then what God has to offer tonight is this blessed Saviour who has been into death, and broken its power. He went into death with all His personal glory, in all His personal worth; that same personal worth that was displayed in the precious life down here and on the cross; the precious worth of that Person as He was buried. It says, there "they laid Jesus" John 19: 42. Think of what that means, there "they laid Jesus". Think of the holy worth of that Person lying in death, and being there. He destroyed its power for ever, and emerged out of it. The word says He has been raised from among the dead by the glory of the Father. What a great expression of God's delight in Christ, not only raised from the dead, but raised from among the dead, as we have been well taught, God choosing Christ from all those millions of dead, and raising Him up from among them. Notice the scripture says, raised "up" from among the dead. God's pleasure has been expressed in the amazing action of raising Christ up from among the dead, and He was received up in glory. As we sometimes sing:
'Received in glory bright up there,
The Father's greetings, honours rare,
Are heaped upon His Son's blest brow;
He is the mighty Victor now' (No.350)
Think of the place He now fills! "He that descended is the same who has also ascended up above all the heavens, that he might fill all things" (Eph 4: 10) - "all things". I speak reverently - one of the things He fills is the heart of God. And what God proposes in the glad tidings tonight is that you may be relieved of the burden of your sins, and that His blessed Son should fill your heart. He will fill all things, but He can fill your heart and mine. O, may it be so!
That is why I read in Peter - "To you therefore who believe is the preciousness". The Lord in grace came into Peter's circumstances, in order to bring in the knowledge of divine grace into Peter's heart and into his life, and Peter would say, Christ is precious - "To you therefore who believe is the preciousness". It is a remarkable word, it is a kind of plural word - preciousness. Do you belong to that company? O, friend, do you belong to that company - "To you therefore who believe is the preciousness". I believe God would add His own testimony to the word; He would tell you that Christ is precious to Him, and desire that Christ may be precious to you.
Well, I feel it is a simple word I have given. O, that you might be attracted by it, and attracted to the Lord Jesus. How precious He is! The storms of life will come, young men and young women, the storms will come if we are left here in God's ordering; sorrows and trials, but there is something that never changes, and that is the precious love of Jesus; it will sustain you. The One whom God is presenting in the glad tidings that you might accept Him as your Saviour, attracting you to Him that you may find in Him a new life, that One will sustain you and make you, and hold your affections all the days of your life. May God bless the word.
LONDON
30 November 1986