PREACHING OF THE WORD OF GOD
James Alex Gardiner
John 19: 17,18 Isaiah 35: 8-10
We have been speaking, beloved, about hospitality. We were saying in the reading that God is inviting persons to come into His house; He wants to entertain them, make them happy, He wants to bring them into His family, He wants to bless them eternally, make them eternally satisfied and fill their hearts with joy and gladness. And we would appeal to you. You know, the world is full of sayings - they say amongst other things, Be my guest. God would say that. Come into God's house and be entertained by Him, be His guest if you are prepared for that, if that is as far as you want to go. That is not really what is in His heart and His mind; He does not just want you to be a guest in there. The parable speaks about that, the guests at the wedding feast; the king came in to look at the guests to see how they were doing, whether they were enjoying the feast, and he found there a man who did not have on a wedding garment. We need to have a wedding garment for God provides it, He provides the clothing, He provides everything, and you do not have to bring anything. Have you ever been offered that kind of hospitality? God offers you this kind of hospitality. We had a fine preaching once - I think it was from Mr Parker - about Jesus on the cross. God has come in Himself in the Person of Christ in order that you may be blessed, in order that He can extend this invitation to you. I ask you, Would you like blessing? Would you like to be saved? I think Mr Parker said about these two robbers that there was one on this side and one on that side. Obviously John was on this side; there is this side of the cross and there is that side. Which side would you be on? Jesus was in the middle, crucified, God in love in the Person of the Son bearing the burdens of the universe, the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world, taking it away, beloved. What a work is the work of Christ! There He was, crucified. It says of Him in that gospel: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God", John 1: 1, 2. And that Man was crucified. That is man's estimation of God; they were the finest of men, the most intellectual, the most religious of men, the most refined. That is the best that man could produce and that is his estimation of God. But God's estimation of him is that it is a place of a skull. There is no intelligence whatsoever in that act of man, none whatsoever, showing the emptiness, the complete futility of human thinking in the presence of the most magnificent presentation of divine love. That was where Jesus was crucified, He went out bearing His cross. What royalty there was in that, the Lion of the tribe of Judah! That is Christ going out so as to take away the sin of the world. He is working the greatest matter that ever has been wrought out between man and God. It is the complete solution to this whole question of sins and sin. Reconciliation has been effected the whole work has been completed by Christ in suffering on the cross in the greatest display of divine love that could ever possibly have been known. God has done that in Christ, beloved. He did not have to do it, you know. You did not ask Him to do it: He did it of His own volition, His motives were His own - ‘The motives, too, Thine own, the plan, the counsel, Thine' (hymn 92). That is God, that is the God who comes and sends out this invitation. Imagine God in the wonder of His grace saying to you now, Would you like to come into My house? I can forgive your sins, I can set you up in My family, I can impart My nature to you, I can bring you into sonship, I can change your status, I can greatly upgrade your status, I can transfer you from a condition of sinful lost man as in Adam, to the wonder and glory of eternal stability in Christ. What an invitation, beloved! That is God. It is the place of a skull, but He would say, You have to come this way. Which side are you on? Are you coming on to this side or are you still on that side? It is solemn, very solemn. But whilst it is the day of grace - and what a marvellous day it is! - there is also revealed wrath of God from heaven, because He is going to come and cleanse this whole scene. The Lord Jesus on the cross, the Lamb of God, is taking away the sin of the world. He has established the righteous basis for that. Very shortly He is going to come out as the Son and Heir and He is going to claim the inheritance for God. Finally He will take sin away completely, remove it altogether, so that there will not be one trace of sin, of distance, of alienation. There will not be one trace left of the first order of man - not one trace. It is a fine thing that in eternity you will not even have a conscience because there will be nothing whatsoever that is contrary to God.
How do you feel about this wonderful invitation that God has given? You say, I am not so sure. That is nothing new; God knows about that. Those men in the parable in Luke 14 had their various answers; one said he had married a wife, one bought oxen, one did something else, and another something else. Beloved, do not default, do not put it off, do not procrastinate, you might never have another opportunity to come to grips, come to the wonderful terms, come to the blessed acceptance of this invitation. You know, we write on the bottom R.S.V.P. - R.S.V.P. yes you come. Come now is the idea, come on to this other side where salvation is known. Jesus has shed His blood, He has given up that life to which no sin, no distance, in Him ever attached, the life that was ever for God's pleasure. Christ came in and took up that condition of manhood, glorified God in it in flesh and blood upon this very earth where we are alive now, where man's will and man's mind is rampant and dominant. He came here, the stranger Jesus completely different from everybody else and not for one second, or for one millionth of a second did He in any way deviate from what was due to God for His pleasure. There was a life of perfection and that life was made a sacrifice, that Man was made a sacrifice for sin. How glorious is the sin-offering! The shedding of His blood is the proof that He had given up His life. He was carried right into the very presence of God; He has gone in in the power of His own blood, what a transaction that is! He is the ark, but then along with the ark was the mercy-seat. If it had not been for the mercyseat the ark would have been alone for ever. There is the mercy-seat and the blood is on it, and, beloved, the invitation comes to you now from God, from above the mercy-seat, from, it says, between the Cherubim. It is from there that He speaks; He speaks to you with the complete assurance that all the claims of His holy nature have been totally satisfied. There are the Cherubim, the great guardians of divine righteousness, wholly occupied with the precious blood of Christ, and God free as having been totally vindicated in the death of Christ, totally justified, glorified with regard to everything that may have come in by man in the way of sin.
Suppose nobody will ever come to Christ, still God is glorified in that work, His nature vindicated, His rights upheld, His attributes magnified. That is the background to this wonderful invitation that God gives to you in the glad tidings. Which way are you going to go? You will leave this room and you are going somewhere - everybody is going somewhere. In the mercy of God we hope to go back to Toronto and then go home; we will be going somewhere. But how are you going to go? Are you coming into this way of holiness that the prophet speaks of? Come on to this side. Do not remain on that side, come on to this side, come into the way of holiness; it is very fine that way. That is what it says in Isaiah: "And a highway shall be there and a way, and it shall be called, The way of holiness". Are you coming on to this highway? Highways in Scripture are very wonderful. This is a great highway; it leads straight up into heaven, that is where it is going. Are you coming with us? Are you going to come? Or are you going to stay in your sins, in the awfulness of that condition, a condition of dereliction? That is what this world is, like one great big derelict. You come into Brooklyn and there are more cars with wheels off and their bodies ripped up - what is it? It is the dereliction of humanity, that is what man is. God wants to set you up and make a man of you, make a woman of you, according to His own pleasure. Oh, what a change, what a transformation that God can bring about in your soul! Samuel said that to Saul: "thou ... shalt be turned into another man", 1 Sam 10: 6. Are you going out of this room the same way you came in? Beloved, if you are still in your sins how sorrowful that would be because it would mean that you have gone out in the refusal of this marvellous invitation that God has given. He wants to show you hospitality, He wants to be kind. He has an abundance of resource. You have nothing to fear. The grace and love towards man of our Saviour God has appeared. There it was in Luke 10 in the Samaritan, grace and love towards man of our Saviour God appeared. All the resources are there in view of your blessing. You say, I am not so sure, I have some hankering after Jericho, I have some hankering after the world - but whatever for? What do you want the world for? What does it minister to you? The Spirit of God in the Bible has shown us that it is the place of a skull, that is all it is. Now look at this highway, this way of holiness.
You do not have to be clever to come into it; it requires nothing. It does not require great intelligence. Read what it says in the Bible: "the unclean shall not pass through it; but it shall be for these". When you come on to this side, beloved, you become clean. Is that not wonderful? It is for you if you are unclean in your uncleanness in your sinfulness. It is a terrible thing to be unclean. Have you ever been unclean in the presence of clean people, feeling you can do with a wash, you can do with a brush up? Beloved, God can cleanse you; He can do that. He would wash you from your sins in the blood of Christ and you become clean. How would you like to become clean? Then you will be no embarrassment to God, you will be no embarrassment to yourself, you will be no embarrassment to this wonderful company. Every one of them has come the same way, nobody has come a different way. This great way is for you. Unclean persons do not go this way but it is for them. As you accept God's invitation He will give you the best robe. Is that not fine? Out there they are clothed in rags, and the filth and the stamp of the world may be upon you, the stamp of the far country where the violent famine is, where there is fear and terror and all that kind of thing, for people are living on their nerves, there is no settled disposition of quietude and peacefulness, they are always wondering what is going to happen next. God is taking all that away from you, taking the rags off you, making you clean and clothing you in the best robe and you now have status, you are somebody, you are in the right society. God says, Come on into My house and you will be amongst the best society that you could possibly be in, the happiest society that it is possible to be in. How about it? What an appeal there is in God's love. Get the best robe and be clean. It says, "Those that go this way - even fools, - shall not err therein". Is that not wonderful? I suppose everybody in this room can say Amen to that; we have all been very foolish at times. Even a fool shall not err therein, it says. And you are perfectly safe: "No lion shall be there, nor shall ravenous beast go up thereon, nor be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there". How beautiful that is - to walk in the way of holiness! It says in Revelation 21 that there is one street in the city, everyone is going the same way, it is pure gold. How would you like to walk in the street of that city? It is a fine thing to walk in that street; in the midst of the street is the tree of life. There is everything to satisfy your affections, cause you to be alive, alive to God.
Oh, beloved, how wonderful it is to be in God's house! We have to accept the invitation. Go on and read what it says: "And the ransomed of Jehovah shall return". How about returning? This is the time for it, a very propitious time to return, "and come to Zion with singing". Come back again to the appreciation of the greatness of divine sovereignty and mercy. God has come out in Christ towards you. What we have come to! We have come to mount Zion, a position of stability in the sovereign mercy and grace of God. You find perfect administration, the city of the living God. All these glorious things, beloved, belong to Christianity, and God says, They will all be yours if you accept this invitation I am extending to you. The father went out to the elder son and besought him; he went out into the street I have no doubt and humbled himself and besought him to come in, "Child, thou art ever with me". Oh, beloved, God's heart goes out today in its fulness towards humanity, beseeching - beseeching you. Think of God; He did not have to do that, but He loves you so much, beloved, He has come right down to where you are in the beseeching character of His grace. He says, Are you coming in? Come on in, He speaks the language that you can understand, that is our God. "Come to Zion with singing; and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads: they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away". Sorrow and sighing have no place in the Father's house. The testimony, beloved, is through the music and the dancing. You will find that things that you wondered about become realities - "the mirage shall become a pool". You went there and it is gone. There is nothing like that in God's house. This is the reign of Christ millennially. He wants to come into your heart and reign there. As we were saying in the reading, swing your heart's door widely open and He will gladly enter in. How about it? God in the gospel is for you and for your salvation, for your blessing. Why should it be so? It is all, beloved, because He loves you. That is the extent, for it is to whosoever, and whosoever means you, whosoever means me; that is God. God so loved the world: what a verse that is, John 3: 16! Heaven will be full of persons who will be able to quote John 3: 16: "God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever" - whosoever, say it again and again, "whosoever believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal". Oh, beloved, what an invitation! What a full and free and unmerited invitation! There it is, for you personally here in this room to come into God's house, dressed in holy accord with it. The rags are all outside, you have on the best robe and you are in there and you are with God and feeding on the precious death of Christ, that is the fatted calf; He has kept it, you know, stored it up for you especially. And you sit there with the Father and feed upon it, "let us eat" He says, "and make merry". You are not sitting there in any doleful attitude, not thinking about the things that are past, no, you are in the Father's house and your heart's occupation is Christ and the Father; "let us eat and make merry: for this my son was dead and has come to life, was lost and has been found. And they began to make merry". How would you like to start making merry now? And it goes on and on for ever.
Well, beloved, that is the invitation, that is God's appeal in the glad tidings. Now He says, You had better answer and answer it quickly. He says, Are you going to come? You say, Yes, I am going to come, I am going to go in. May it be so, may that be the answer of every heart. For His Name's sake.
NEW YORK
6 September 1987