THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD IN THE GOSPEL
[p. 29] THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD IN THE GOSPEL
We need to be reminded that the gospel going forth into the world assumes that God goes before it sovereignly in order to prepare the way for it. Every intelligent christian recognises that and counts upon it. If the gospel is to be effectual, God has to precede it so as to prepare souls. He acts sovereignly, as of old; the Spirit of God is said to have been hovering over the chaotic state of the earth before it was called into its present form or order. The Spirit of God hovered over it; that is to say, God was here in a sovereign way by His Spirit, with the end in view to bring in order. Now I liken the state of humanity morally to the physical creation in Genesis 1: 2, before God begins to act upon it; the state of the race may be described as being darkness and chaos, but the Spirit of God is hovering over it. We are little aware of the fact that God’s Spirit is now here, hovering over the race, ever waiting for an opportunity to act on your soul. From the moment that a man is born into the world, God shadows him. He takes account of us from our infancy and waits upon us, so that He might have an entrance into our hearts. Now, that is a very touching thing. When we knew nothing about God, had no exercise and were totally indifferent to Him, God was concerned about us. I make bold to say God thinks of every man that comes into the world, and His thoughts of us are thoughts of good and not of evil. “I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith Jehovah, thoughts of peace, and not of evil”, Jeremiah 29: 11. Whatever your thoughts may be, God thinks of us for good.
A moment then comes when God commands light. He said at the beginning, “Let there be light. And there was light”, Genesis 1: 3. He commands light, and [p. 30] there is light, as the apostle says, “God who spoke that out of darkness light should shine who has shone in our hearts for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”, 2 Corinthians 4: 6. God has shone into the hearts of christians.
Think of that! A moment comes in the history of a soul when God commands light, and that light penetrates into the darkest crevices of the human heart; the sun in the heavens cannot do that, but “All things”, says the apostle, “are naked and laid bare to his eyes, with whom we have to do”. It says in that same passage, “The word of God is living and operative, ... penetrating to the division of ... joints and marrow”notice that, the surgical operation of the word-”and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”,
Hebrews 4: 12. You might find it difficult to discern between these things, thoughts and intents. Happy for us if many of our thoughts were allowed to remain as thoughts, and if many of our intents were allowed to remain as intents, and never to become actions!
There are thoughts, intents and actions. We look at one another, and can only judge of the actions. I can say little as to your thoughts and intents, but I can say something as to your actions. Then it says, “There is not a creature unapparent before him; but all things are naked and laid bare to his eyes, with whom we have to do”.
Now, the entrance of God’s word, we are told, giveth light, and the question is, What are you to do with the light? What does it disclose? It discloses a horrible condition. You remember when the Lord gave signs to Moses, the second sign was to put his hand into his bosom, and when he drew it out, it was leprous. There is nothing in that heart of yours but leprosy. “Out of the heart of men, go forth evil thoughts ...”, Mark 7: 21. There is leprosy within, and what proceeds out? Nothing but corruption!
However fair your exterior may be, and however well [p. 31] you may pass muster according to the rules of this world, when God’s light shines in, there is nothing but leprosy disclosed; and the leper’s place is outside the camp! Peter discerned the leprosy when the Lord borrowed his boat, and he said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord” (Luke 5: 8), and the next character that appears is a leper, but the Lord touches him, and the leprosy departs. The light of God shines in, and if you are honest it produces a bad conscience. If you have never had a bad conscience you will never have a good one! First it must be purged. The light of God penetrates, exposing what is inside, and the effect of the exposure is a bad conscience. A wounded stag wants to be alone. The leper should be isolated, and he desires to be isolated. His place is outside the congregation of the Lord. A bad conscience drives you to isolation, but a purged conscience prepares you for the congregation of the Lord, where you are no longer in isolation, but in company.
The first part of the passage I have read contemplates that the speakers are convicted, and that by the light of the Lord. Now what is the effect? The effect is that they say “Come and let us return unto Jehovah: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up”. He smites the conscience of the sinner, and the sinner who is enlightened knows that only God can heal. The effect of the word is a surgical operation and produces a wound, and God alone can heal that wound. The speaker has light not only as to his own state, but as to God, and that is the gospel. It says in Genesis 1, “There was evening, and there was morning-the first day”, not ‘morning and evening’. The light produces a state in your soul that corresponds to the evening, and after an evening comes a morning: the morning is filled with hope. The evening is the end of a day, and the end, in a sense, of the hopes connected with that day, but the morning is full of hope [p. 32] so the answer to every evening in the soul is a morning of light. The reception of the gospel may lead to an experience which corresponds to an evening, but that results in a morning of hope. Genesis 1 depicts the history of your soul, till you arrive at the end, where there are no more evenings but a continual day in the presence of the full light of God. Paul did not contemplate any more evenings; he contemplated a continual morning. He was in the good of the light that shines in the face of Christ.
The speakers here in Hosea have light as regards God. They say, “Come and let us return unto Jehovah”. If the light comes it finds you a good distance away. Astronomers speak a good deal of the distance between the sun and the earth, but the light of God travels more quickly than the light of the sun.
Morally, the distance between God and your soul is immeasurable, but light travels quickly. In the tabernacle the cherubim of glory were looking down, whereas in the temple they were looking out, as if God had changed His attitude on account of the mercy-seat. He is looking out now on the race, and directly He sees a movement in any man’s heart He is interested and He moves. Not only does the light travel but God travels, I say it reverently, and He travels rapidly. He ran to meet the returning prodigal, and He will run to meet you; you will not have far to come! The book of Chronicles contemplates that in principle God looks out on the race, and directly a movement takes place in your heart, He can see it, and to see it is to induce Him to move. I love to think of divine Persons moving. They reserve the right to move, and they move towards man. The speakers here knew that; they have light and say, “Come and let us return unto Jehovah: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up”. What a different operation now! no longer surgical, but bandages! You need those bandages, and the [p. 33] nurse knows so well how to apply the bandages. It is like the Samaritan in the parable binding up the man’s wounds, pouring in oil and wine. God alone knows how to do it for He has created the wound. Who among us has not had a wound? Scripture says, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend”, how much more so are God’s wounds! He wounds you to bind you up, and in that you learn His care and love for you. Well, now they have got more light than that; they go on to say, “After two days will he revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live before his face”. It is God’s thought for man, that he should be revived. I still pursue the illustration of a patient in a hospital; it is one thing to be bound up, but another thing to get out of the bed and walk! All that applies to the christian; in other words, you have to be revived spiritually. Note the intelligence the speakers have here; they say “After two days will he revive us”. ‘Two’ represents adequate testimony; ‘three’ represents complete testimony. Now God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, as the apostle tells us, for He desires “that your faith might not stand in men’s wisdom, but in God’s power”, 1 Corinthians 2: 5. Hence the manner of Paul’s preaching was not after man’s wisdom. He desired that his converts should be established on a firm foundation.
Much of the preaching of the present day leaves the convert in a hospital bed at best! You want a firm foundation; you need to be established, and God would establish you in His power, and in the full light of His nature. The “two days” refer, I think, to the Lord’s testimony in the flesh; “Go, tell that fox”, the Lord says, “Behold, I cast out demons and accomplish cures today and to-morrow”-a double testimony-”and the third day I am perfected”, Luke 13: 32. What was the Lord here for? He was here in testimony: He says, “If I by the Spirit of God cast out demons”-what is the testimony following on that?-”then indeed the kingdom of God is come upon you”, Matthew 12: 28. The power of God was present in the Lord’s ministry. What was the object?
To establish those who had faith, to let them know that God had come in. Peter understood it when he said the Lord Jesus went about doing good, “because God was with him”. God had visited His people.
Those two days have their place on the divine side, and represent the ministry of Christ, but they also have their place in the soul, in your history and mine. You want to have your soul established in Christ’s ministry. You want to understand the gospels, and to see the foundation on which christianity is reared up.
Paul says, “Not in wisdom of word”, 1 Corinthians 1: 17. You want to have your faith established on God’s testimony presented in Christ. “After two days” the testimony should become effectual in their souls. Put yourselves in the company of those who heard Him.
What an effect on your soul! I think I should have said, ‘This is the Hope of Israel, all the hopes I have gathered up from Moses and the promises are all centred in this Man’. There were those who said “Search the scriptures”, that is quite right, but the Lord says, “They it is which bear witness concerning me”, John 5: 39. There is no profit from the scripture, unless you see the testimony of Christ. When you come to the gospels, you get Moses and the prophet on the mount speaking with Christ, but they disappear, for all their testimony was personified in that Man; they disappear, and the Father says, “This is my beloved Son, ... hear him”, Matthew 17: 5.
Let me appeal to you to hear the voice of Christ. If you want your soul to rest on a solid foundation, let it rest on the testimony of Christ.
Then they go on, “On the third day he will raise us up”. Wonderful words!-to be revived and raised up, and made to live in God’s sight. I take “the third day” to indicate the death and resurrection of Christ. “The third day”, the Lord says, “I am perfected”; and He went through all that had to be gone through to take man’s place. He is perfected in resurrection. As you see Christ in resurrection you are entitled to regard that as your own resurrection. Do you regard yourself as risen? As a believer you are entitled to. It is no question of actuality, it is a question of faith. Abraham believed God who “calls the things that be not as being”; that is what faith does. It takes account of God. I see in the death and resurrection of Christ my own death and resurrection. We are entitled to see that. The leprosy is removed by the touch of Christ; but in order to remove it, He had to go into death. The leper is thus cleansed and made fit for the congregation. “On the third day he will raise us up”, so that faith in the remnant goes on to the full end, and recognises there is recovery for God.
“And we shall live before his face”. You are made to live, but not for yourself. God loves to look into our souls and to see that the pulsations of our heart are Godward. “Thou hast in love”, says Hezekiah, “delivered my soul from the pit of destruction”.
“The living, the living”, he adds, “he shall praise thee”, Isaiah 38: 17, 19. Then there is a point further, to show how faith goes to the full end of the truth “we shall know,-we shall follow on to know Jehovah; his going forth is assured as the morning dawn; and he will come unto us as the rain, as the latter rain which watereth the earth”. It is not ‘if we follow on’; it is “we shall follow on”. If made to live before God, you want to know that God. Here the covenant comes in; God opens up His heart to you, and His disposition towards you, and thus you come to know Him. There can be no greater thing than that. He has relieved us of pressure, and death, and now we are made to live before Him-”we shall follow on to know Jehovah”. One deplores the inertness and sluggishness of believers; how little exercise there is as to the knowledge of God! The knowledge of the Lord is to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. Our souls are to be illuminated by the light of His nature. That is God’s thought.
There is nothing God delights in more than disclosing what is in His heart; and when you know that, you have absolute confidence. Delilah said as to Samson, “He has told me all his heart”, Judges 16: 18. There was no longer any hesitation; she was assured she had the secret. Alas for Samson, she had the secret! But now, you have the secret of God, and the knowledge of His heart. You have never any difficulty as to anything after you know His heart. One is completely emancipated; one is never disturbed about anything after that. How much christians are disturbed and harassed, tossed about like a bark on the waters, but if they had the secret of the knowledge of God in their souls they would never be disturbed. You take account of everything that happens to you in that light. If there is a cloud, you see the bow in the cloud; it is put there for the encouragement of your heart. You are like mount Zion, which represents the sovereignty of God; it cannot be moved. It abides for ever. What a point to reach! “We shall follow on”-they never stop until they reach the end-”to know Jehovah”.
One point more: “His going forth is assured as the morning dawn; and he will come unto us as the rain, as the latter rain which watereth the earth”. What an expectation! It is, no doubt, an allusion to Christ gone on high. He went there to influence the earth; not simply for Himself, but on account of His people, in order that there should be the sun in the heavens and rain on the earth. “His going forth”, says faith, “is assured as the morning dawn”. David said that the King should be “as the light of [p. 37] the morning, like the rising of the sun, a morning without clouds”, 2 Samuel 23: 4. Christ is like that, and that morning never has an evening! Then, “He will come unto us as the rain”; that is ministry, refreshing ministry from Christ. Rain comes down on your soul, and produces fruitfulness. You find out all about God, then there is fruit. Such is the position that christians are placed in; and one would appeal to souls, as to whether we are in the light of these things. Are you made to live? That is, are your affections quickened in regard to God? Raised up is a matter of faith; you take account of these things as Abraham who believed God, who calls those things which be not as though they were; and so can you and I. But we are to live! Your affections are to be all quickened Godward, and all the movements of your heart hereafter are to be toward God. Then there is “the rain”; that is the Spirit comes down with all the gracious ministry for your soul, so that there shall be fruit for God. It is the latter rain here, not the former rain; it is not promiscuous; it is just what is needed. Ministry is divinely applied and regulated, and fits in where it is required. The end in view is fruit for God.