THE EFFECT OF THE GOSPEL ON THREE MEN
D. B. Robertson
Luke 5: 1–8; Acts 2: 32–38; 9: 1–5; Romans 15: 28, 29; Acts 16: 25–34
The scriptures I read refer to three men. One was a sinful man, one was a man full of hatred, and the other was a man at an extremity. It is remarkable that the Lord should use Peter’s boat to speak to the crowd. No doubt in using the boat He had in mind the securing of Peter, and this brings about this great demonstration that would prove that He was the Creator, and was able to do what Peter could not do. He says, “having laboured through the whole night we have taken nothing”, and then there is this great draught of fishes. You might have thought that Peter would be filled with the joy of an earthly blessing at such a catch of fish, but it only brought home to him the great conviction that he was a sinful man, a man full of sin. It is a good thing to come to that in your soul history that you are full of sin, a sinner. I can well remember listening to the gospel preachings of men who have gone before, and they told us that the first step to blessing was the acceptance that you were a sinner in need of a Saviour. Have you ever come that way, dear friend? I would commend it to you tonight. If you really want to be blessed you must come to the fact that you are a sinner, a sinful person, full of sin. Peter was in touch with a Person who could help him, he was in touch with the One who was not only the Creator but He was the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is able to meet the sinner, no matter how deep his sinfulness, how deep his need, the Saviour is able to meet him. We sometimes sing, ‘Full atonement—Can it be? Hallelujah, what a Saviour!’
There is full atonement; of course the Lord had still to effect that at this point, the great work of atonement, but Peter later in his life came to understand it. It was Peter who said, “who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree”, 1 Peter 2: 24. He was in the full light then of the atoning work of Christ. I would like to say that there is only one ground on which the sinner can be blessed, and that is the ground that has been provided through the sufferings, the death, the blood-shedding, the burial and the resurrection of Christ; there is no other ground and there is no other Saviour. May you be convicted about that, there is no other Saviour. If you are conscious that you are a sinful person I would tell you there is a Saviour for you. I say that, knowing it from the depth of my heart, there is only one Saviour. Thank God most of us here at least have been brought to know Him, and put our trust in Him. Peter put his trust in Him, and I want to speak about the effect on these men. Let us just ponder for a moment, ‘Full atonement—Can it be? Hallelujah, what a Saviour!’ What did it mean for the Saviour? It meant that He had to go to the cross. Two hundred years ago there were people who said that redemption was accomplished by incarnation, but that is not the truth. Redemption required the sufferings, the death and the blood-shedding of Jesus. In its full scope it also involved His burial, it is all part of the great vicarious work of Christ to remove the man who had sinned. There was ground to remove the sinful man from the eye of God, so that the way was perfectly clear for God righteously to bless Peter, and to bless you and to bless me. What a Saviour He is!
Before Peter received the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, he failed. At one time he failed grievously, but Mr. Darby reminds us that we must always remember that at that point Peter had not the Holy Spirit. Every believer not only needs salvation and the forgiveness of sins, but needs the Holy Spirit. I would make the challenge to you affectionately, if you are a believer, have you received the Holy Spirit? No believer is complete without the Holy Spirit; you need the Holy Spirit so that you might have power to deal with yourself, power to deal with things that may arise, and power to bring in conviction to other persons. So that when Peter preached in the beginning of Acts, he preached that glorious triumphal gospel, “God has made him, this Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2: 36)—a wonderful thing. Have you ever pondered that, what it means that He has been made both Lord and Christ? It is Lordship in blessing. That is the glorious position that Christ is filling tonight. He has not only effected the work of salvation, He has overthrown the power of death and He is now in heaven, installed there, and He is Lord there. He is Lord and Christ, it is Lordship in blessing, and so you get Peter’s preaching and what a result there is.
The effect of that kind of preaching is that it convicts persons, their consciences are pricked, and their hearts are pricked. They say, “What shall we do?” Peter has the answer. You know why he has the answer?—because he has come the same way himself. “Having heard it they were pricked in heart, and said to Peter and the other apostles, What shall we do, brethren? And Peter said to them, Repent”. Oh, that that word may sink into your heart and conscience, “Repent”. I do not think there is enough made of repentance in the glad tidings these days. Persons need to repent, that is the first thing. That is, you accept God’s judgment about yourself; you are a sinful man, a sinful woman, a sinful boy or a sinful girl, and you need a Saviour. Peter says, “Repent, and be baptised, each one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for remission of sins, and ye will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”. What a change in Peter from being a sinful man, to one who can testify to other men with such an effect. In one of Peter’s preachings God worked in such a way to secure three thousand souls. It is a wonderful testimony to what had been effected in Peter’s soul.
I want to speak about Paul. Here was a man full of hatred; I trust there is no person here like that, full of hatred. It is a solemn thing to meet a man full of hatred, especially when it is hatred against Christ and against the people of God. It is what marked Saul of Tarsus, he was full of hatred. He says elsewhere, “I indeed myself thought that I ought to do much against the name of Jesus the Nazaraean”, Acts 26: 9. Here he was taking a journey, a journey fuelled by hatred, to cast people who were of the way, that is the Christian way, into prison. That was the extent his hatred would go to. He gave his vote that they should be killed too. He was quite a man, Saul of Tarsus, a man who was full of hatred, full of religious bigotry, full of prejudice but he was met from the glory by the Lord Jesus Christ, a wonderful thing. One beloved servant of the Lord said Saul’s first touch was an interview from the glory by Christ Himself, an intervention. I wonder if there has been an intervention in your life? It might be that there will be one tonight. If you are still in your sins, and going on in any measure like Saul, I would hope that there will be an intervention in your life, that Christ would intervene and bring about a change. What a change was brought about in Saul! The glory shines round about him and there is a voice out of heaven. We go over these things again, but O the wonder of them!
This is reality, this is not fiction. I suppose some of you read fiction. It will not do you any good, it is imaginary. You are far better to be affected by the word of God. And so this intervention takes place and what an effect it had on Saul, “he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute me?” It is a wonderful thing when you hear the voice of the Saviour, when He gets into your soul and touches your conscience, and touches your heart. I can tell you, when it has happened you know it has happened; what a thing it is! And it says here, “Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute me? And he said, Who are thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest”. What grace! Elsewhere it says, “it is hard for thee to kick against goads”, Acts 26: 14. The Lord Jesus felt for Saul. Saul had no feeling except feelings of hatred for Christ, but the Lord Jesus felt for Saul and He feels for you. Paul says, “Who art thou, Lord?” We spoke in the reading about obedience, and here was a man who was now obedient, he hearkened. He said elsewhere, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision”, Acts 26: 19. He yielded to it, he hearkened to it and it brought him down. What an intervention, what a servant we may say the Lord secured through it.
I just wanted to touch on Romans 15. Paul is speaking about another journey here. He was not fuelled by hatred on this journey. “I shall come in the fulness of the blessing of Christ”. What a journey that was, what a transformation! do not know if he ever took it, but he was anticipating taking a journey through Rome and going to Spain. Scripture does not disclose whether he took it or not but this is what was in his mind, what was in his heart. There was no longer hatred, it was the intensity of longing that men might be brought into blessing. What a transformation! Instead of destroying men he was looking to save men. What a blessed result. He says, “But I know that, coming to you, I shall come in the fulness of the blessing of Christ”. Now I just say to you young men and young women, I want you to get an impression of the blessing of Christ. What is it? It could be many things. Scripture speaks about “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”. It is Paul who speaks of that, “who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ”, Ephesians 1: 3. That is the scope of the blessing of Christ, but I think that the fulness of the blessing of Christ is sonship.
That is the great blessing that God has in mind for men that you are brought into sonship, into relationship with Himself. It is not only that you are redeemed, it is not only that you are saved from your sins as Paul was, but that you are brought into sonship, not only for your pleasure, not only for the delight of your heart, but for the delight of God’s heart. I think Paul was filled with that. There was no lesser thought in mind for anyone he preached to and the persons who were secured, not only as a saved sinner but as a son of God. I remember Mr. Lyon giving an address in Hamilton and it was about the people of God who were in Egypt, they were slaves, and he said the slaves in Egypt were God’s sons. You think of the slaves of Egypt typically filling this city tonight, but we trust some of them will be secured as sons of God. That is what God has in mind for you, dear friend, whether you are a man or a woman, a boy or a girl. He wants to bring you into the joy of this blessed immediate relationship to Himself, a son of God. I think that is being filled with the blessing of Christ.
Now I just finish with a short word about this other man, a man who was in extremity. Have you ever been in extremity? I once was in extremity, I have been there a few times but I was once in a real soul extremity. I knew that I was a sinner, I had not salvation, I knew that too, and I went to a gospel preaching—pardon me speaking about myself but I say it to help. I went to a gospel preaching and the brother preached from two scriptures. One was in Joel, “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of Jehovah is at hand in the valley of decision”, Joel 3: 14. And there I was, and that may be you tonight, you are in the valley of decision. I will say this from experience, it is a good place to come to, but it is a very bad place to remain in. Thank God there is deliverance for those in the valley of decision. The next scripture he read was, “Behold, Jehovah’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save”, Isaiah 59: 1. I remember it well; I had it all out with God. I knew peace, peace towards our God through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. I do not wish to speak of myself at all, but if you are in that valley tonight, your valley of decision, cry to God. He has salvation for you. He has a Saviour for you; not only has He a Saviour for you, but He will give you the joy of forgiveness of your sins. Yes, you will sing, ‘O happy day when Jesus washed my sins away’. That is a good thing to sing in the home, and I will tell you this, not only will He give you the forgiveness of sins, but there are many other blessings He will bring you into; God has in mind to give you the gift of the Holy Spirit.
And so here is a man in his extremity, a poor jailor. You may say he had done his job well. He had locked them up in the inner prison, these servants of the Lord Jesus. They triumphed, there is no doubt about that. “And at midnight Paul and Silas, in praying, were praising God with singing”. I knew a poem once, ‘Hear the sighing of the prisoners, hear their groanings loud and long; hark again, still louder, sweeter, is the sound of prayer and song’. What a mixture you might say of hopeless despair, of hopeless groanings, and men who were able to reach through the whole gloom in prayer and thanksgiving to God. What a change, what a transformation! These men were not in this situation for nothing. God had allowed it. I wonder what God had in mind. I think He had in mind the conversion of the jailor. What a God He is; He is a Saviour God. He desires the salvation of all men, that men might be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. And so these prison doors open and the prisoners could have fled and the jailor is in extremity; so deep is his despair that he draws a sword. He was thinking of taking his life and the voice of mercy through Paul cries out, “Do thyself no harm, for we are all here. And having asked for lights, he rushed in, and, trembling, fell down before Paul and Silas. And leading them out said, Sirs, what must I do that I may be saved?” Do you think it was quiescent? That was a burdened cry. What have I to do?
If anyone cried out here in this room tonight I could only give you the same answer as Paul gave him and that is, “Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved”. There is no other Saviour, “salvation is in none other”, Acts 4: 12. You can only be saved by the Saviour. I say this, not irreverently or disrespectfully, the Pope of Rome could not give you that blessing, the Archbishop of Canterbury could not give you it, but the Saviour, the Lord Jesus, can speak the word of pardon. It is a very blessed thing when you are conscious in your soul that the Saviour has spoken the word of pardon. There are many instances in Scripture like that; Luke 7 and Luke 8 and so on. Paul and Silas had the word here, “And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house. And they spoke to him the word of the Lord, with all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed them from their stripes”. What a transformation! You see the change that was brought about in Paul, the change that was brought about in this jailor. He became their servant. He acts in such a tender way, he washed them, set the table for them, rejoiced householdly. There is one aspect of the gospel that is greatly needed amongst us, beloved brethren, and that is the gospel for the household. The gospel for the soul, sinners like Peter, sinners like Saul of Tarsus, sinners like you and me, it is the gospel for you, and the gospel for me; but it is also the gospel that can secure and hold and maintain households for Himself. That was the jailor’s household. May God bless the word.
Preaching at Dundee
25 December 2011