RECEIVING IMPRESSIONS OF CHRIST

Genesis 30: 25; Luke 2: 25-35; Acts 8: 27-39; Genesis 24: 56-58

I have read about four persons who received an impression of the Lord Jesus, and whose lives were changed. That is the objective which God has in the gospel, that lives may be changed. That is God’s heart. We have been singing about it, we have been praying about it:

‘The heart of God is love’      (Hymn 59)

The glad tidings are an expression of the heart of God, and they are all about Jesus. What a wonderful thing it is to lean on the Holy Spirit to receive impressions of the Lord Jesus, and have our hearts changed. That is what the gospel does. Think of the way that Paul begins in writing to the Romans: “God’s glad tidings … concerning his Son … Jesus Christ our Lord”, Rom.1:1-4. That is the gospel. It comes from God’s heart. Paul can write to Timothy and speak of God being a “Saviour God, who desires that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth”, 1 Tim.2:4. That is God’s heart. And Peter can speak about it too, that God is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance”, 2 Pet.3:9. These references help us to understand a little as to why this dispensation has been such a long one, because God’s heart is set on the salvation of His creature.

A few weeks ago, a dear brother who was preaching spoke about the length of this dispensation of grace and the fact that it has been two thousand years, and he said that it was amazing to him that the dispensation of grace is already one thousand years longer than the millennium will be, when the Lord Jesus will be publicly vindicated on the earth. But God’s heart is such that He has made this dispensation long so that you might be saved. What a God! What a heart He has! He has so many wonderful attributes, and His nature is love, and His love tonight is towards you in the gospel, and His desire is that you may be saved. How important it is. Time is brief. Five weeks ago today our brother whom the Lord has just taken nearby was preaching in Glasgow, and gave us a wonderful word about the need to take account of matters that are eternal. Dear friends, we do not know the time. That is the Lord’s matter. How essential it is that the eternal destiny of our never-dying souls is settled now through believing on Jesus.

I have read of these four persons who each received an impression of Christ, and their lives were changed. I love to think about Jacob; what a person he was. One thing we can say about Jacob is that God loved him: “I have loved Jacob”, Rom.9:13. God loves you, and He has blessing in mind for you. I love to think of persons in Scripture like Jacob and Peter and others who failed. How like me; that has been me. What a detour Jacob made in his life. He went to Padan-Aram to get a wife and he stayed there for twenty years and built up a business in which he was successful, but he was really living in the world. All the time God’s eye was on him. Then it comes to this moment when Joseph was born: “And it came to pass when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, Send me away, that I may go to my place and to my country”. It does not say what the impression was that he had, but we do know that Joseph was to become a remarkable type of the Lord Jesus. This was a moment that changed Jacob’s life; it was the beginning of his recovery. He was now on the way to having deep soul history with God, and he would arrive at Bethel, he was going to his father. That is what can happen; it can happen for us if we receive an impression of the greatness of Christ – it can change your life. That is conversion, it changes the direction of your life, and that is what God has in mind. Jacob moves in such a dignified way now: “Send me away, that I may go to my place and to my country”. What a remarkable study Jacob is of spiritual progress in a believer, and he becomes a worshipper at the end of his life. They were his brightest days, he worshipped on the top of his staff, the bed’s head (Heb.11:21; Gen.47:31). How important it is for the gospel to have that effect on persons, that we become worshippers. That is what an impression of Christ can do; it can change everything for you and change your life for the better.

In Luke’s gospel, we have the incoming of the Lord Jesus, the wonder of the incarnation. I love to think of the way that things were so beautifully prepared at the beginning of Luke’s gospel. What a holy scene it is. It speaks of persons who were filled with the Holy Spirit and this man Simeon was in the temple, and it says, “he received him into his arms”. Receiving Jesus is a very important thing because it means we take Him right into our affections. I am not appealing to your intelligence tonight, although we use our minds, but I am sure God would seek tonight to reach your heart in relation to the greatness of the Lord Jesus. What an impression Simeon had as to the Lord Jesus: “he received him into his arms”, and then he said the most remarkable things about Jesus: “a light for revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel”. That would be a special mark of Luke’s gospel, the gospel of grace, that the Gentiles would be referred to first. Then Simeon speaks about the fact that the Lord Jesus was going to suffer, even including a reference to His death: Simeon says to Mary that “even a sword shall go through thine own soul”. He had all these precious impressions of the Lord Jesus, even though He was just a Babe, and in effect, Simeon said, ‘I cannot stay here any more’. His life was about to change. So he says to God, “now thou lettest thy bondman go, according to thy word, in peace”. He could not stay in a world that was going to reject Christ.

It does not say that the Babe was given back to His mother, although I know that He must have been. I have an impression that He remained in Simeon’s affections, speaking of divine care; Jesus remained where He was loved. If you read on in this chapter, it says that His parents sought Him when He was twelve years old, sought Him among their relations and acquaintances but they could not find Him; He was in the temple. How wonderful! All we know about the Lord Jesus as a young person is that, at twelve years old, His interests were those of His Father. His interest was being in the temple. It says that He was “sitting in the midst of the teachers and hearing them and asking them questions”, Luke 2:46. I would just say a little word here to our dear young people. The Lord Jesus is the perfect example, the perfect model for us all. It is good to have our friends, persons our own age, but at twelve years old the Lord Jesus was interested in persons who were not His own age. He was interested in older persons and asking them questions. That is an important thing to do as a young person, to get to the meetings and to spend time with people who have experience with God and can help you to understand the great things of God. Dear young ones, keep near experienced believers. It is a great area of safety and protection. It is an area where you will be helped to grow in your soul.

The pathway of the Lord was so perfect, so wonderful. It says in the next chapter that “Jesus himself was beginning to be about thirty years old” (Luke 3:23), a perfect, developed manhood. He comes up from the waters of baptism and He is acclaimed from heaven by the Father. I read a remark in relation to the fact that Jacob made Joseph a vest of many colours; it was a vest, and the brother’s impression was that it was an undergarment, and those colours were peculiarly for the Father’s enjoyment¹. I would say that in those thirty years of the Lord’s secret life, the Father enjoyed every moment of every day. That is why He declared His delight in Jesus at the waters of baptism. Then the Lord began His public service. What a life, what compression! He healed all who came to Him, none were turned aside. Whatever condition it was, the Lord was able for it, however great, however small. Think of Lazarus dying, and yet the Lord raised him. He said, “I am the resurrection and the life”, John 11:25. What a Person, and yet in order to accomplish everything for God, He was going to experience untold suffering and sorrow, “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief”, Isa.53:3. I trust that all our hearts tonight may be softened.

We read earlier today, “knowing that his hour had come that he should depart out of this world”, John 13:1. How was He going to depart? He was going to depart by the way of the cross. What a matter for the Lord Jesus to go that way, not only to suffer at the hands of men but to suffer at the hand of a righteous, sin-hating God. The scripture says, “Him who knew not sin he has made sin for us”, 2 Cor.5:21. It has been said that He could never become sin, but He was made it. Jesus was intrinsically holy; when He was born, it speaks of Him as “the holy thing” (Luke 1:35); what a matter to think of the Lord Jesus in those three hours of darkness when He was forsaken by His God. There was what men did to Him, but then that ceased when the earth was darkened in those three hours of forsaking. That transaction – what a deep matter. Thanks be to God that the Lord Jesus exhausted God’s wrath in relation to sin. Jesus said, “It is finished” (John 19:30): what a Saviour!

If you are labouring under the burden of your sins, that can be settled tonight because the Lord Jesus has met in perfection the judgment that you deserved, and by believing in Him your burden is removed. He was made sin, and He met that whole matter righteously, and then He died. Does the death of Jesus affect your heart – the Prince of life dying? I recently read a word on the death of Jesus that was given in this room quite a long time ago in a ministry meeting. The brother who spoke said that other persons were summoned into death, but the Lord Jesus was not summoned into death, He went into the realm of death of His own volition. He went as the mighty Conqueror into that realm. Think of what it meant to Him, how He recoiled from it. It says of Him prophetically in Isaiah 53, “he hath poured out his soul unto death” (v.12): what a Person! But He went in as invading it. It has been said that Jesus was greater than the portal of death, He had to bow His head to go in there. So He died; and then His precious blood was shed. Think of the hatred of man, a soldier coming up and piercing the side of Jesus seeing He was already dead. What hatred! But that is how God’s love was shown:

‘Thy blood love’s answer gave’ (Hymn 230)

The precious blood of Jesus has been shed. We have been redeemed, not by silver or gold, “but by precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish”, 1 Pet.1:19. We thank God for the preciousness and the perfection of Jesus, and His precious blood. Loving hands took Him down from the cross; God had persons in reserve. But you think of Jesus being laid in the grave: it says in Psalm 16, “neither wilt thou allow thy Holy One to see corruption” (v.10). It was not possible that He could see corruption because He was sinless. The Lord Jesus was a holy Person, “the holy thing”, so He could not see corruption. He was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth to signify the removal of the man that had offended God. What a complete and glorious work it was. And then Jesus was raised by the glory of the Father. It says, “according to the working of the might of his strength, in which he wrought in the Christ in raising him from among the dead”, Eph.1:19,20. That is what God did: it was a selective resurrection of Jesus from among the dead.

The last the world saw of the Lord Jesus was on the cross, but He appeared to His own after He rose. It says at the beginning of Acts that “he presented himself living, after he had suffered, with many proofs”, Acts 1:3. I want you to be sure in your heart tonight that the Lord Jesus has been into death, and He has been there vicariously for all who trust Him, and that He has been raised from death. The One I present to you tonight is a risen, living, glorious Saviour who is soon coming. May it be soon! We long for that day and it will be soon, and therefore there is an urgency. We have been speaking of a beloved brother who has gone to be with Christ; it is urgent to know that you have the question of your sins settled now and that you have a link with Jesus on the other side of death. Think of those who came to the tomb early; it says, “they found not the body of the Lord Jesus”, Luke 24:3. That precious name - the Lord Jesus - was not used in the gospels until that point. That name that we love to use, that name that can only be said in the power of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor.12:3), is the name that attaches to Him on the other side of death: “they found not the body of the Lord Jesus”. Well, He is available for you tonight. Not only was He raised by the glory of the Father, but He has been taken up; it says, “a cloud received him out of their sight”, Acts 1:9. In John’s gospel He ascends in the greatness and power of His own Person. Now He is at the Father’s right hand, and He is waiting for the Father’s word, and He will come. The scripture says, “the Lord himself, with an assembling shout, with archangel’s voice and with trump of God”, 1 Thess.4:16. He is coming, and tonight is your opportunity to know Him personally for yourself and have an impression of the greatness of Jesus and the fact that He loves you.

I wanted to speak about the amazing conversion of the Ethiopian man in Acts 8. He was another person who received an impression of the Lord Jesus and His life was changed. We have seen how Jacob’s life changed, we have thought of Simeon’s life, and how he did not want to stay in this world that was going to reject Jesus, and now we have another man whose life was changed. What a great person he was, “a man in power under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who was over all her treasure”, and yet he was searching for something. I would say to you tonight, however wealthy you might be or whatever type of job you might have or whatever university course you are following, these things are nothing compared to a link with Jesus, the Man of Isaiah 53. This Ethiopian man had it all, and yet he had nothing because he did not have Christ. It is an amazing sequence of events here in Acts. In chapter 8 we have an African converted; in chapter 9 a Jew is converted, that is Saul; and in chapter 10 Cornelius, who was a Gentile, is converted. It shows that God is no respecter of persons, He loves every one, and He is towards you in love tonight. This man here accepts the gospel, he accepts Philip’s preaching – what a gospel it must have been.

And then he says, “Behold water; what hinders my being baptised?”. It is quite remarkable, and most people here will know this, that verse 37 in the Authorised Version is not really in the Bible. This translation goes straight from verse 36 to verse 38. It has been said that ‘verse 37 is not in Scripture, it savours of the hindrance of Laban’², and that to me is a remarkable thing. The enemy does not want you to commit yourself unreservedly to Jesus. Verse 37 has been taken out by our translator and so verse 38 links on immediately after verse 36, “And he commanded the chariot to stop”. I will always remember a brother preaching on this verse, and he said you have to bring your life to a stop. You cannot continue on a pathway that is heading for disaster and for destruction; you have to stop and you have to change course. That is what this man did, “he commanded the chariot to stop”, and then he was baptised. He severed his link with this world, and he would be for Christ from this point on. He had an impression of Jesus that changed his life. He became a converted person, and that really is my desire tonight, that our hearts may be changed through receiving an impression of the Lord Jesus.

Now I would like to speak about Rebecca in Genesis 24. Isaac is a wonderful type of Christ, and Rebecca of the assembly. The work of the servant and his journey speaks to us of the Spirit of God securing a bride for Isaac, in principle the heavenly Man. My simple impression is that Rebecca was not going to be hindered. That can happen when somebody asks us a question in relation to our link with the Lord. “And they called Rebecca and said to her, Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go”. She had obviously been in the house, she had heard all that the servant had said about the greatness of Abraham and the greatness of Isaac and the fact that everything had been given into the hand of Isaac; in principle she was converted, she was happy to go. Her brother Laban had influence in the house. In verse 55 it says, “her brother and her mother said, Let the maiden abide with us some days, or say ten; after that she shall go”. All I would say to you tonight is that the gospel is not a time for delay, so do not be distracted, do not be put off by negative thoughts or even what your own family may say to you. This was not a helpful interjection from Rebecca’s brother and her mother, but she is set to go, she is as it were converted; she says, “I will go”. What a wonderful result it would be through the gospel tonight if somebody in this room just said, ‘I will go, and I will commit myself to Christ, and I will commit myself to His people’. I will tell you this, you will never ever regret it.

I suppose I could not finish in a better way than by repeating what our dear brother said on Wednesday;

he said, ‘Commit yourself to the Lord Jesus, there is nothing else that is worthwhile’. May you do so, for His name’s sake.

Preaching of the gospel, Grangemouth

11 December 2022

Colin Seeley