HOW GOD SPEAKS TO US
1 Kings 19:11-13; Psalm 95:7,8; Acts 11:18;
This is the time of the gospel. The gospel is good news – that is what the word means. The gospel is also the word of God. What I have in mind is to set out, with the help of the Holy Spirit, the fact that God is speaking directly to you. An announcement might be made in a railway station over a loudspeaker, perhaps the announcement of a train leaving, with the departure time and platform. That announcement applies to everyone who has an interest. But sometimes announcements are made by name. I want to tell you that God knows your name, and that He is speaking directly to you, and He is speaking in love.
Where we read in 1 Kings 19, there was a wind and an earthquake and a fire, and it says that God was not in these things. There are things going on in the world which God has His hand over, but what comes after the fire is a soft, gentle voice. There could be no more gentle voice than the voice of Jesus: “Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest”, Matt 11:28. It is a soft, gentle voice. You may think that the gospel is about sinners. I am glad to tell you the gospel is not about sinners. The gospel is for sinners, but it is not about sinners. The gospel is about Jesus. We know that from the Bible. At the beginning of the epistle to the Romans, the apostle Paul writes about “God's glad tidings … concerning his Son … Jesus Christ our Lord”, Rom.1:1-4. The glad tidings may not be about you, but they are very much for you. It is a fact that you are a sinner, because it also tells us in Romans that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (chap.3:23). But it goes on to say that we are “justified freely by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God has set forth a mercy-seat, through faith in his blood” (vv.24,25). That is the soft, gentle voice.
Think of Mary at the tomb: after the Lord had been buried, she went to the tomb as early as she could, and He was no longer there; she was upset and disappointed. But there came that soft, gentle voice: “Jesus says to her, Mary”, John 20:16. He would speak to you in the same tones. He had died and shed His blood and gone into the grave for Mary, and He had risen from the grave for her. And what He did for Mary, He has done for you. He would speak to you directly and take away all the confusion – the earthquake, the wind and the fire. He would set all that aside – all the confusion in your life, whatever it may be, the doubts, the uncertainties – and He speaks to you directly, and He tells you that He has come to save you. That is what God did. You can read about it in the third chapter of Exodus. When God speaks to Moses about Israel who were in captivity, He says, “for I know their sorrows. And I am come down to deliver them”, Exod.3:8.
He knows you and He knows me. He knows us better than we know ourselves, and despite the things we may have done and all that we are, He is speaking in patience and grace in order that you might come to Christ, weary and heavy laden, laden with the burden of your sins, wearied by trying to make things better, wearied by trying to do things better. Paul speaks of that in the epistle to the Romans: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of this body of death? I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord” (chap.7:24,25). Paul wearied himself trying to make things better. He says, “For I do not practice the good that I will” (v.19), and “I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, good does not dwell” (v.18). In effect he says, ‘I have tried everything’. The hymn writer says,
‘If you tarry till you're better,
you will never come at all’ Hymn 208
You cannot make yourself better; there is only One who can make you whole. Again, God speaks to Israel and tells them, as they come out of Egypt, that “I am Jehovah who healeth thee”, Exod.15:26. God also asked, in a time of trouble, “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?” Jer.8:22. The great Physician, Jesus, is here. He is the One who would heal your sorrows, bind up your wounds, carry you to a place of safety, as was done for the man on the Jericho road (see Luke 10:25-37). Was there reproach and condemnation for the man on the Jericho road? It might have been said to him that he should not have been going to Jericho. He was heading in the wrong direction. No, it says he “came up to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine; and having put him on his own beast, took him to the inn and took care of him”. No reproach, no condemnation: the “soft, gentle voice”. Jesus has given everything to save you, the One who “himself bore our sins in his body on the tree”, 1 Pet.2:24. He is the One who is speaking to you now and saying, ‘Come to me’.
In Psalm 95 we have, “To-day if ye hear his voice”. Maybe you heard it yesterday, and maybe you ignored it, but He is waiting: “To-day if ye hear his voice”. I remind you of the verse in Hebrews, “as long as it is called To-day” (chap.3:13). There may be no tomorrow: I cannot speak of tomorrow, but Jesus is speaking to you today. And it says also, “behold, now is the well-accepted time; behold now the day of salvation” (2 Cor.6:2) – not another day. The hearts of believers are to burn for the coming of the Lord, the time when we will be with Him for ever. The church is longing to be with her Head, and that time is coming soon. But in this waiting time, there is an opportunity, there is a moment. The Lord may come before we walk out of this room. The urgency of the matter is real; it is a matter for ‘Now!’. Now is the time, now is the well-accepted time, now is the day of salvation, not in twenty minutes or half an hour. I do not ask you to make a confession. The only one who needs the confession of your sins is the Saviour. What is required is a simple turning to Jesus and the confession of your sins.
There was once a woman, a believer, going along a cart path, and someone approached her to lay hands on her and attack her. All she said was, ‘Lord Jesus, please save me’. The man was stronger than she, and yet he turned and walked away. ‘Lord, save me’: the enemy of your souls would come and carry you away to destruction, and all you need say is, ‘Lord, save me’, and there is nothing he can do. As the hymn says,
‘The power of Satan broken,
In Jesus’ death of scorn’ (Hymn 290)
You need only turn to Him today. “If ye hear his voice, Harden not your heart”. It says of Pharaoh, when he was appealed to, to let the children of Israel go, that he hardened his heart (see Exod.5:1-5; 8:15). He was appealed to, and he was appealed to, and he was appealed to again; and then it says that Jehovah made his heart stubborn (see Exod.10:20,27). Judgment fell on him. This is not the time of judgment, beloved. The time of judgment is surely coming. Do not harden your heart! Turn to the Saviour who shed His blood and died for you, “who went through all quarters doing good, and healing all that were under the power of the devil, because God was with Him”, Acts 10:38. At the end of His life man gave Him a crown of thorns; He was beaten and spat upon and abused and scourged and nailed to a cross. Yet not one word of protest did He utter, because He received it all from the hands of His Father. He suffered in order to do the will of God, and He did it for you, and He did it for me. “Harden not your heart”: that is the position today.
Let us go back in time to where we read in Acts 11. This was not long after the Lord had ascended on high. It says, “And when they heard these things they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then indeed God has to the nations also granted repentance to life”. Now we come to the ‘yesterday’. We are of the nations: Israel was the chosen race, a people for a possession (see 1 Pet.2:9). But here, two thousand years ago, we read, “God has to the nations also granted repentance to life”. He was thinking about you. He granted repentance to the nations. Everything God requires in His righteousness, He gives us in His grace. Think of that! He had granted repentance to the nations. Scripture says, “God … enjoins men that they shall all everywhere repent”, Acts 17:30. But He gives, or grants, repentance. It also says that “without faith it is impossible to please him”, Heb.11:6. Yet He gives faith (see Eph.2:8). What God asks you for, He has, in that sense, already given you. He has given you the means. The Spirit works in new birth (see John 3:6-8), in order that there might be good ground, a place wherein the seed can fall and bear fruit a hundred-fold. So “God has to the nations also granted repentance to life”. Have you taken up what God has given you? It is no good only to acknowledge it. You have to take it up. “God … enjoins men that they shall all everywhere repent”, Acts 17:30. He enjoins them to recognise their need of a Saviour. God is appealing to you today that you might take up His free offer of grace.
But then we go back still further. How can God make such an offer? We know that God cannot look upon sin – it says in the Bible that He is “of purer eyes than to behold evil”, Hab.1:13. He cannot look on sin, so how can God grant repentance to life to persons who have sinned? We find the answer to that in this verse: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal”, John 3:16. How God spoke in the giving of His Son! Think of what the Lord Himself said, on the cross: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”, Luke 23:34. He appealed to the Father for mercy, even for those who had put Him on the cross. I have to acknowledge that I put Him on that cross. It was my sins that put Him there, and yet He appealed for mercy for me – “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”.
Now, what did the Lord say to the thief? This is another ‘Today’. “Verily I say to thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise”, Luke 23:43. He gave the thief – that repentant sinner – an immediate answer. That is another thing about God speaking today: the answer will come today. You will not have to wait. When you apply for something, for a job, or a place at school or university, whatever it may be, you are likely to have to wait. Maybe you have to pass an exam or sit an interview first. But the Lord said, “To-day” – there is no waiting at all. If I might put it as simply as this, all the tests have been passed, tests that you or I could never pass, all the examinations which you inevitably would have failed, the Lord has gone through every one and He has been found righteous. The sinless One who suffered for righteousness’ sake, at the hands of man, suffered also for sin at the hands of His God which you and I could never do. The Scripture says, “None can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him, (For the redemption of their soul is costly, and must be given up for ever,)”, Ps.49:7,8. We cannot redeem the person sitting next to us, no matter how much we would like to. Furthermore, we cannot redeem ourselves, because we have nothing with which to pay the price.
Think of these men of whom the Lord spoke when He said, “but as they had nothing to pay, he forgave both of them their debt”, Luke 7:42. You have nothing with which to pay, but the great thing is that the debt is all settled, in the blood of Jesus, in His finished work, and in His resurrection, so that your sins can be forgiven. Christ must die, His precious blood must be shed, in order for your sins to be washed away, and He must be raised for you to be justified. Every matter has been settled to God's eternal satisfaction, and such is the glory of that work that it extends not only as far forward as today, but as far back as Adam. Scripture tells us that God’s righteousness has been shown forth, “in respect of the passing by the sins that had taken place before … for the showing forth of his righteousness in the present time”, Rom.3:25. Such is the glory of the work of Christ, and it was all done because of God's love, God's love for you. When it says that “God so loved the world”, it does not mean He loves the sin in the world; it means He loved the world that He made and the persons He put in it, and that includes you. This appeal is to you, not to harden your heart.
In Ephesians, we go back still further: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ; according as he has chosen us in him before the world's foundation”. God went right back, before time was, before the world was founded, and He thought about you. He thought about you, and today He comes to speak to you about His thoughts for you. He tells you that He has given His Son to die for you, so that you “should be holy and blameless before Him in love”. In John 17, the Lord speaks to the Father and says, “Holy Father” (v.11). Holiness is separation from sin. How can we be holy and separate from sin? By being washed in the blood of Jesus. And then at the end of the same chapter He says, “Righteous Father” (v.25). How can we be righteous? How can we be blameless? Because our sins have been taken away. Do you know what He says as to Israel when they will come back into blessing in a day yet to come? He says, “and their sins and their lawlessnesses I will never remember any more”, Heb.8:12. For us, it is that “we should be holy and blameless before him in love”. How did He do that? He thought of you before time was.
Peter tells us that “ye have been redeemed, not by corruptible things, such as silver or gold, from your vain conversation handed down from your fathers, but by precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, the blood of Christ, foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world”, 1 Pet.1:18-20. God knew, when He chose you, that you would need a Saviour, One who was “foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but who has been manifested at the end of times for your sakes, who by him do believe on God, who has raised him from among the dead and given him glory, that your faith and hope should be in God” (vv.20,21). There is no better place for your faith and hope to be than in God. There is nowhere else worth placing them. “That your faith and hope should be in God” – “He who, yea, has not spared his own Son ... how shall he not also with him grant us all things?”, Rom.8:32. So He has marked us out, He has chosen us, and we find out He has marked us out beforehand for adoption – that is sonship. You perhaps think that it would be good enough if all these sins were washed away. No! It might be good enough for you, but God would tell you that it would not be good enough for Him. He wants you to come into the place of sonship – as it says, “according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he has taken us into favour in the Beloved”. Do you see that Man Jesus, who did all these things for God? God says to you that He intends to make you like Him, and He is going to take you into favour in His worth; God is going to bring you near to Him as clothed in the worth of His beloved Son.
And all of this God has had in mind for you before time began – “the Beloved: in whom we have redemption through his blood”, Eph.1:6,7. Not ‘in whom we will have’, but “in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of offences, according to the riches of his grace”. And not according to what you can afford to pay, but “according to the riches of his grace”. God is speaking to you. He wants you in His presence. He wants you there in liberty and in happiness. You think of what the queen of Sheba noticed: among many things, she says “Happy are thy men, and happy are these thy servants, who stand continually before thee and hear thy wisdom!”, 2 Chron.9:7. And she also said that “the half was not told me”, 1 Kings 10:7. I have not told you half of what God has in mind for you, not even a small fraction. There is a place of glory for you in the presence of God. He has given His own Son, and He has poured out the gift of the Spirit in order that you might take it up. He wants you to be responsive to Him, and Christ also wants you to be responsive to God. Further, the Lord Jesus wants you to be responsive to Himself in the scene of His absence. Do you know that He has asked us to do something? He has asked us to remember Him – “this do in remembrance of me” or ‘For the calling of me to mind’ (see 1 Cor.11:24 and footnote).
Jesus is calling; the Father is calling; the Spirit is speaking of divine love to your soul: “To-day if ye hear his voice, Harden not your heart”. I say in all sobriety, I appeal to you on behalf of the God of glory, that you might commit yourself to His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, and that you may be found in His service here for as long as we are left, for His name's sake.
Preaching of the gospel, Glasgow
19 January 2025
Paul Gray