LIMITATION

^[p. 520] LIMITATION

Job 37: 10; Genesis 22: 13; Luke 19: 29, 30

I have in mind to speak about limitation. I began with the book of Job, a book that is intended to help saints and sinners, and amongst the things employed of God are several features of creation that are mentioned in this chapter; the verse read alludes to ice. It comes in under the head of Elihu’s discourse. There had been the discourse of Job himself, and the discourses of his three friends. Job’s discourse was always self-commendatory; there was not another like him, he thought, in the world. And the speeches of his friends were condemnatory of him, balancing his own eloquent speeches of self-commendation and self-praise. Then we have Elihu’s speeches, calling attention to God in His works; and finally, we have Jehovah’s own direct speeches or discourses to Job; the great Creator and Upholder of all things graciously spoke to call attention to some of the things He had created so as to bring one man to conviction of his own state and to show the interest of God in every one of us. He succeeded with Job, and Job wisely in the course of his experience stopped talking. It says, “The words of Job are ended;” and so room is made for the evangelist, the representative of God, to say something. He did not join in with the three friends; it would have made a fourth. He waited for all of them to finish; then he had a clear field. And that is exactly how God has set the gospel so that He has room to speak to men, shutting up every mouth. God waited long and allowed men to speak. In the days of our Lord Jesus Christ, who served on earth here as a Man, He allowed men to speak, to say anything to Him and He answered them, sometimes not saying anything. But He was ready to answer according to the questioner. “Answer a fool according to his folly” (Proverbs 26: 5); and again “Answer not a fool according to his folly” (verse 4). The Lord was ready to answer any questions. The day of Pentecost ushered in a clear field for God, and He had everything ready. Time never caught God behind. The day of Pentecost was a remarkable time, an appointed time that was being accomplished; and God was ready. Peter, after the Spirit came down, stood up and spoke to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the men of Judea, men of Israel. He said, “Give heed to my words” (Acts 2: 14). That was God, and so it is that God has a clear field. He perhaps could not speak to everybody down on the street or in the rendezvous around the town, but He has a clear field here. Every one here has come in here, and this chapter from which I have read in Luke says, “But as they were listening” (verse 11). God continues on; hence it is while men are ready to listen that God continues to speak, and for the moment, He is speaking about His Son.

Now Elihu, as I said, comes in as having a clear field to speak to Job, and he uses hundreds of created things, as it were, as texts; and he uses the idea of frost. He points out that God has in the creation wonderful instruments for dealing with men. Thank God, for the present time is a time of good, not evil! And He has these great things. He has the thunder that startles you when you hear it; and not only the noise, but the flashes come, stirring up your feelings and calling you to attention. You cannot but be called to attention as the thunder roars and the lightning flashes. Elihu does not fail to call attention to these things. And then he uses remarkably the snow, for instance, in verse 6. “Fall on the earth”, God said to the snow. You say, It is simply snowing. What is the ‘it’? Who is doing it? God says to the snow, “Fall on the earth”. It is ^[p. 522] God that is doing it. You see, creation brings God to you; and why is it on the earth? Well, God says, I will have that to allude to later when I am talking to men and women who are sinners and who know that they are sinners. You may have sins like scarlet. That means that everybody knows they are sins. They are not hidden things. Most sins are hidden, but when they are like scarlet, it means they can be seen. The eye cannot fail to notice these scarlet sins. God says, Now I have got the snow, and I will make those sins whiter than snow. What a fine gospel word that is! What is the snow on the earth? There it is in volumes, in great capacity. I do not know how much it cost the city of New York to get rid of the snow that fell the other day. God caused it to fall, but did anybody in the city of New York think God put that snow in the parks and on the streets? Did anybody ever think that God put it there to remind him of purity, for purity is a great quality with God, and that He can make you as pure as that through the blood of Jesus. How many, do you think, in New York thought of that? They have been doing their utmost to get rid of it and perhaps rightly, too; but I am speaking of how God put it there as testimony, and He would say to the blackest sinner in the underworld of New York and on the Eastside, ‘Though your sins be as scarlet, I can make them as white as this through the blood of Jesus’. Some one here may have sinned and there are others who know about it. Others have sinned and nobody knows about it but themselves, but nothing will be hidden. But the more scarlet they are, the more you will appreciate the wonderful cleansing value of the blood of Jesus.

And then he uses remarkable language in the same verse. “And to the pouring rain, even the pouring rains of his might”. That is what cleanses the world. It is not the blood of Jesus. This is like ^[p. 523] the deluge to cleanse us from filthy habits and thoughts. The blood of Jesus cleanses you from all sins, but there are roots and conditions in your soul capable of sinning and doing nothing else but sinning, and the believer finds an abundance of water that God has supplied to cleanse him from these, too — “the pouring rain, even the pouring rains of his might”. The greatest evidence of that, I suppose, was in the deluge. Sceptics are sceptics, but they talk about the deluge. They are very fond of quoting profane witnesses, but when they come to the deluge, they can find testimony to it everywhere. They cannot deny it; there is an evidence of the deluge everywhere in the human race and the greatest evidence of God’s power in rain. The windows of heaven were opened, we are told, and the fountains of the great deep, too. “All the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened” (Genesis 7: 11). It rained for forty days and there was no rain like it; the rain of His might, which cleansed the world.

And then we have remarkably here in verse 7, “He sealeth up the hand of every man; that all men may know his work”. That is a definite thing. God can do that. He does not have to put men in prison to do that; to tie them with ropes as Samson was tied. God brings things to bear on men when He likes, and there are terrible things coming over men. They will cry for mercy and want to die because of conditions, but here God sealeth up the hand of every man, as if every man would say, What can I do in the presence of this? Take the storm we had here last September, in the East particularly, the terrific gale that we had. Well, what will any sensible man say when things like that happen? Take an earthquake. What can anybody do? God brings things to bear on us, you see, that your hands are tied up. “He sealeth up the hand of every man” so ^[p. 524] that every one says, Well, it must be God or nothing. What a fine conclusion that is as a man comes to that point: I can do nothing, but God can do everything! That is what Job finds out. “I know that thou canst do everything, and that thou canst be hindered in no thought of thine” (Job 42: 2). He said that after God had spoken about His own creation. Have we all come to that: that we can do nothing? You can do nothing to save yourself. Only the blood of Jesus can wash away your sins. Only the power of God can raise you from the dead. You will die in a few years. Let nobody doubt that! In a few years, old or young, you must die. How are you going to overcome that? I speak soberly to people. There is death staring you in the face. How are you going to meet it, for you will have to meet it and go into the grave. What after that? You need the power of God even if you die in your sins and go into everlasting perdition which you certainly will. Hell is a real word. Do not be fooled. It is a real word and it is chosen by the Spirit of God to portray the intensest possible judgment and suffering. Let nobody be sceptical about it. “And forasmuch as it is the portion of men once to die, and after this judgment” (Hebrews 9: 27). It comes to you individually. It is appointed unto you once to die and after this the judgment. How is all this thing going to be? These are all ‘futures’, I might say. That is a word much used, but they are certainly futures that will have to be met, and how are we going to meet them? We have our sins piled up and nothing done about them. There is plenty done about them by God, but there is something to be done on my part, namely, to believe. “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he has sent” (John 6: 29). That is all I have to do; to exercise faith in God. Have you been looking into this matter? Have we all looked into it? Has the ^[p. 525] matter been settled? It is the most important matter conceivable for young people, this matter of soul salvation. And God did this so far, he has sealed up the hand of every man that all men may know His work. You see, my hands are tied up; not, as I said, with prison walls, not with ropes or chains, but with things that God brings to my attention that my mouth is stopped, my hands are tied, and I say, God must come in. Let nobody say that he has not been sealed, for if you are honest men, you are sealed. You say, I can do nothing; God has done it. Your part is to believe, you see. “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he has sent”. It is the work of God. Is there anybody who does not believe Him whom God has sent? Jesus says, “He that hears my word” (John 5: 24), and you are hearing it now. It is the word of God, the word of Jesus. “He that hears my word, and believes him that has sent me, has life eternal”. Think of that! It all corresponds with this wonderful statement of Jesus — “and does not come into judgment, but is passed out of death into life” — is passed; not will pass. Marvellous statements these! Are we ready for them? It is the work of God. God seals up your hand — every man’s hand, so that you might know the work of God.

And then it goes on to say, “And the wild beast goeth into its lair, and they remain in their dens” (verse 8). That is the work of God. That means that Satan is going to use every effort and tell me that if I believe tonight, I will have to go to school tomorrow and meet difficulties I cannot overcome. I have to go to the office, and I know Satan will not let me alone. This scripture says, “the wild beast goeth into its lair, and they remain in their dens”. God can bind him up on your account. Jesus said to Satan, Go away. He did not send him to any ^[p. 526] place. He told him to get behind Him. Will God do that for me in the school tomorrow or the office? He can. It says these beasts go into their dens and remain in their places. It is God. God is acting like this for His people. I am not saying that Satan will not come to you, for he goes about like a roaring lion. God allows him to, but he can only do what he is allowed to do. God spoke to Satan about Job. “And there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before Jehovah, and Satan also came among them to present himself before Jehovah” (Job 2: 1). “And Jehovah said to Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job” (verse 3). It is as if He would say, Have you considered John So-and-so in this town? It is a similar thing. Yes, he says, I know him. He has been tempting you. You have fallen to his temptations, you see. God challenges him, and Satan says to God, You hedge that man about. Thank God that He does hedge us about; He does protect us! God says, You can do so-and-so to him. You see he could not touch Job without God’s consent. It is most solemn if I am touched by the devil and God has allowed that, but if He does not want me to be touched, I shall not be touched. He protects me from the devil. The wild beasts go into their dens and stay there as far as I am concerned. Is this not comforting truth? Put out your hand tonight; do not be afraid of what will happen tomorrow. God will see to that. He looks after you. Salvation means more than just salvation from eternal judgment; it means salvation from evil at the present time.

And then we have further here: “From the chamber of the south cometh the whirlwind; and cold from the winds of the north. By the breath of God ice is given; and the breadth of the waters is straitened” (verses 9, 10).

^[p. 527] It is by the breath of God. This is the first time you get that. You say, Well there is the north, the Arctic regions are frozen up. Well, God did that. God does that for a purpose, but it is not so much what is physical as that God so binds you up that you are straitened. You cannot turn to the north, south, east, or west. I believe everybody with whom God is working comes to that point. You cannot turn; you are bound up with the ice. It is a figure: a most solemn thing. It is circumstantial that you cannot turn to the right or to the left. There you are; in a moral sense, you are bound. God must come in to loose you, and He does. “Also with plentiful moisture he loadeth the thick clouds, his light dispels the cloud” (verse 11). He causes the rain to come, and He causes the south wind, we are told (verse 17), that is, the time of release will come. The thing is to accept what God does. He binds me up in my circumstances in a moral way. I can do nothing. I am cast about and blame this one and that one, but it is God’s doing. I am bound up and straitened by the ice, by the breath of God. This is a peculiar matter, the breath of God. It was by the breath of God that Adam lived. It is a remarkable thing that. Man is distinguished in that way; made to live by the breath of God, and yet it is by the same breath that God causes this thing in me that I am bound up and I cannot move; I am frozen, as it were. I must look to God to save me because He has control of the winds, and presently my clothes become warm; but I am speaking of historical circumstances, how a person comes to the end of himself, bound up, and can do nothing. This peculiar thing that God brings to pass is His own breath. It must be of very great consequence in His mind when He does this by His own breath. It is no mere accident; He is thinking of you in it. ‘I want to bind you up so that you will turn to Me and away from yourself’. That is what this book brings out, and Job came to this. He was just tied up, and now he says to God: “I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee” (Job 42: 5).

Think of God’s going to all this trouble for one man! In the end it is complete blessing for that man. Think of what God is! He has been working with individuals in this way during all these centuries since the days of Job. He does not save everybody at once. He saves one individual after another. He goes to all these pains so that He reaches His end. Man says, It is finished. I now see thee. “I had heard of thee ... but now mine eye seeth thee: Wherefore I abhor myself”. I do not abhor the cold north wind. It does not say that. I do not abhor these three friends of mine any more. He says, “I abhor myself”. That is the work of God. It is a masterpiece of God to bring a man to that, but see the pains He takes to do it!

Well now, I want to show you how the Lord Jesus came into this. There would be nothing in the gospel at all if He did not. It is not a question of His being tied up circumstantially as with us poor sinners. The Lord could never be tied up circumstantially. They took Him to the brow of the hill on which the city was built to cast Him down headlong. They would have done it, no doubt, but they did not do it to Him. He could not be bound at all by circumstances. So in this remarkable passage in Genesis, we have a type of Christ in the ram held by its horns in a thicket; not held by man’s hands. The passage says: “And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold, behind was a ram caught in the thicket by its horns” (Genesis 22: 13).

^[p. 529] The horns belonged to Himself, part of the Lord Himself. We get that in the type, even the horns of the brazen altar were of itself. It alludes to the power of Christ; the horns were a symbol of power. Well, why should He be caught in this thicket? The ram represents qualities in Christ. Isaac is the beloved son. It is the Person of Christ, but He carries with Him peculiarly the beautiful affections of Christ for His Father. How delightfully the gospel of John presents them to us — the beautiful reciprocal affections between the Father and the Son. “The Father loves the Son” (John 3: 35; John 5: 20); and “And we have seen, and testify, that the Father has sent the Son as Saviour of the world” (1 John 4: 14). That is what we get in the early part of John, and in chapter 6 we have the beautiful reciprocal affections between the Father and the Son. It is not His Son as entirely passive. It is with Abraham. Isaac is entirely passive and entirely subject without any full thought of what was in mind; so he represents Christ just to a point, and then we come to the ram. The ram is a type of Christ, too. Isaac is a type of Christ in the affections He has, the beautiful affections seen radiating between the Father and the Son, but we need more than that for redemption; we need the ram character. We need the will of God. The will of God must rule when it comes to the settlement of the sin question, and hence the Lord Jesus in coming to this earth says, “Lo, I come (in the roll of the book it is written of me) to do, O God, thy will” (Hebrews 10: 7). ‘I am not going merely to love Thee as a Man down here so Thou mightest have an object for Thine affections’. No: ‘Lo, I come to do thy will’ which is a more serious side. If He had not gone through the judgment unmitigatedly what would happen? We would all be consigned to eternal perdition. Let there be no mistake about that! — a most serious ^[p. 530] thing, and let nobody trifle with it. If I reject the will of God, reject what He has done for me, there is nothing else but eternal perdition, and so the Lord Jesus says, “Lo, I come ... to do, O God, thy will”. That is what enters into the type of the ram. The ram is a progenitive thought. It is full maturity and that is what we see in the death of the Lord Jesus — full maturity. It is the Ram in the garden of Gethsemane. It is Isaac, but He says, “Abba Father”, which would be first the will of God. The will of God helps Him. He says, “Father, if thou wilt remove this cup from me: — but then, not my will, but thine be done” (Luke 22: 42). Morally it was not possible. He came to do that, and now He is telling us how abhorrent the thought of being forsaken of God is. The Father is dealing with the Son; nevertheless, He says, “Thy will be done”, and He goes into death. Now that is this ram. Abraham saw him there, which is another feature of Jesus held there by the will of God, — “by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10: 10). Think of that! We are sanctified once for all by the will of God. The same will that was exercised in the creation is exercised in my sanctification, but through the offering up of the body of Jesus Christ, “by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ”. Will I accept it here tonight? What have I come in here for? Ostensibly, it is to hear the gospel. The will of God is for your salvation, it is for your sanctification; but it is through the offering up of the body of Jesus Christ, this precious Offering, which is here typified.

So it is, Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up for a burnt-offering instead of his son, meaning that the ram is a continuation of the son; that it is the same person. Will you not accept this ^[p. 531] thing? — this wonderful evangelical proposal of God — “by which will we have been sanctified”. Most of us here are christians, sanctified by the will of God, but by the offering up of the burnt-offering. There is no need for another. It is finished. The work of salvation is complete; there is no need for another. It is available and effective eternally. Will you accept it? That is what we are here for. You have come in here to hear the gospel; be true to the mission and hear and believe. One man said, “I believe, help mine unbelief” (Mark 9: 24). He had said, “But if thou couldst do anything, be moved with pity on us, and help us” (verse 22). Think of a man saying that to Jesus, the Creator of the universe. The Lord says, “The ‘if thou couldst’ is [if thou couldst] believe: all things are possible to him that believes” (verse 23). Will you not believe it; accept it on the principle of faith? There is no other way. There are those who accept christianity as I might become a Mohammedan or a Jew, but the principle of faith is the only basis on which I can be saved; without faith, there is nothing. There is everything from God, but nothing for you without faith. You say, Well, how do I get faith? Well, we have it; why not you? It can be got, you see; it is available. I quite admit the scripture says, that faith is not the portion of all. It was not the portion of Judas. If Judas had lived for a hundred years longer than he did, he would not have been saved. He was damned, but I am not saying that of anybody here tonight. “Faith then is by a report”, which is what I am saying tonight. It comes into your ear and heart. Faith comes by hearing or report, the report by God’s word. Why should you not have it? You have the report. We have it; Paul and Peter did; millions of others; why not you? There is something the matter with you. It is something in the state of your soul. The devil is hindering you.

^[p. 532] keeping you away from it. That is all I have to say about that wonderful type.

I just want to finish with what I read in Luke 19, and that is the last type, the colt tied; not tied by frost or snow or tied by God. He is evidently tied by some human hand on the outside of the house; meaning that somebody in the house has that colt, and he has tied him there and does not want him to rove about as a young man or young woman is apt to do; you have been put by your parents under the protection of God that you should be kept in the house and not take to the streets and wicked places in the towns and cities and ruin your souls. That is what is meant. Well, that is God through some agency, maybe your father with godly thoughts. God says, I am with that man. I heard of a father the other day; in fact, he told me about it himself. His son wanted to pursue some flagrant course, and the father said, ‘In the name of God, I command you not to do it’. Why should he not say that? He has the protection from God; every father and mother has. And the boy did not do it. God helped that man undoubtedly in that command, so with this colt tied here at the crossways. What is so very interesting about this particular presentation is that the colt is tied in the midst of a beautiful group of cities or surroundings. They are spiritual, of course. They were physical here; there was Bethany, the place of love where the Lord went out and spent the night. If you should say, Lord, what does Bethany mean? I believe He would tell you it is the meeting. It is a place of love. That is what I found it. It is a fine suggestion for a young man or a young woman. There is not only the time of love but a place of love; that is Bethany. There is such a thing as that on earth.

You will never find it at the picture shows; Satan is there to darken your mind. That is why you are ^[p. 533] tied. Satan is there and why should I let my children go there? Keep them out of it. He is tied there. So as I said, the Lord would tell him that Bethany is the place of love, where the Lord’s people are; where the Lord comes Himself and where He finds a reception. “I will not leave you orphans” (John 14: 18).

If you love Me, you will make a place for Me. That is what the Lord would say about Bethany. Then you have the Mount of Olives, which is the place of ascension. That is where I am going up from in a few days, the Lord would say. He would say, I am going into Jerusalem to die there, but I am going up from the Mount of Olives, and the Holy Spirit is going to come down afterwards for you. Then there is the great city of Jerusalem, full of holy thoughts; full of divine thoughts, in the Lord’s mind anyway. He wept over it. You would have loved to ask Him why He was weeping, and He would say, Think of the history of that city. He would instruct your soul as to what Jerusalem was to Him. He wept over it.

So the colt is tied in all these beautiful surroundings. Why should that not soften you? If you do not want to go and you are not going, you can think about these things, and they are bound to soften you. If you live in a house where they read the Bible in the morning, that has a softening influence. You come to the meeting where God’s people are, where they talk about God and Christ. These things will help you. The colt is tied there. It is by human hands. Maybe there is somebody like that here. The Lord is saying, Now, I want you. He sends two disciples — that means complete testimony; they represent the Lord — and He says, I have need of you. And we are here tonight to say in the Lord’s power, The Lord hath need of you wherever you are. He has need of you. You say, The world needs ^[p. 534] me, the Government needs me for the army and navy maybe. It looks as if they may — a terrible thing to come. I would urge young people to prepare. Get to God. The Lord has need of you, and may keep off war because of you. He does, too. He will do anything. He will call upon the mass of creation here tonight to witness for Him. The Lord hath need of you. I was just finishing the gospel preaching last week when a little boy ten years of age came up and said, ‘I would like to break bread’. I said, ‘Why?’ He replied, ‘I think the Lord needs me’. A very remarkable thing! The Lord did need him, too. The Lord would say that to you tonight. We are all here to bear witness to that fact — the Lord has need of you. Do not deprive Him. Do not thwart His will. It is too serious. May God grant that you may not deny that He has need of you, for His name’s sake. Amen.