PREACHING

J.Gray

Isaiah 53: 12; Luke 22: 19,20; 10: 30-35

These three references to the thought of pouring impressed me as to how God acts from His side. There is no thought of stint, no thought of being limited in what He is doing. in fact Scripture says, "He scattereth abroad", as if showing the principle on which God is working: "He scattereth abroad", he giveth to the needy; his righteousness abideth for ever", Ps 112: 9. God is working in a large area. There is a large area in this town, all this builtup area, London and its outgoings. Thank God, indeed, for the word that is proclaimed and whoever may proclaim it! Thank God for His sovereignty in the preaching of the word! Who knows the result as the glad tidings are presented by anyone, even a tract given away? It may be at a street corner or it may be at some of these crusades. In any case, we thank God, – as Paul did, that the glad tidings are proclaimed. "The entrance of thy words giveth light", Ps 119: 130. What is possible where the gospel is received!

Well, that is just to come to this point as to what we had today as to the blood: "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you", Luke 22: 20. We used to sing that hymn:

'The very spear that pierced Thy side

Drew forth the blood to save'.

and it was found that that statement was not exactly correct because it would mean that it was the action of the wickedness of that soldier that was drawing forth the blood to save, whereas it was altered to:

'Though man in hatred pierced Thy side

Thy blood love's answer gave'.

(Hymn 230) That was the divine answer to the wickedness of men: the blood-shedding of Jesus was not exactly man's act. Peter says as to His blood, as we had this morning, "precious blood", 1 Pet.1: 19. Oh, the blessing that has come out of the preciousness of the blood of Jesus "which is poured out for you". What that meant to the Saviour, the pouring out of His precious blood in view of your forgiveness: "To him who loves us, and has washed us from our sins in his blood" – it is not the blood of someone else, it is His own blood – "and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and rather", Rev 1: 5. "Washed us from our sins": they are gone evermore!

There are so many scriptures which could be referred to. In the Old Testament as well as the New we get figurative speech showing that God has cast all our sins behind His back (see Isa 38: 17). Again another scripture says that He has cast them into the depths of the sea (see Mic 7: 19). "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us", Ps 103: 12. Oh what a God! "Their sins and their lawlessnesses I will never remember any more", Heb 10: 17. Oh the value of the blood of Jesus! The power of the blood! It is efficacious enough to wash away the sins of every person that has ever lived. It may not be availed of, but that does not in any sense set aside the virtue and the efficacy of the blood of Jesus. What blood, the blood of Jesus! So it is a question of the power that is in the blood that l should like to emphasise.

It has appealed to me this day what it was that lay behind the Lord Jesus taking that place for you and for me, that great work of atonement, available for every one who trusts in Christ as their Saviour. "Without bloodshedding there is no remission", Heb 9: 22. What was it? That was an act which came about as the Lord Jesus died. It was when He died, and yet the Lord Jesus speaks of the pouring out of His blood, but it is after He had died. It is an act which has been done, but what has impressed me is the feelings of the Saviour when He poured out His soul unto death. I do not know if I grasp deeply enough for myself the feelings of the soul – and I think the soul would be connected with the feelings – of the Saviour as He "poured out his soul". His soul was in the matter – poured it out "unto death", His holy soul!

How He could say in the gospel, " My soul is very sorrowful", Matt 26: 38. A blessed Man here, indeed God manifest in flesh, but the reality of His manhood, the holy soul and the feelings of a Man, anticipating what lay before Him as approaching Calvary 's cross, and what was to be wrought out there. Well may He say, "My Father, if it be possible let t his cup pass from me" – I believe the Lord's soul was in that – "But not as I will, but as thou wilt", Matt 26: 39. Oh, the holy feelings of Jesus, pouring out His soul unto death and setting His face to go to Jerusalem to accomplish this. Who could understand it? Who could enter into the holy feelings of the soul of this blessed Man who was going to accomplish atonement and His precious blood was going to be shed?

'There is power, power, wonderworking power,

In the precious blood of the Lamb'.

It is there and it remains there.

The Psalms give us the experiences of the Saviour; Isaiah 53 would give us the feelings of the Saviour too. Oh the tremendousness of this matter – the feelings of Jesus anticipating death. We heard about sympathy these three days as meaning that you can share with a person in what they are passing through; you can enter into it. Who was going to share with Jesus as approaching Calvary's cross? Who could enter into the holy feelings of the soul of Jesus in His pouring out His soul unto death, holding nothing back in His holy feelings? Well may someone have said that His was a loneliness that none could share and with which none could sympathise and none could understand. It says that in Psalm 69 (v 20). The Lord Jesus did look for sympathy. Sometimes it was women who rose to the occasion when the Saviour needed refreshment. The disciples never really understood the Lord properly during His pathway, so how He appreciated that refreshment! If a woman came forward to wash His feet with tears and to anoint His feet and to wipe them with the hairs of her head, was it not just like "He shall drink of the brook in the way", Ps 110: 7? Just a little brook, a little refreshment! Oh how the Saviour appreciated that, His holy soul poured out unto death, but just a little on the way. But in the great work of atonement itself when He looked for sympathy there was none; comforters – none! Oh how the Saviour felt that! I sometimes wonder if I have deepened much in my own soul as to the depth to which the Saviour went to save me. It is something that ought to grow in us. We sing, as one beloved man of God could compose:

'Yet deeper, if a calmer, joy

The Father's love shall raise'.

(Hymn 178)

There is a deepening of joy. I think there should be a deepening appreciation with us of the pouring out of the soul of Jesus unto death in view of His precious blood being made available for you and for me and for all man kind. How many have been brought in! How many have been deepened in their souls as they have come to trust the Saviour and meditated reflectively and prayerfully on what it cost the Saviour in these holy feelings of His!

Well may the psalmist say – it has impressed me often – in the Songs of Degrees beginning at 120 and going up to 134: "Out of the depths do I call upon thee". You might have thought that the Psalmist would have said this at the beginning of these Songs of Degrees which involve the idea of going upward, ascent, but it is in Psalm 130. Ten Psalms pass. I feel it would deepen, as it were anticipatively, in the psalmist's soul – and it should deepen in ours – as if after going forward he reaches Psalm 130 and comes to the point where he says, "Out of the depths do I call upon thee, Jehovah... If thou, Jah, shouldest mark iniquities, Lord, who shall stand?" he keeps that before him – "But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared". It is good to go on, deepen even daily; never get away from what it has cost the Lord to redeem those who have put their trust in Him, what it cost Him in His soul the sufferings of Jesus, the ignominy and the cruelty of the death by the hands of men. What has the heart of man shown with h is culture and education when in the midst of it all he can quite coolly and callously exterminate millions of Jews, just one batch after another? That is cultured man, educated man , whose heart remains adamant and hard – as scripture says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and incurable; who can know it?", Jer 17: 9. God knows it. He is a heart-knowing God. He knows your heart, what these hearts are capable of. Well, is there a place for Jesus in them? Does the Christ " dwell, through faith, in your hearts", Eph 3: 17? Is there a place where He is a guest, not just to be received and to go away again, but to reign there and to dwell t he re and to 'reign without a rival there'? That is our Saviour. That is the Saviour of God's providing – Jesus.

In Luke chapter 10 – a well-known passage – we get wonderful results, anticipative results of the gospel, because in the Samaritan we have one who is able not only to present the power that is in the blood of Jesus, to set free from sins, but who has feelings for the man that accompany that. If you proclaim the word you may not know about certain things in Scripture, but, oh, do I really have feelings for souls? I felt that as asked to say a word here. What can I say? Do I have feelings for souls? I trust I have. God has feelings. There a re me n in this world, Scripture says, who are past feelings, as if they could not be affected by the presentation of the gospel. Here it is first of all the priest. He comes down. What does scripture tell us ab out the priest? He evidently looked at him Scripture tells us about the eyes of the priest. It tells us a lot about the priest. As Mr Darby said,

'Priests, that should plead for weakness,

Must Thine accusers be!'

Here is a man in weakness, lying down there, fallen in to the hands of robbers. That can apply to a sinner and it can apply to somebody who has gone astray too, for Scripture tells us that "all we like sheep have gone astray", Isa 53: 6. Peter tells us that: "For ye were going astray as sheep". It is so easy to get your eye off the Saviour: "For ye were going astray as sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls", 1 Pet 2: 25. Oh, I trust that is true of everyone who hears the word of God tonight. There is the going astray and then there is the question of the return, not to the church, not to the meeting-room, not to anyone exactly, but to "the shepherd and overseer of your souls". These precious souls that He died to redeem, He lives to nourish and to nurture. Do not let us go astray because the priest's eyes look. What was this man looking for? There was nothing the priest could see. Scripture says, "for they make broad their phylacteries" (Matt 23: 5), parchments of passages of Scripture, I understand, all in a little box and displayed on their arm or forehead where they could be seen – very holy men, very religious, respectable men. I do not wish to be critical at all, but in speaking to an elder of a church I just quoted:

'Thus far by grace preserved

Each moment speeds us on'

and it did not strike a chord in the man's heart. He could not speak a word about the Saviour, and that is without being critical because I am speaking of persons I know, and they are ordained elders who could not tell a soul the way to heaven, the way of salvation, the way to know the Saviour. They just do not know. How sorrowful! How sad! The priest was like that and on he goes.

The Levite: oh, you say, he is the servant; he is the one who will be able to set out things. Well, he does not have too much time, whatever he may have had in his heart, whatever he knew of Scripture, however he may have served, there is just a possibility that he went over and had a look at him. Sometimes you see persons lying on the street and you wonder if it is degradation or if they are ill. It takes courage and sympathy and feelings to contact humanity at its lowest point. The Saviour did that. At its lowest point He touched humanity. What would the Levite say in any case? What might he think? It is so easy to say, 'the point of departure is the point of recovery' or "whatever a man shall sow, that also shall he reap", Gal. 6: 7. Oh how these things can be brought out and not a touch of feeling in the man's soul for the person who was helpless and in need of a lift in his soul. It is so easy! Let us take note of persons who need help, that are in a helpless position.

The Samaritan comes. What happened to the man in any case? You say, Why did he go down there and fall amongst the robbers? We need to be careful if we are the Lord's that we do not fall amongst them because they will certainly rob you, and the longer it goes on you are apart, indeed, from where the blessing is, and the more the enemy will rob you of your joy in the Lord. He will rob you, indeed, of the sense of the joy of salvation. He will get you to question perhaps as to whether you really have a link with the Lord. That is possible too. The enemy will take advantage to strip you of everything so that you feel there is not a person who understands, not a person who can come in to help. But the Samaritan comes on to the scene all the questions answered. This Samaritan had feelings and was not stinted in what he was able to administer: "bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine. I think you children would have liked to have seen that Samaritan getting that man up after he had poured in the oil and the wine and getting him on to that beast. It was "his own beast". He put another man on his own beast and was prepared to walk and to take him where he could be cared for.

That is the word I want to leave with each one of us. When the man was taken to the inn the word was, "Take care of him". Let us take care of one another! Let us, indeed, have he eyes of the Lord Jesus that were so effective when He looked at Peter in Pilate's hall. Peter had denied Him but when the Lord looked at Peter, Peter remembered his failure and went out and wept bitterly. But it was the eyes of a Shepherd who was looking at Peter. "Take care of him"! The Lord Jesus has not only died for us but He is living for us. He is taking care of us every day. Some have gone right through their pathway. The Lord has taken one from our midst; who knows who may be next if the Lord does not come? But, in a sense, no one can have any regrets, for that soul whom the Lord has taken was cared for and he will come out in the day to come an? love His appearing. He will come out, as it says, in Matthew's gospel, "Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it to me", chap 25: 40. "Take care of him"! May the Lord bless the word to us for His Name's sake.

 

BARNET

October 1978

 

Note in Issue No 209:

I have been asked to explain that the preaching in the edition for June 1990 was by Mr.John Gray of Saltcoats – with Christ 20 February 1990 – Ed.