RESPONSIBILITY AND GRACE
D.R.Freeman
This is a very striking passage, often read and quoted, but a very solemn one because the Lord Jesus is facing the fact that the places where His great works were done had not repented, they had not received the word which had come from God, "God.... now enjoins men that they shall all everywhere repent". Acts 17: 30. This command has gone out in God's mercy because, if repentance is enjoined, it is part of the glad tidings; God has opened a door of repentance for the gentiles and there is great blessing in repentance, in turning to God from a way of self-will and a path of sin. Whatever your history may have been, God is ready to help you to face it at this time because of the One who can give peace and joy to your soul, the Lord Jesus, God's beloved Son. So the gospel concerns Him; and the command to men, because all of us are responsible, is to repent and believe the glad tidings. But these cities had not repented; and there are many cities in North America which are responsible in regard to what has been preached and ministered in them. How great our responsibility therefore! We are responsible for what we have heard. The Lord Jesus brings this home to one of the churches that He writes to; they are to remember what they have "received and heard, and keep it and repent", Rev 3: 3. We have heard much and our responsibility is commensurate with the light God has been pleased to give us concerning Himself and His truth. But there is no answer here. What does the Lord Jesus do in the face of this - a very solemn picture indeed? He compares these cities where His works of power had been done with others, and those works were not bringing in distress of God's judgment to men but rather relieving them of the dreadful effects of sin which He felt in His spirit as He moved in and out amongst men on the earth to which He came. I need hardly say, for surely we recognise it, that the One who was here in such wondrous grace was none other than the Creator of the universe, God over all, blessed for evermore, but He was pleased to come in amongst men as a lowly Man (as He speaks of Himself) to relieve them of all the effects of their sin and departure from God. We have the history of man's departure in the Bible; what a history it is! From Genesis 3 onwards we see the progress of sin and of departure in the world, but we see, too, the way of salvation and how certain persons escaped; and how you too can escape from what is inevitable otherwise, the wrath and judgment of a sin-hating God. God must judge sin and there will be a judgment day; the Lord Jesus refers to that. You say, I thought Sodom and Gomorrah were judged. Yes, those cities were overthrown. We know what happened, only Lot and his family were saved; and then his wife was turned into a pillar of salt because she looked back to a world that came under God 's judgment. Those cities were already judged but what about the persons in them? They will be raised a the second resurrection to be judged before he great white throne - a solemn thing that those persons have their responsibility to God. The final judgment has not yet come; the cities have been overthrown but the Lord refers here to a time which is yet future. Men may not believe it but this is God's word and is true, that every man must give an account of himself to God. Those people who lived in Sodom, those wicked, dissolute persons in that city, must give an account of themselves to God. This comes close to you and to me. How can we face Him? How can we stand before God when His right s in judgment are exercised? That is a day yet future. The Lord Jesus says it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and for Tyre and Sidon in judgment-day than for these cities of Israel where He had preached the gospel. How favoured we have been in this part of the world! Yet think of the solemn character of this judgment when God's salvation was so near based on the simple principle of faith and repentance towards God, and yet the opportunity was lost and men refused and turned from the God who continued to beseech them and to seek to compel them to come in that His house might be filled.
Well, God is desirous of your blessing and that is why you are here. I do not know what has prompted you to come but we have the Scriptures before us, God's word, and we want to make way for the Holy Spirit of God bringing in conviction to the hearts of men. You have to do with God, God who made you, God who loves you, God who gave His Son to die for you. This is the One of whom we read, the One whose precious name is Jesus, the One whom God has set above all and to whom He has given power and authority. He will soon exercise it, solemn thing, in relation to the claims of God in judgment, but today is not the judgment day; this is the day of God's grace. You could not have come in at any more favourable time; today is the wonderful day when glad tidings are preached: "Behold, now is the well-accepted time; behold, now the day of salvation", 2 Cor 6: 2. God is ready to work repentance in your heart and to give you light as to the knowledge of Himself. We have His word in our hands and many of us have received wonderful blessing through believing that word and receiving the One of whom it speaks. We have come to know Him and to love Him. We love to speak of the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ. How much He has done for us; what grace is His! It is a day of grace, a wonderful day. The day of judgment is not to be an extended matter; it is God's strange work, but He will do it. It is a solemn thing that men expose themselves to the inevitability of wrath; indeed we read that men treasure up to themselves wrath in the revelation of the righteous judgment of God (see Rom 2: 5). God is righteous and will judge in righteousness. All judgment has been committed into the hands of the Son but He is ready now to be your Saviour and to relieve you of every burden. So the Lord Jesus rejoices, even at this time in the presence of those who had refused Him, because there were others who were going to accept Him. And I hope every one here is among that number over whom the Lord Jesus can rejoice. It says "There shall be joy in heaven for one repenting sinner", Luke 15: 7. How much joy is in the heart of Christ as He takes account of the simplest and feeblest, whoever you may be, coming to an appreciation of Himself and letting Him take control! You and I are just like that sheep in the parable in Luke 15 that went astray; there is no difference because all have sinned. We are not setting ourselves apart and saying we are different from others; each one of us has sinned grievously but we have proved the preciousness of His word "Her many sins are forgiven", Luke 7: 47. Oh, how precious it is that forgiveness can be known because the Lord Jesus has died! It has cost Him so much that grace might be administered. Sin's judgment must be met, the Lord Jesus Himself had to die. Do you scoff at the story of redemption, the story of the One who came so low and went to Calvary's cross, submitted Himself there to God's judgment upon the tree that you might be eternally absolved, righteously discharged with no liability remaining and be freely forgiven? So, not only is repentance preached but remission of sins, in His precious name. And what is more, God delights to forgive. We have a very poor impression of the joy that is in God's heart as He blesses and offers blessing to men. He wants it to be appreciated, He wants you to know His love, and His love has been expressed in the gift of Jesus and is now available to you so freely. The Lord Jesus has done everything that this blessing might be yours and that the Father's pleasure might be accomplished. You can do nothing to deserve it yourself but simply accept what God offers, accept His word and believe in the One whom He has sent, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is now in glory. Death did not detain Him, but He bore the curse, death and the grave that were our due. On our account, it says, He was made sin that we might become God's righteousness in Him (see 2 Cor 5: 21), that we might have a portion before God which nothing and no one could ever disturb or destroy. Jesus lives for ever in God's presence; He was dead, He died for us and rose again and is alive for evermore. And now what is He doing?
He is rejoicing in what He has to offer through all that has been delivered into His hand. So the Lord Jesus rejoices as He praises the Father and speaks of these things. What are "these things" to which He refers? He says "I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes". It shows that we must become different from what we were if we are going to appreciate divine giving. We have to change our minds if we are to receive these precious things. There is nothing like the forgiveness of sins, free and full absolution through the blood of Jesus. His blood has paid the debt; without the shedding of blood there is no remission (see Heb 9: 22). The Lord Jesus died, sin's judgment was borne, His blood was shed, the price was paid and now you and I by believing can go free.
But note that we have to do with Him as He invites us here to come to Him. These babes can do nothing for themselves but they let another undertake for them. Are we prepared to do that? Naaman, a great general, thought he could do something to become clean for he knew he was a leper and would die because he was a leper: "The soul that sinneth, it shall die", Ezek 18: 4. Sin was upon him and death too, this was very evident; but there was someone who had faith, the little maid, who said that if he were before the prophet he would cure him (see 2 Kings 5: 3). What remarkable faith! So he goes, but he wants to secure the blessing another way then God's way. There was only one way and that was by going down, humbling himself because he was a sinner. There is no blessing apart from the cross, you must come to that spot, a consecrated spot indeed, where God's Son suffered and died for you. May you find peace on this sure foundation that nothing through time or eternity will ever disturb. It is the basis for God's blessing towards you: "His foundation is in the mountains of holiness", Ps 87: 1.
We see God's foundation in the depths of Calvary's cross, and secured too through the One who is now in glory's highest height. What grace it is that righteousness should be available to the sinner! Are you not ready to take it? Naaman would have had the blessing but he would have retained some honour for himself. He expected a great show at his conversion, that the prophet would wave his hand over the place and cure him of his leprosy. He knew he was a sinner but he was not prepared to take the prophet's word, God's way, to secure the blessing; but eventually grace prevailed. That is what we want grace to do today. Grace is ready to justify the sinner, to lead us to Calvary, to give us an appreciation of the Saviour, it may be for the first time, as the One who loves us and gave Himself for us. Many of us have come on to this wonderful ground. "Having been justified on the principle of faith, we have peace towards God through our Lord Jesus Christ", Rom 5: 1. My peace depends on Him and nothing else, not on any merit of mine, nor on any virtue that I possess more than another but solely on the atoning value of the death of Jesus. "We have peace" it says, solid peace which the devil cannot touch. "We have peace towards God" because of His righteousness. His righteousness is towards us, He wants to account us righteous, to justify us, to cleanse us. There is only one way to come into it and that is by simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a way that the youngest can understand, a way that does not minister to the pride of men. These babes whom the Lord Jesus speaks of here are persons absolutely dependant on Another. What is more helpless than a babe if it does not get looked after? It will die. Jesus is the One who can do everything for us if we come to Him. We can do nothing for ourselves. We are deep-dyed sinners, every one of us. Oh, we have little sense of our indebtedness to Him! So we must come the divine way. The word to Naaman was that he was to plunge himself in the Jordan seven times and the promise that he would be clean was sure and certain. God's word gives you certainty, man's word gives you uncertainty. You may listen to many speakers among men diagnosing the problems of society and propounding possible solutions but God's word gives you certainty about what you need most, the need of your precious soul. Where would you be without a Saviour? What if you die in your sins? What would you do without Him, the One who came to seek and to save the lost? Will you go on without Him today? I believe the Lord may be pleading with someone here in relation to their need. You may never have heard His voice in these accents before but they are words of grace and tenderness, for there is no voice like the voice of Jesus. It was the voice of Jesus that Paul heard at his conversion not bringing in condemnation, great sinner as he was. There was no greater sinner than Saul of Tarsus persecuting God's people, compelling them to blaspheme, but Jesus spoke to him words of grace and tenderness and was ready to bring him to rest. The way he was going without Him was hard but the Lord presented Himself to him as the One who was able to undertake everything for him and give him a righteousness in the presence of the blessed God. How great the gospel is! How precious the Saviour of whom it speaks! We are to come to know Him and what is in His heart, the One who gave Himself for us.
Consider that poor woman in Luke 7 who came to Him; she had a need, she knew what it was to be burdened with sin but she knew One, too, who would not turn her away, indeed there was a welcome there. How pleased He was to see her when He was in that cold atmosphere in the house of the Pharisee, a selfrighteous man! She came to Him with an appreciation of Himself, the One who could relieve her of all her guilt and would not turn her away in her need, and she heard words of grace and tenderness from the lips of Jesus. How He delights to speak thus: "Thy sins are forgiven... Thy faith has saved thee; go in peace"! How many wonderful examples we have in Scripture of persons who come into blessing through coming to Jesus!
The Lord is speaking here of grace, of revealing the Father. That is not God in judgment. All judgment is committed to the Son, the Father judges no one (see John 5: 22). So the Lord here is delighting to praise the Father as He takes account of those who cannot do without Him. That is what babes are, those who cannot do without Jesus and who realise their need of Him as God's provision for them. Wondrous gift of divine love! So He speaks of revealing the Father to them, that is, God known in grace. One of the first things that we learn as Christians is that God is for us and that we are in relationship with Him as Father. The apostle John, writing to those who had believed, says that he had written to the little ones because they had known the Father (see 1 John 2: 13). And that is what the Lord Jesus wants you to know and how wonderful His grace and patience and tenderness are. What a wonderful appeal this is! The word 'come' belongs to the glad tidings. As to His Person only the Father knows Him; this does not mean that we cannot come to know Him, but in this sense no one knows Him but the Father because of who He is in the glory of His Person; - yet He is Man, truly Man. He speaks of what He is, what His heart is: "I am meek and lowly in heart". Is it not wonderful that God has chosen to attract us to Himself through this blessed Man, through One who became like ourselves, sin apart, that He might win our hearts and draw them away from this poor world to Himself? The Lord Jesus is pleased to reveal the Father to those who are poor sinners who have put their trust in Him, who have accepted God's word and God's way of salvation. He is ready to meet our needs, He has pleasure in making the Father known. The invitation goes out: "Come to me". He is the one Mediator between God and men, "the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all", 1 Tim 2: 5. You must come to Him for blessing, there is no other way; "Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened". There are many things that may cause us to be laboured or burdened; we may think we have to attain a certain standard, we may be depressed with worsening conditions in the world but the Lord Jesus has the answer to them all and He gives the Christian a wonderful hope in the knowledge of His near return. Many of us are waiting to see Him. What a wonderful moment it will be! We have heard His voice in grace speaking peace to our souls but He is soon going to come and take us out of this poor world to be for ever with Himself. He has gone to prepare a place for us, that is, for the babes; He has done everything for us. Oh what wonderful things divine love has done! We are going to enjoy them eternally with Jesus and enjoy them with one another, too. His offer is a real one: "Come to me". He is speaking as Man here, the One who died for us, the One who is ready and able to relieve us of our burdens. "Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest". This is a sure promise. No one else can give you rest but Jesus, whether you need it in relation to your sins or your wanderings. He died that you might be brought home safely to Himself. You belong to Him by creation's rights; He would make you, so to speak, doubly His as you acknowledge His redemptive rights, the rights that He has established over you in dying for you. Have you acknowledged those rights? There needs to be a movement on your side, He has come, He has died, He is now in glory and the work is finished, but on your side you have to move in faith. Are you ready to believe on Him and come to Him now? The appeal goes out: "Come unto me, all ye who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest". It is not the preacher who gives you rest, he can only point you to Christ, to the One on whom believing you will receive blessing and rest. So why not move in that way? It means coming down, like Naaman, and obeying the word, falling down on your knees and having to do with Jesus. Oh the blessing in so doing! We want reality through the preaching. It is not sufficient to hear the word but we need to obey it, answer to it and come to Christ. That means coming to Him in the faith of our souls, calling upon Him. One of the shortest prayers in Scripture is "O God, have compassion on me, the sinner", Luke 18: 13. God answered that man's prayer because it says that he went down to his house justified. God wants you to have the assurance of justification, that is, that you are righteous in His sight, not because of what you have done but because of the worth of the Lord Jesus Christ and the atoning merits of His precious death on Calvary's cross for sinners. So it says he went down to his house justified. That was the answer to his prayer. Many of us can remember the time when we had to do with God in reality for ourselves, and I would encourage the youngest here to pray to God. You may say that it seems foolish or even futile. Do you really think that God does not take account of you when you kneel down and tell Him the truth? He surely does. What joy there is in heaven over one sinner that repents! It may be a little boy or a little girl. As the Lord Jesus speaks peace to your soul what peace He will give you! "Come to me, all ye who labour" - O, how we have found it and find it over and over again! - "all ye who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest". What precious words they are, the words of Jesus, word of grace!
He says furthermore, "Take my yoke upon you". This is the Christian path. He may leave us here a little time until He comes and you may be worried about how you are going to get on in the world. There is only one path for the Christian, which makes it very easy, and that path is the will of the Lord. What a happy path it is! We do not want to stray from it but to be kept near to Him and with His people. The Lord Jesus rejoiced in the path that He trod here for the Father's will, yet it involved the cross for Him on our account. "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me"; not only is He our Saviour but He is our Model too, we can learn from Him and He teaches us. There is only one way of coming into blessing, there is only one way of being in this world rightly and that is in accepting the yoke of Christ. I wish we had accepted it more and were more fully committed to Him. How much He has done for us and yet we still want our own will' He has prepared a home for us but He says, There is My yoke here. He has something for me to do in the little time that I am left here. We do not know how long it will be but there is His yoke: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart". How suggestive these words are! It is the happiest thing for a Christian not only to begin well but to go on well. If like Naaman we have gone down to secure the blessing, and God has helped us to do that, we need to be preserved in that way, for He "gives grace to the lowly", Jam 4: 6. God will preserve us in the company of the lowly because the Lord Jesus is the One who is meek and lowly in heart. These features are depreciated in the world but God is going to fill His universe with all that speaks of Him of this blessed Man in whom He delights; and those features are to be the joy of our hearts too because the Holy Spirit given to us will secure the same features in us as we are engaged with the One in whom they are seen perfectly, in whom they shine for God's glory. He says "I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls". How valuable that is, how men would give money for rest! They go away on holidays, they have wonderful package tours to secure some kind of satisfaction, but right here in this busy city of New York with all the stress and strain of the business world you can know this rest which many fail to find in sunnier climes, this rest that Jesus gives; He says ''Ye shall find rest to your souls". So it may be a dingy office, the company may be difficult but, if I have the Saviour with me, it is sunshine and I can have wonderful times with Him.
We would like to give you some impression of the joys connected with the Christian pathway that brighten all the drudgery that may seem to occupy our lives here. Some of us may think that it is an endless round of housework, for instance, and these things burden us, but the Lord Jesus says "Ye shall find rest to your souls". That He says "My yoke is easy" does not mean that He overlooks things that are contrary to Himself but that for us it is the best path, He has the best things for us and His way is best. David, a believer in the Old Testament, who knew the forgiveness of his sins, says regarding God "His way is perfect", 2 Sam 22: 31. That is something that we have to learn; and God helps us to come to it that His will is good and acceptable and perfect (see Rom 12: 2); and God will make our way perfect. What a wonderful thing that God makes your way perfect as you submit to the claims of the Lord Jesus Christi He is ready to serve you; not only has He died for you but He is thinking of you all the time even when you are asleep. We were reading about Jacob yesterday; God was thinking about him as he lay there asleep and gave him to know that He loved him and was ready to help him and be with him on the way that he went.
So the Christian pathway is a wonderful pathway. We may have suffering but His yoke is easy. Saul of Tarsus was an unhappy man as a persecutor of Christ but in suffering for the name of Jesus – and how much he suffered - what joy he had! It says that he rejoiced in sufferings for those he served: "I rejoice in sufferings for you", Col 1: 24. The Lord had said to him "it is hard for thee to kick against goads" , Acts 26: 14. Young people are inclined to kick and to rebel but the Lord commends His yoke to us, it is easy, and He says "my burden is light". He is not putting heavy things upon us, He is bearing our burdens. This is what love has done, He has charged Himself with our care. How wonderful it is just to submit to the Lord Jesus, to accept God's way and to take His yoke and to learn from Him as coming to Him and then to prove the blessedness of His yoke. There is no other pathway for the Christian. Do not be misled by a tawdry substitute; there may be substitutes and they may seem very like the real thing but you want the real thing. And this is what we set forth in the gospel and commend to you. Paul could commend the real thing: "I would to God, both in little and in much, that not only thou, but all who have heard me this day, should become such as I also am" - he had the real thing - "except these bonds", Acts 26: 29. He did not desire his bonds for any one else; he accepted them from the Lord Jesus and proved that His yoke was easy and His burden was light.
May the Lord touch our hearts! May you be brought to the saving knowledge of Himself and find rest in Jesus, and know increasingly the blessedness of His yoke until we see Him face to face, for He has bought us, saved us, called us and drawn us to Himself, and will serve us continually until we are safely there. For His Name's sake.
BROOKLYN NY
27 January 1974