A PERSONAL TRANSACTION WITH JESUS

Isaiah 42:1-4; Acts 9:1-6; Luke 10:25-35;

Luke 8:42 (from “And as”) -48

The gospel involves a personal transaction with Jesus. That means that you have to do with the Lord Jesus Christ directly and personally, on your own. No one can be saved unless they have to do with Jesus personally. No one can have any living part in Christianity unless they have had to do with Jesus personally. We have sung about the love of Jesus. We know there are many different names in this world, but through the gospel, we come to know Jesus as Lord. We begin with the name Jesus; that itself is a personal name, it is personal to Him. The angel said in the beginning of Matthew’s gospel, “thou shalt call his name Jesus”, Matt.1:21. It is personal to those of us who believe, for it says not only “thou shalt call his name Jesus” but, “for he shall save his people from their sins”. Is that not wonderful? How much the name of Jesus means to the saved sinner! There is no other name like it.

Apart from the first scripture we read, the other scriptures all refer to individuals who had to do with Jesus personally – Saul on the road to Damascus, the parable of the man on the road to Jericho, and then the woman with the flux of blood. We did not read from John’s gospel, but John, perhaps more than any other writer, uses individuals as examples to bring out the truth. We could have read of the man in John 9; he speaks of “A man called Jesus” (v.11). I wonder if you will go away from the preaching tonight and be able to say in the faith of your heart that you have had to do with a “man called Jesus”. That would be wonderful. He is the only One who can help you, the only One who can save you. We have just come from the open air preaching and I noticed that when a brother went forward to hand out tracts, one lady put her hand up and said, ‘No thanks’. What a solemn thing it was, that she chose to say ‘No thanks’ to Jesus. She chose, at that moment, to refuse that tract and to pass on. She chose to say ‘No thanks’ to the One we read of in Isaiah 42, where God is saying, “Behold my servant whom I uphold”. What a solemn matter that is.

It reminded me of a time when I witnessed a dear lady, who I had seen before supporting her husband as he preached in the street in St Andrews, and she was handing out tracts to a large crowd. I have never seen so many tracts thrown away on the ground. What a scene it was. We read of the crowd thronging in one of our scriptures; there was a crowd thronging there and there were tracts lying all over the ground. It caused me to think of Hymn 24, where it says in relation to the Lord Jesus,

‘Through weakness and defeat

He won the mead and crown;

Trod all our foes beneath his feet,

In being trodden down’.

Most of the people that I saw at that time seemed to be rejecting the word. I trust, dear friend, that that is not you tonight. I trust that the name of Jesus finds a lodging place in your heart. It causes me to remember again the story of a man who received a tract; he ripped it up, threw it on the ground and he went on his way. You might say he was a ‘Christ rejecter’. There is no way that you are going to be saved for heaven, saved from hell, if you remain a ‘Christ rejecter’. But when that man went to bed that night, out of the turn-up in his trousers fell a piece of paper from the torn up tract with just these two words, ‘Jesus saves’. The man was converted. You might say, the Lord Jesus followed that man home. What a time it is, when the Lord Jesus is available and available as a Saviour!

We are in that time now; it has been a prolonged period of grace. Jesus is the One whom we read of in Isaiah 42; “Behold my servant whom I uphold”. There is no other. There is no other name under heaven whereby we must be saved. There is only one Person that God has put forward as a Saviour; the Lord Jesus Christ. This is an Old Testament scripture, but in the New Testament it tells us, that “God has made him, this Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ”, Acts 2:36. The One that God would proclaim tonight as a Saviour is the One who has authority as Lord. The title Lord involves authority and the title Christ involves blessing. That is the character of the authority of heaven tonight; the Lord is demonstrating His authority in His ability to bless. And it begins, dear friend, by you coming to know the Lord Jesus as your Saviour. It says, “mine elect in whom my soul delighteth! I will put my Spirit upon him”. Think of the compassions of God coming into the glad tidings so that God might be known as a Saviour God, that you might come to know the Lord Jesus as your own personal Saviour. And then it says, “He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street”. I have not looked too much into the interpretation of this scripture. No doubt it has a prophetic interpretation. I would suggest the fact that it says “He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street” is in relation to judgment and awaits the time when the Lord Jesus will sit in judgment. That will be a time when He will take up his own throne, although not tonight. But it also has a current application. Currently, the Lord Jesus is sharing the Father’s throne; it is a time of grace. The voice in that sense is not heard

Then it says, “A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench”. How blessed that is. Perhaps there is someone here tonight who is a bruised reed. I have heard it suggested that this refers to a little instrument that was made from a reed by people when they were working in the fields, so that they could play some music while they were working. If such a reed was bruised, it was usually just thrown away and another made, but the Lord does not do that. Perhaps you are a bruised reed. The man that we read of in Luke 10 was a bruised reed. Think of what became of him; what grace the Lord showed towards that man. “A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench.” Perhaps we will consider that when we come to the woman that we read of who had a flux of blood, and how the Lord was able to come in and cure her. Then “he shall bring forth judgment according to truth”, and it goes on to say at the end of the section where we read, “and the isles shall wait for his law”. I suppose that is also a reference, in one sense, to the present time. The isles would involve what has come out from God in the gospel to the nations, to the Gentiles, beyond the immediate vicinity of Israel as those who were God’s chosen people in the Old Testament; “the isles shall wait for his law”.

In Acts 9, we have Saul. There was no one who was a greater opposer of Christ than Saul. Saul was on the road to Damascus, and you will notice that he was stopped on his journey. If you have to do with Jesus personally, you will find that He will stop you in the path you are on. A wonderful transaction took place. It says “But as he was journeying, it came to pass that he drew near to Damascus; and suddenly there shone round about him a light out of heaven”. How wonderful that is! That is what the gospel involves tonight; it is divine light out of heaven. You may ask about what is involved in having to do with Jesus personally. It must involve divine light coming into your heart. Divine light does two things; it both exposes what we are and who we are, but it also attracts. How wonderful divine light is. You see that in Luke 5 when Peter first came to know the Lord; he said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord” (v.8). He was asking the Lord to depart, but Peter was not going anywhere; he was on his knees. Such was the light that not only exposed Peter but attracted him to the Lord. Divine light will never push you away, it will never cast you away. And here divine light came in and shone on Paul; “and suddenly there shone round about him a light out of heaven, and falling on the earth he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute me?”. This is personal to Saul; he was an elect vessel, but if you come to know the Lord Jesus as your Saviour, you must have a personal transaction with Him. Saul was converted. You need to be converted. Saul, as Paul, later wrote, “Faithful is the word, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first”, 1 Tim.1:15. “Faithful is the word.” The Lord’s word comes to us in its faithfulness. The woman in John 4 would be an example of the word being faithful. The Lord said to her, “Go, call thy husband” (v.16). It brought to light a moral condition, and then blessing was brought in. The gospel involves that; we speak about knowing Jesus, and coming to know Jesus as Saviour but it must involve what is moral. That is, it must involve your conviction of sin and that you are a sinner, and it must involve repentance. It must involve that you have an appreciation that you have sinned before God and you have an appreciation that Jesus has taken upon Himself the liability of your sins. Peter brings in a personal touch when he says, “who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree”, 1 Pet.2:24. To know Jesus personally, you have to come to know Him as the One who bore your sins. We have been taught that He died for all – that is what is available in the gospel towards all men. But to have to do with Jesus personally means that you have to come to appreciate that He bore your sins in His body on the tree. You have to come for yourself under the shelter of His precious blood.

All these things were condensed into Saul’s experience. The word is “Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus”. There was Paul’s personal transaction. It was wonderful because it had been initiated from heaven. We could say that tonight. The gospel is a wonderful matter, because in the gospel Jesus is passing by. You say, He is not here physically. Of course He is not, but the fact is that the word is being preached, and the word of God is here, the Spirit is here, the saints are here. The whole atmosphere in this room is one of forgiveness. You might say, Jesus is passing by. The scripture says, “The word is near thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach”, Rom.10:8. How closely the word is coming to you, dear friend. What a terrible thing it would be to do as that woman did and to raise your hand and say ‘No thanks’. I trust that she will come to know the Lord as her Saviour, but the reality is that, if she does not, that action of hers will haunt her for all of a lost eternity, because the word came so near to her to know Jesus as her Saviour and she may have rejected it. But another thing that can be said tonight – God is not condemning the sinner. That is wonderful. It does not matter how desperate your sin is; tonight, God is not condemning you. He is not condemning you because He is satisfied with the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Such is the immensity of His work; such is the perfection of His work and the preciousness of His blood to God. So tonight, God can look at the sinner and there is no judgment. He wants you to repent and come to know Him as a Saviour God. At the great white throne, those who are still in their sins will be dealt with, and what will be before God, and before men appearing there, will be the fact that they have rejected the opportunity to come to know the Lord as their Saviour. What a matter to rest on your conscience. I trust that there is no one here who will be there!

These verses in Luke 10 are well known to us. If Saul was an example of someone who had to do with Jesus personally, who came to know the Lord Jesus as his Saviour, then the man in the parable in Luke 10 may be like someone who is already a believer. The man who the Lord speaks of in this parable descended from Jerusalem to Jericho. Perhaps he represents one who knows eternal salvation, who is saved for eternity but is leaving the area of practical salvation. Once we are saved, we are saved for time and eternity; that is eternal salvation. There is no need to be converted twice, but we may need to be revived in our links with the Lord as our Saviour. So this man was leaving the area of practical salvation; Jerusalem in this parable would speak of that. “A certain man descended from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers, who also, having stripped him and inflicted wounds, went away leaving him in a half-dead state”. Perhaps there is someone like that here tonight – in a half-dead state. It may be obvious if you are, in your body language and your lack of responsiveness, but perhaps it is not so obvious. Perhaps you are able to keep up an outward appearance, but in your affections you have fallen into this condition of a half-dead state. And then it says, “And a certain priest happened to go down that way, and seeing him, passed on on the opposite side”. There is nothing personal about that, passing on on the opposite side. The priest would speak of what is merely religious, and you find that cannot help you. Then another person came along; “and in like manner also a Levite, being at the spot, came and looked at him and passed on on the opposite side”. Perhaps it refers to what is formal; the Levite might represent what is formal, what is outward, what is official, but he was unable to help. It says he “came and looked at him and passed on on the opposite side”.

But then, “a certain Samaritan journeying came to him”. This was not haphazard. It is confirmation that, in the gospel, the Lord Jesus is passing by. It is no haphazard matter if you have to do with Jesus. It says, “seeing him, was moved with compassion, and came up to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine”. What an experience to have. The oil would soothe, and the Lord can do that. The One that we know as Jesus, the One that we know as Lord, He can bring in the resources. We referred to the One who has been made both Lord and Christ; He can bring in these resources. The oil would soothe the conscience and the wine is for the heart. The Lord has these resources. Think of him pouring in oil and pouring in wine, taking care of our consciences through the glad tidings and taking care of our hearts, bringing before us both the oil and the wine, both His work and His person. And then he “put him on his own beast, took him to the inn and took care of him. And on the morrow as he left, taking out two denarii he gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, Take care of him, and whatsoever thou shalt expend more, I will render to thee on my coming back”. One application of the two denarii would be the gift of the Holy Spirit. We could say, carefully and reverently, that the first denarii was like when the Lord was here, and then He said ‘I will send you another Comforter’ (John 15:26). So there are the two denarii. In the gospel, not only can you know the Lord as your Saviour, but the gift of the Spirit is available, a wonderful, unspeakable free gift. I can say for myself, how lacking in appreciation I am of such a wonderful gift. The Spirit would maintain in us the blessedness of having our sins forgiven and would shed abroad in our hearts the love of God. He would help us to enter into relationships with divine Persons, with the Lord Himself as One who is out of death, risen and ascended. The Spirit too would give us to know what it is to have a relationship with God, to know God as our Father. Think of all that is available through the Holy Spirit, this wonderful resource that is here on earth and to be enjoyed in a certain area. It says of the denarii that he “gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, Take care of him”.

In Luke 8, we have this woman who perhaps represents someone who was already a believer. Saul was an unbeliever who came to know Jesus as his Saviour. The man in Luke 10 was like someone who was already a believer, but decided that he wanted to go down to the world, and fell into a half-dead state. But then he in principle came to know the resources that are in the Lord Jesus, and the strength and the help and the power that are available through the gift of the Holy Spirit. He came back into an area of salvation which the inn would speak of. Here we have someone who typifies the believer who is not minded to go off into the world, as the man in Luke 10 was. She speaks of someone who already knows what it is for her sins to be forgiven, but we might say she struggled with the matter of sin and sinful flesh. I think that is what the flux of blood represents. It has been linked to Romans 7, with all these references to “I”. It has been said that Romans 7 needs to be the experience of every Christian, but it is not normal Christian experience to be occupied with yourself. This woman had this flux of blood for twelve years, “who, having spent all her living on physicians, could not be cured by any one”. The Lord was again passing through the place where she was. The Lord would make Himself accessible. This woman must have made an effort to get near to Jesus, and what a reward she got. I would say, dear friend, what a reward you get if you seek Him out, whatever exercise you have. Maybe you have had the same thing which keeps coming back, like this flux of blood for twelve years. Maybe it is something that keeps coming into your mind, or that keeps troubling your heart. Maybe it is something specific in your own life, in your own history, or maybe it is linked to what we might call moral teaching. Perhaps it is linked to Romans 7; you are going through what we call these moral exercises. The answer has to be to get to Jesus, and this woman knew that. Perhaps she used all the strength that she had left, but she was going to use it for one thing and one thing only, and that was to get to Jesus. She “could not be cured by any one, coming up behind, touched the hem of his garment, and immediately her flux of blood stopped”.

It is similar to what Paul says, “I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord”, Rom.7:25. Deliverance comes in, he was set free and then the whole of Romans 8 opens up. “There is then now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus” (v1), then there are those who “are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (v.14). Then it speaks about the Spirit who “bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God” (v.16). All these wonderful things will open up as the flux of blood stops. But then, “Jesus said, Who has touched me? But all denying, Peter and those with him said, Master, the crowds close thee in and press upon thee, and sayest thou, Who has touched me?”. I think this is a wonderful verse. “And Jesus said, Some one has touched me, for I have known that power has gone out from me”. That is a personal transaction with Jesus; it is initial, but thank God it is not only initial. That initial experience is a wonderful thing, when you come to know the Lord Jesus as your Saviour. But if there is one thing that I would desire more of, it would be to know more of what it is to have communion with divine Persons. That was what this woman had here, a personal transaction with Jesus. Think of the immensity of what can happen, both in terms of the gospel or in our Christian lives, when Jesus says “Some one has touched me, for I have known that power has gone out from me”. It is power going out from the Lord Jesus Himself, into the believer. Christianity involves impartation and it involves revelation. How much opens up; there is nothing like it. This woman only touched the hem of His garment, and she had this power which flowed from Christ. It is not being irreverent to say that power flowed from Christ into her heart. Is that not wonderful? And you can know that, in your own measure, but you do not need to limit it. The only thing that limits it is how much faith we may have and how much room we make for the Spirit to know this power, this personal transaction of power from Christ our Lord into our own hearts.

May it be so for His name’s sake.

Preaching of the gospel, Linlithgow

27 December 2015

J. Drummond