THE DAYSPRING FROM ON HIGH
[p. 49] THE DAYSPRING FROM ON HIGH
There is a peculiar sweetness about the gospel by Luke. It is pre-eminently the gospel of Grace. Written by a Gentile who was the companion of Paul — the Apostle of the Gentiles — I believe it contains a presentation of the gospel as, in a special way, God would have it to be made known to the Gentiles. This is not fanciful, because the gospel is addressed to a Gentile — Theophilus — whose name means, Lover of God, and no doubt the Holy Spirit indicated thus that this gospel has special claims upon the attention of Gentile “lovers of God”.
This gospel is the unfolding of the dispensation of Grace. In its opening chapters we have the dawn of a new day, as it is said, “The dayspring from on high hath visited us”. Chapter 1: 78. A day of heavenly light and blessing has dawned upon this dark, lost world and the Gentile “lover of God” is to “know the certainty of those things”.
In this gospel every blessing is wholly of God, and therefore purely of grace, and the only link that man has with it is faith. Hence the gospel opens by a striking contrast between Zacharias and Mary — unbelief and faith. Zacharias, a type of the Jew, reasons and doubts, with the result that he is dumb until the period of faith is ended. He completely failed both as a witness and a worshipper until the time of faith ended; that is, until John was born. Zacharias at the beginning of the gospel history and Thomas at the end both set before us the guilty, reasoning unbelief that often clings even to saints. They both failed as witnesses and worshippers all through what was typical of the period of faith. The Jews are exactly in [p. 50] this position. A dispensation has begun in which sight and sense are nothing, and faith is everything: as the scripture says, “Faith is come”. Galatians 3: 25. The Jews have not got faith, and therefore they are dumb, as Psalm 65 says, “Praise is silent for thee, O God, in Zion”.
It is well for us to remember that we are living in a period when every blessing is of pure grace, and can only be apprehended by faith. Mary sets forth the blessedness of faith; see chapter 1: 45. She does not reason; she anticipates no difficulty; her spirit rejoices in God her Saviour; she enters into the character of the new day which was just dawning; she knows that men of low degree are to be exalted, and the hungry are to be tilled with good things. How truly do we speak of her as the blessed virgin! The new day of grace had lighted up her heart, and there was not a cloud of unbelief to dim the joy of her happy spirit.
You will notice, too, that in this gospel we have not visions and dreams as in Matthew’s. The communications come directly from heaven, and they relate to a new order of things in which heaven delights — an order of things in which everything is of God — connected with a Person who is not only the Seed of the woman, but the Second Man out of heaven.
Think of the moment! God waited until the legal heir to David’s throne was an obscure carpenter in a Galilean village; a descendant of Esau reigned in Judea as a vassal of Roman power; and the religion of the day was characterized by total ignorance of God’s purposes and grace. Just at that time the Son of the Highest was born into the world in obscurity, in weakness, and surrounded by circumstances which made it impossible for anything but heavenly given faith to recognize Him. God began the dispensation of grace by setting aside every conceivable thought and opinion that men might have as to the way in which He would act. The natural man would never expect to find [p. 51] the greatest actings of God where there was nothing to be seen but the greatest weakness and the deepest poverty. Do not think that the innkeeper of Bethlehem was worse than his fellows. The same company would have the same reception at any other inn in any other town. As someone has said, ‘An inn is the place where a man is measured — the best rooms for the rich, the worst for the poor’. Measured thus by man’s standards of reason, common sense, and self-interest, the comfort of a stable, the corner of a manger, was all that the Son of the Highest was worthy of. There was no prospect of earthly gain in receiving Him, and therefore there was ‘no room’ for Him.
That scene at Bethlehem is only a little picture of the world at large, and of each individual. There was a time in the history of everyone here tonight when there was no room for Christ in the little world of your own heart. The reception of Christ offered you no worldly advantage, it gave you no prospect of earthly gain, and therefore you had no appreciation of Him whatever.
Such being the case, how does it come to pass that anyone in this world ever gets a right appreciation of Him? John the Baptist uttered a great truth in connection with this dispensation when he said, “A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven” (John 3: 27); and elsewhere the Lord said, “Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me”. John 6: 45. These shepherds supply the first and one of the most striking instances of this truth. It was from heaven that God communicated to them the glorious fact that a Saviour was born into the world. The heavenly day was dawning, and the first glimmer of its light shone in their hearts. No tribute of earthly glory surrounded that lowly nativity, but heaven loved to herald it, and grace called these “men of low degree” to see what all the respectability and religion of the day was blind to. There were men of “high degree” sitting in Moses’ and Aaron’s seats at Jerusalem, but God in His sovereignty passed them by and let the light of His grace shine into the hearts of these poor shepherds. Beloved friends, it is not the greatness or the religion of man that commends him to the grace of God. God looks upon men in relation to their need, and the more sensible they are of need the more are they suited to His grace.
The first thing heralded from heaven was the announcement of a SAVIOUR. “Unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour which is Christ the Lord”. A needy sinner must begin with a Saviour. Is there one such here tonight? Have you a desire to know the Lord Jesus Christ? Does your heart turn to Him in any way? If so, the movement in your soul had its source in the same grace that provided a Saviour for you. The Saviour came from heaven, and the desire to know Him comes thence also. Thank God! that precious Saviour is for you. In the matchless glory of His Person — in the deep perfection and eternal efficacy of His work — in the infinite love of His heart — He is for you. See Him here in the humiliation of matchless grace! Trace the footprints of His love by Sychar’s lonely well, in the Pharisee’s house, amid the throngs of need-oppressed sinners, right on to Gethsemane and Calvary! As you see Him thus seeking the lost, does not your heart rejoice to know that grace makes you welcome to such a Saviour, and that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life? Then believe in Him NOW, and
“Let not conscience make you linger,
Nor of fitness fondly dream,
All the fitness He requireth
Is to know your need of Him!
This He gives you:
’Tis the Spirit’s rising beam!”.
[p. 53] The announcement of a SAVIOUR is the occasion for heaven to join in a chorus of praise in which the whole result of Christ’s coming into the world is celebrated.
“GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST!”
The first and greatest result of Christ coming into the world was that God was glorified in the scene where sin had dishonoured Him. Christ came into all the circumstances and responsibilities in which the natural man had completely and continuously dishonoured God, and filled up the whole compass of man’s responsibility with absolute perfection.
Then think of what was at stake when as the Victim He hung upon the cross! We had a great stake in that work: our salvation was at stake. Two men were at work on a lofty building in London, when one of them looked down to the pavement far beneath and said to his mate, ‘Jim, there are only two inches between us and damnation’, referring to the plank on which they stood. We can look down to the depths of hell and say that there is nothing between us and damnation but “a Saviour which is Christ the Lord”. Take away His precious blood — His finished work — and nothing could save us from dropping into hell. Yes! we have a great stake in the atoning work of Calvary!
But let us not forget that GOD had a far greater stake in that work than we had. SIN was a challenge to His majesty, a tarnish upon the glory of His throne, a dishonour to His name, and an insult to His nature. When that blessed Victim hung upon the cross the glory of God’s name and nature in respect to sin was staked upon Him, and with a glorious result. The work is accomplished which has established the glory of God in imperishable splendour for ever. His counsels and purposes rest now upon the secure basis of redemption, and He is indebted for His [p. 54] glory to the same Person to whom we owe our salvation. If I think of all that I was as a guilty child of Adam, I can look to the cross and say, ‘That wondrous work has not only cleared me of every charge, but the Holy God against whom I have sinned has been glorified about all that I have done and all that I was’. “Glory to God in the highest!”
“ON EARTH PEACE”
There never was, from the moment of the fall, such a thing as peace on earth until this blessed Babe was born. Before the fall there was the peace of innocence without a jarring note in all creation: but sin came in and reduced the harmony to discord, and from that moment until Luke 2 there was no “peace on earth”.
This peace may be considered in three ways:
1. The Son of the Highest was here upon earth — the blessed, perfect One whose every motive and desire was exactly in accord with the will of God. He could speak about “My peace”. His peace was found in having no will of His own. He walked under the yoke of God’s will in unbroken rest and peace. He could answer the most cutting rejection — the most adverse circumstance — with a peaceful, “Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight”. But He was alone in that circle of peace. Peter, James, and John — much beloved as they were — were not in it. How often they were ruffled and perturbed!
2. But the moment came when He could say, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you”. The circle of peace was going to be enlarged. This could only be on the ground of His death, for man after the flesh could never give up his own will: to do so would be to give up his very existence. But the death of Christ is — judicially, and for faith — the end of that man, and the Christian walking in the Spirit owns him no more. The believer can [p. 55] thus — and only thus — have freedom from sin as he reckons himself to have died to sin, and to be alive to God in Christ Jesus. Then, as free, he yields himself unto God as one alive from the dead. He presents his body a living sacrifice unto God, and proves what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Thus walking, the peace of Christ becomes an experimental reality in the heart of the Christian. Oh, what a gift! Think of the blessed serenity of spirit with which He passed through the world, doing the will of God, and then weigh the words once more, “MY PEACE I GIVE UNTO YOU”! And do not forget that this is for earth, where every disturbing element is present; there will not be the same need for it in heaven, where
“No stain within; no foes, or snares around;
No jarring notes shall there discordant sound;
All pure without, all pure within the breast;
No thorns to wound, no toil to mar our rest”.
It is on earth that we need, and may have. Christ’s peace. Do you know anything of this peace, my brother, my sister? It is not a dreamy speculation in the clouds, it is an experimental reality, and if as one alive from the dead in Christ Jesus you accept His yoke you will have His peace. It is your birthright — the portion which His love bestows.
3. Then there will be “peace on earth” in the millennial day. The ruthless, wicked will of man will be set aside; the swords beaten into ploughshares and the spears into pruning-hooks, and the Prince of Peace will reign. Peace will be universal then. I need hardly say that it is an infinitely greater thing to be in peace amid sin’s confusion, and in spite of all the stormy waves of adverse circumstances which beat around us now.
“GOOD PLEASURE IN MEN”.
If we think of the wondrous fact that a divine Person has become man, we cannot fail to see that He must be a Man in whom God would find “good pleasure”. What He was from eternity necessarily gave character to what He became as Man upon earth. Hence He is called “the Second Man out of heaven”, 1 Corinthians 15: 47. The first man was made of the earth and for the earth; the Second Man was One who had been in heaven, who belonged to heaven, and who was ever in spirit there. As it has often been said, He was a man of an entirely new order — a man in whom God could find all His delight. God has found “good pleasure” in a Man.
Think of the contrast! When man after the flesh came into view “it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart”, and the flood was the solemn testimony that the judgment of God was upon “all flesh”. When the Second Man was in view, God opened the heaven and declared, “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased”. Thank God! we are no longer linked with the fallen man; the man in whom God could find no pleasure was ended at the cross. The death of Christ has severed our links with Adam, and the Holy Spirit now links us with Christ risen and glorified. We are His companions. “Both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren”. The same love and good pleasure which rested upon Him rests upon us. God has “good pleasure in men”.
Has this glorious truth become a reality in your soul? Has your heart fed upon the death of Christ as that which has severed your links with Adam, that you might become a member of a new race — linked up with Christ risen and glorified? You are not only forgiven and cleansed, but an [p. 57] object of delight to God and the Father as He looks upon you in all the acceptance and beauty of the Blessed Person who put away your sins and with whom you have died. God has “good pleasure in men”.
Heaven was celebrating all this, while as yet there was nothing to see but a Babe in a manger. The work which was the basis of it all was not done for three-and-thirty years, but the presence of that Babe on earth was the pledge to heaven of the sure accomplishment of every purpose and delight of God’s heart.
Now I want you to notice the different persons who are mentioned in this chapter, because I think that they illustrate the characteristics of faith in the dispensation of grace.
First, we find some people who say (Luke 2:15), “Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us”. The heavenly communication found a response in the faith of their hearts. There was nothing in that matchless scene to human sight or reason, but there was everything
for heaven and everything for faith. These men were content to leave their own things — their duties, their possessions, all that was naturally and rightly their object upon earth — because they were so charmed by the revelation of heaven’s delight in ONE who to the eyes of men was utterly insignificant. The heavenly glory which shone upon them had thrown earthly things into the shade. Oh, that it might be so with ourselves!
There is a moral journey which answers to the literal journey of the shepherds. Have you ever taken it? Has your heart been attracted to the Son of God who thus came down in the humiliation of matchless grace to be the Saviour of sinful men? Have you ever gone by faith to Bethlehem to find the peace of your conscience and the joy of your heart in that lowly, heavenly Saviour? Have [p. 58] you found HIM to be everything — all your salvation and all your desire? Have you in heart and spirit left earthly things because HE has eclipsed them all? If so, I am sure you can understand in measure the effect produced upon these shepherds. “They returned glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen”. They went back to their duties and occupations in this life with full hearts. They had found a joy greater than all the gladness of the earth, and they went back into the trying circumstances and difficulties of everyday life with that joy so filling their hearts that they were “glorifying and praising God”. They had not received a single earthly blessing, and yet their cup was running over: they were enriched in faith beyond expression.
Next, in verse 25, we have a man WAITING and WATCHING, and it is remarkable how much is said of the Holy Spirit in connection with him. “The Holy Spirit was upon him”: “it was revealed unto him by the Holy Spirit”: “He came by the Spirit into the temple”. Then he was not looking for death, but for a coming Person who already filled his heart. And, lastly, he had no desire to remain in a scene where Christ was to be rejected. What a beautiful picture of a Christian!
Because of the value of Christ’s work the Holy Spirit seals and indwells every believer. In the cleansing of the leper the oil was put upon the blood. When our faith laid hold of the value of Christ’s work, and we believed on Him as the Risen One who had accomplished everything for us, we were sealed by the Holy Spirit. I am sure that we have a very feeble sense of the greatness of this blessed fact and its consequences. The Holy Spirit would do wonderful things for us if we did not hinder and grieve Him. He would make us practically free from the lust of the flesh (see Galatians 5: 16), and would give us the abiding consciousness that we are the objects of God’s love. Romans 8: 14 - 16.
[p. 59] The result would be that we should walk every day and all the day long in liberty and joy as the sons of God. Is it so with us, my brethren?
Simeon was led by the Spirit and did not miss his opportunity. Do you ever miss opportunities? The Holy Spirit never does. He led Simeon to the right place just at the right moment, I believe if we were more subject to the control of the Spirit of God our experience of His leading would be much more distinct and habitual.
Then it was revealed unto Simeon by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. The Holy Spirit would fain detach our hearts from this present evil age, and occupy them with the One who is coming. The Christian — taught by the Holy Spirit — does not look for death; much less does he expect things to improve either in the world or the church: he is waiting and watching for a Person from heaven.
Further, nothing is more striking than Simeon’s utterance when at last he held the infant Saviour in his arms. The Messiah was truly there — the One whom a Jew would naturally look upon as having come to set everything right on the earth. Yet he says, ‘Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace’. ‘What! depart from the place where the Messiah is?’ ‘Yes!’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because I know he will be rejected here, and I do not want to have a place where he has none’. Ah! Simeon, you are far ahead of many Christians in the twentieth century!
Now, just a word about Anna and her WITNESS FOR CHRIST. She was of the tribe of Asher, and a lovely illustration she presents of the blessing of her tribe. “Let him dip his foot in oil. Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days thy strength”. Think of this dear old woman having gone through a wilderness journey of over a hundred years without being footsore or crippled. She was still active, whether to go in as a WORSHIPPER or to go out as a [p. 60] WITNESS. God knows how to equip His people for a rough journey. Thorns and stones and burning desert sand will not hurt you if your foot is dipped in oil and you wear shoes of iron and brass. In type it is walking in the Spirit, and having the strength and endurance which faith imparts.
Anna’s affections were in the current of God’s acting. She had read that the Lord would come suddenly to His temple, and she tarried there, sustained through the long years by the strength and patience born of faith. Then that lovely word was verified in her experience — “As thy days thy strength”. In nature as we get older we get weaker. The blessing promised to Asher was that as they got older they were to be stronger. It corresponds, I think, to Proverbs 4: 18, “The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day”. Anna’s last days were her strongest and her brightest days. Beloved, we should look for this — a continual advance and increase of light and strength — not, indeed, as to the outward man, but as to the inward, being renewed day by day.
She “SPAKE OF HIM to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem”. Who would have thought of sending such a missionary into the most religious city on earth? The first WITNESS FOR CHRIST — the first MISSIONARY OF GRACE in Jerusalem — a widow over a hundred years old! When it is a question of witness for Christ man’s strength and abilities go for nothing, and FIDELITY to His blessed name and Person is everything. Her fidelity had kept her for long years in the temple — the devoted handmaiden of the Lord. The same fidelity had drawn out the affections of her heart to the beloved remnant who looked for redemption. She was no mystic, wrapped up in her own spirituality. Her heart had busied itself to find out “ALL them that looked for redemption”, and now at the fitting moment she went forth to speak to them of HIM.
“She spake of HIM!” That is our mission. We have [p. 61] found the answer to all our need in that blessed Person. Would to God that He was more practically everything to our hearts! We are left in the world that rejected Him to speak of Him. Thank God there are — through His grace — empty, longing, needy hearts in this world — hearts that are sick of the pleasures and weary of the bondage of sin — hearts that cannot be satisfied with the empty shell of the temple-ritual. Thousands, too, of His own who long to know Him better, are waiting for the “word in season”. Oh, that we may have our own hearts filled first, and then go forth — whether it be to saint or sinner — to SPEAK OF HIM!